Day 193: Faith in the Silence
Our guided meditation on the fifth Joyful Mystery, the Finding of Jesus in the Temple, highlights the faith and trust of Mary and Joseph when faced with unexpected events and limited understanding. The quiet transition of leadership within the Holy Family, as Joseph’s protective role gives way to Jesus' revelation of His divine mission is also emphasized. Fr. Mark-Mary invites us to seek God with love and confidence, even in times of apparent silence, viewing such moments as a call to deeper trust in God’s presence. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Finding of Jesus in the Temple and we will be praying one decade of the Rosary.
For the complete prayer plan, visit https://ascensionpress.com/riy.
Press play and read along
Transcript
Speaker 1 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.
Speaker 1 The Rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world.
Speaker 2 The Rosary in a Year is brought to you by Ascension.
Speaker 3 This is day 193.
Speaker 1 To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a Year, visit AscensionPress.com forward slash Rosary in a Year or text RIY to 3377.
Speaker 6 You'll get an outline of how we're going to to pray each month.
Speaker 1 It's a great way to track your progress. The best place to listen to the podcast is in the Ascension app.
Speaker 1 There are special features built just for this podcast and also recordings of the full Rosary with myself and other friars.
Speaker 1 No matter what app you're listening in, remember to tap follow or subscribe for your daily notifications.
Speaker 6 Today we will be meditating upon and praying with the fifth joyful mystery: the finding of the child Jesus in the temple.
Speaker 15 And before our time of prayer,
Speaker 17 some review review
Speaker 18 the finding of the child Jesus, which we see at Luke chapter 2, verses 41 through 52.
Speaker 7 One of the lenses by which we discussed the finding of the child Jesus in the temple was
Speaker 11 looking at
Speaker 7 God, at Jesus as the perfect director.
Speaker 22 And that often in films,
Speaker 13 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 don't have all of the information.
Speaker 14 And so, a very, very common experience for an actor is having to trust the director.
Speaker 10 They say their lines, they hit their spots, they do what they're supposed to do,
Speaker 11 but they just are still in a place
Speaker 11 of just not complete understanding, not complete knowing. And in that is an invitation to trust the director.
Speaker 11 And we see with Mary and we see it with Joseph,
Speaker 6 there's this ongoing growing and understanding,
Speaker 11 often precipitated by Jesus doing something unexpected.
Speaker 11 We saw at the Annunciation before the angel Gabriel.
Speaker 14 Mary's troubled.
Speaker 22 There's a way in which she doesn't totally understand what's going to happen, how it's going to happen.
Speaker 11 She certainly doesn't know how her whole life is going to play out, but she knows her part.
Speaker 10 And what is her part?
Speaker 26 Her part is to say, yes,
Speaker 17 be it done unto me according to your word.
Speaker 2 And then Mary and Joseph in Nazareth, they know their part
Speaker 5 to love Jesus, to raise Jesus, to be the best parents to Jesus possible.
Speaker 20 And then all of a sudden here in Luke chapter 2, we have something unexpected happen.
Speaker 23 As they're on their way back from Jerusalem, Jesus is not with them.
Speaker 15 So, they go back to the temple and they see him in the temple, surrounded by the elders, the teachers of the law.
Speaker 2 And Jesus says these words: Did you not know I must be in my father's house?
Speaker 20 And there's a certain degree here in which Mary still doesn't have complete understanding.
Speaker 11 She receives, though,
Speaker 4 this action of Jesus.
Speaker 3 This new, if you can say, like deeper revelation
Speaker 28 of Jesus.
Speaker 22 She doesn't fight,
Speaker 6 but she also doesn't totally understand.
Speaker 24 So, what does she do?
Speaker 11 She receives it and she ponders it.
Speaker 15 And she continues to ponder these and all things in her heart.
Speaker 3 And she continues to say yes.
Speaker 3 Mary is willing to be obedient, to be trusting into the director.
Speaker 23 She doesn't need to see it all to fully understand it all.
Speaker 19 She just says yes.
Speaker 17 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.
Speaker 22 Also, in the context of a writing from Saint Augustine
Speaker 6 on this mystery,
Speaker 4 we receive this invitation from God, an invitation of
Speaker 17 Joseph and Mary to look for God
Speaker 8 like you love him.
Speaker 6 Saint 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.
Speaker 13 But what wonder?
Speaker 9 The word of God is never silent, though it is not always heard.
Speaker 19 There is an invitation to seek God's voice, to seek God's word, to seek God like with love.
Speaker 9 He is not absent. He is not silent.
Speaker 11 He is speaking.
Speaker 7 He is present.
Speaker 8 He is at work.
Speaker 14 So we look for him certainly with confidence, but we look for him with love.
Speaker 3 We look for him like we love him, like Mary did, and like Joseph did.
Speaker 3 And that here in the finding of Jesus in the temple,
Speaker 7 as Jesus reveals something deeper about his identity, he reveals something deeper about his mission.
Speaker 2 I must be in my father's house.
Speaker 7 There's this deeper revelation of Jesus.
Speaker 8 But also what's being offered to Mary and Joseph.
Speaker 4 isn't Jesus' absence and his accompanying silence.
Speaker 2 But in the silence, like the silence there that they experienced, like was no silence at all, but it was an invitation.
Speaker 6 Come in search of me.
Speaker 10 So, how often we experience perhaps what can be felt as an absence or a silence from God.
Speaker 3 But in the silence, can we hear Jesus say,
Speaker 17 Come deeper,
Speaker 8 come closer,
Speaker 6 come in search of me,
Speaker 17 come and look for me like you love me.
Speaker 17 Or look for me
Speaker 27 because
Speaker 18 you love me with the love
Speaker 13 that you have for me.
Speaker 9 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 Saint Joseph as he was sent by God to accompany Mary,
Speaker 17 to help protect Mary,
Speaker 17 to help be there with Mary
Speaker 3 on the journey, and then in Nazareth.
Speaker 4 And in the 17th century painting with the finding of the temple, it's located in St.
Speaker 11 Nicholas' Church in Brussels, we see there again, we see St. Joseph with Mary in the temple, seeing Jesus amongst the elders.
Speaker 26 And I shared this thought.
Speaker 2 that at some point, like in Nazareth, at some point in the holy family,
Speaker 5 there's a time where this happens, this transition happens.
Speaker 24 Whether or not it's articulated or not, we don't absolutely know.
Speaker 26 But a time of transition where
Speaker 3 Joseph goes from being the man of the house to Jesus.
Speaker 19 This is our last time that we see Joseph in the Gospels.
Speaker 3 And that Joseph had this mission from God.
Speaker 4 to be the sign of the Father's presence, of his care, of his protection.
Speaker 7 But that there's a time where that mission ends.
Speaker 7 And if you will, he is no longer
Speaker 19 needed to be there to lead, to protect.
Speaker 4 But there's a time where Jesus himself offers that to Mary.
Speaker 17 And then at Cana, there's going to be a moment where Mary freely gives this up as well
Speaker 17 as they enter into the vulnerability of only God the Father's protection,
Speaker 17 beginning their journey to the cross.
Speaker 5 So there's this presence of Joseph,
Speaker 15 this fatherliness
Speaker 18 of Joseph.
Speaker 24 Which then Jesus takes over.
Speaker 19 And that's just, I think, a beautiful scene to reflect on
Speaker 2 that Mary was never abandoned,
Speaker 4 but God the Father was always looking out for her.
Speaker 4 So let's go ahead and take some time here to just
Speaker 12 remain,
Speaker 19 to be still,
Speaker 8 to breathe deeply,
Speaker 3 and to drink deeply of the grace and the mystery.
Speaker 18 So today, what truth about God is being revealed?
Speaker 18 What characteristics of the heart of God is being revealed to you that you are being invited
Speaker 29 to receive, to ponder, to contemplate?
Speaker 17 How are you being called
Speaker 23 to respond?
Speaker 25 What grace
Speaker 19 do you need to request
Speaker 19 And then rejoice,
Speaker 3 give thanks and praise
Speaker 2 for the truth revealed in the grace given.
Speaker 4 And now, with Mary, let us pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
Speaker 24 and of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 30 Amen.
Speaker 31 Our Father,
Speaker 13 who art in heaven,
Speaker 31 hallowed be thy name.
Speaker 3 Thy kingdom come,
Speaker 12 thy will be done,
Speaker 18 on earth as it is in heaven.
Speaker 5 Give us this day our daily bread,
Speaker 18 and forgive us our trespasses,
Speaker 19 as we forgive forgive those who trespass against us.
Speaker 17 And lead us not into temptation,
Speaker 4 but deliver us from evil.
Speaker 30 Amen.
Speaker 12 Hail Mary,
Speaker 25 full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Speaker 29 Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Speaker 12 Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Speaker 21 pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Speaker 31 Amen.
Speaker 16 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Speaker 29 Blessed art thou among women,
Speaker 28 and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Speaker 12 Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Speaker 21 pray for us sinners, sinners,
Speaker 31 now and at the hour of our death.
Speaker 30 Amen.
Speaker 25 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Speaker 29 Blessed art thou among women,
Speaker 28 and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Speaker 12 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,
Speaker 33 now and at the hour of our death.
Speaker 30 Amen.
Speaker 25 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Speaker 4 Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Speaker 12 Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Speaker 21 pray for us sinners
Speaker 33 now and at the hour of our death.
Speaker 31 Amen.
Speaker 25 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Speaker 24 Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Speaker 12 Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Speaker 21 pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Speaker 30 Amen.
Speaker 25 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Speaker 29 Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Speaker 12 Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Speaker 21 pray for us sinners,
Speaker 33 now and at the hour of our death.
Speaker 4 Amen.
Speaker 32 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Speaker 29 Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Speaker 12 Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Speaker 21 pray for us sinners,
Speaker 31 now and at the hour of our death, amen.
Speaker 32 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Speaker 29 Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Speaker 12 Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Speaker 33 pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen.
Speaker 32 Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Speaker 29 Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Speaker 12 Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Speaker 33 pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, amen.
Speaker 32 Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee.
Speaker 24 Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Speaker 21 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.
Speaker 30 Amen.
Speaker 24 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.
Speaker 30 Amen.
Speaker 2 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 30 Amen.
Speaker 3 All right.
Speaker 12 Thanks so much for joining me and praying with me today.
Speaker 3 I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow.
Speaker 13 Poco, Poco, friends. God bless y'all.