Day 193: Faith in the Silence

I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars with Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast.

We're through prayer and meditation.

The Rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world.

The Rosary in a Year is brought to you by Ascension.

This is day 193.

To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a Year, visit AscensionPress.com forward slash Rosary in a Year or text RIY to 3377.

You'll get an outline of how we're going to to pray each month.

It's a great way to track your progress.

The best place to listen to the podcast is in the Ascension app.

There are special features built just for this podcast and also recordings of the full Rosary with myself and other friars.

No matter what app you're listening in, remember to tap follow or subscribe for your daily notifications.

Today we will be meditating upon and praying with the fifth joyful mystery: the finding of the child Jesus in the temple.

And before our time of prayer,

some review review

the finding of the child Jesus, which we see at Luke chapter 2, verses 41 through 52.

One of the lenses by which we discussed the finding of the child Jesus in the temple was

looking at

God, at Jesus as the perfect director.

And that often in films,

particularly films that are involving like CGI and green screens, but I think like most, if not all, movies, like the actor knows their part and they kind of know the story, but they just, they don't have all of the information.

And so, a very, very common experience for an actor is having to trust the director.

They say their lines, they hit their spots, they do what they're supposed to do,

but they just, they're still in a place

of just not complete understanding, not complete knowing.

And in that is an invitation to trust the director.

And we see with Mary and we see it with Joseph,

there's this ongoing growing and understanding,

often precipitated by Jesus doing something unexpected.

We saw at the Annunciation before the angel Gabriel.

Mary's troubled.

There's a way in which she doesn't totally understand what's going to happen, how it's going to happen.

She certainly doesn't know how her whole life is going to play out, but she knows her part.

And what is her part?

Her part is to say, yes,

be it done unto me according to your word.

And then Mary and Joseph in Nazareth, they know their part,

to love Jesus, to raise Jesus, to be the best parents to Jesus possible.

And then all of a sudden here in Luke chapter 2, we have something unexpected happen.

As they're on their way back from Jerusalem, Jesus is not with them.

So, they go back to the temple and they see him in the temple, surrounded by the elders, the teachers of the law.

And Jesus says these words: Did you not know I must be in my father's house?

And there's a certain degree here in which Mary still doesn't have complete understanding.

She receives, though,

this action of Jesus.

This new, if you can say, like deeper revelation

of Jesus.

She doesn't fight,

but she also doesn't totally understand.

So, what does she do?

She receives it and she ponders it.

And she continues to ponder these and all things in her heart.

And she continues to say yes.

Mary is willing to be obedient, to be trusting into the director.

She doesn't need to see it all to fully understand it all.

She just says yes.

She says yes to what God is inviting her to do in the moment while continuing to keep these things and ponder all of them in her heart.

Also, in the context of a writing from St.

Augustine

on this mystery,

we receive this invitation from God, an invitation of

Joseph and Mary to look for God

like you love him.

St.

Augustine says, And when they found him not, they returned in trouble to Jerusalem and found him disputing in the temple with the elders when he was, as I said, 12 years old.

But what wonder?

The word of God is never silent, though it is not always heard.

There is an invitation to seek God's voice, to seek God's word, to seek God like with love.

He is not absent.

He is not silent.

He is speaking.

He is present.

He is at work.

So we look for him certainly with confidence, but we look for him with love.

We look for him like we love him, like Mary did, and like Joseph did.

And that here in the finding of Jesus in the temple,

as Jesus reveals something deeper about his identity, he reveals something deeper about his mission.

I must be in my father's house.

There's this deeper revelation of Jesus.

But also what's being offered to Mary and Joseph.

isn't Jesus' absence and his accompanying silence.

But in the silence, like the silence there that they experienced, like was no silence at all, but it was an invitation.

Come in search of me.

So, all how often we experience perhaps what can be felt as an absence or a silence from God.

But in the silence, can we hear Jesus say,

Come deeper,

come closer,

come in search of me,

come and look for me like you love me.

Or look for me

because

you love me with the love

that you have for me.

And then lastly, in one of our series, going through the joyful mysteries, one of my favorites, to be honest, we looked at the role of St.

Joseph as he was sent by God to accompany Mary,

to help protect Mary,

to help be there with Mary

on the journey, and then in Nazareth.

And in the 17th century painting with the finding of the temple, it's located in St.

Nicholas' Church in Brussels, we see there again, we see St.

Joseph with Mary in the temple, seeing Jesus amongst the elders.

And I shared this thought.

that at some point, like in Nazareth, at some point in the holy family,

there's a time where this happens, this transition happens.

Whether or not it's articulated or not, we don't absolutely know.

But a time of transition where

Joseph goes from being the man of the house to Jesus.

This is our last time that we see Joseph in the Gospels.

And that Joseph had this mission from God.

to be the sign of the Father's presence, of his care, of his protection.

But that there's a time where that mission ends.

And if you will, he is no longer

needed to be there to lead, to protect.

But there's a time where Jesus himself offers that to Mary.

And then at Cana, there's going to be a moment where Mary freely gives this up as well.

As they enter into the vulnerability of only God the Father's protection,

beginning their journey to the cross.

So there's this presence of Joseph,

this fatherliness

of Joseph.

Which then Jesus takes over.

And that's just, I think, a beautiful scene to reflect on

that Mary was never abandoned,

but God the Father was always looking out for her.

So let's go ahead and take some time here to just

remain,

to be still,

to breathe deeply,

and to drink deeply of the grace and the mystery.

So today, what truth about God is being revealed?

What characteristics of the heart of God is being revealed to you that you are being invited

to receive, to ponder, to contemplate?

How are you being called

to respond?

What grace

do you need to request

And then rejoice,

give thanks and praise

for the truth revealed in the grace given.

And now, with Mary, let us pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Our Father,

who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come,

thy will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

Amen.

Hail Mary,

full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners, sinners,

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death, amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen.

Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen.

Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.

Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

All right.

Thanks so much for joining me and praying with me today.

I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow.

Poco, Poco, friends.

God bless y'all.