Day 88: The Road of Humility

Speaker 1 Hey, I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, and this is the Rosary in a Year podcast, where through prayer and meditation, the Rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and to Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world.

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Speaker 1 For today's Lexo Divina, we'll be praying with the fifth glorious mystery: the coronation of Mary as queen of heaven and earth, Revelation 12, verses 1 through 5.

Speaker 1 and the emphasis of our meditation is going to be humility

Speaker 1 is the royal road

Speaker 1 humility is the royal road

Speaker 1 now for our alexio

Speaker 1 and a great sign appeared in heaven

Speaker 1 a woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars

Speaker 1 she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth in anguish for delivery.

Speaker 1 And another sign appeared in heaven.

Speaker 1 Behold, a red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.

Speaker 1 And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth.

Speaker 1 She brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was caught up to God and to his throne.

Speaker 1 Okay, now let's go ahead and engage our scripture for our time of meditatio. And of course, you know, what we can bring to our meditatios is our theological knowledge, our study.

Speaker 1 So we are coming to the book of Revelation here in the context of praying and reflecting on the fifth glorious mystery, Mary's coronation as queen of heaven and earth.

Speaker 1 And so we have here in Revelation chapter 12, a reminder,

Speaker 1 we understand, often interpret the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars, that this is like a double symbol. So it does represent the church, but also Mary.

Speaker 1 And so here we have this twofold image, but we're going to focus on it as this image of Mary.

Speaker 1 And I just really want us to take time

Speaker 1 to reflect on like the grandeur, the awesomeness of what is said about Mary here.

Speaker 1 A great sign appeared in heaven. A woman,

Speaker 1 Mary, clothed with the sun,

Speaker 1 the moon under her feet,

Speaker 1 and on her head a crown.

Speaker 1 of 12 stars like

Speaker 1 that there's the imagery of of grandeur of greatness of royalty a crown of 12 stars of authority the moon under her feet of dignity clothed with the sun

Speaker 1 like look how great the lord has taken care of the blessed mother

Speaker 1 And there's an intimacy, there's a beauty of clothing Mary, but clothing her with the sun.

Speaker 1 Like lifting her up as a father lifts up a daughter, but lifting her up all the way above the moon.

Speaker 1 And then, if you picture, you know, a father placing a hat on his daughter, like here we have like the father, we have the Lord placing a crown

Speaker 1 on the head of Mary. And we think of this as like a beautiful, intimate moment.
They're very close. Imagine them, you know, looking each other in the eye as this is happening.

Speaker 1 But the crown

Speaker 1 is a crown of stars, right? Not just any crown, it's a crown of stars, the grandeur of it.

Speaker 1 And so there's this beauty combination of like the intimacy, but the grandeur, the royalty, the greatness of the dignity of Mary bestowed upon her by the Lord as she is made queen of heaven and earth.

Speaker 1 But like, how did she get here?

Speaker 1 The Lord has looked on the lowest state of her handmaiden.

Speaker 1 Behold, I'm the handmaiden of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your will.

Speaker 1 Mary chose humility.

Speaker 1 Mary remained in humility. The fruit of her humility being trust, obedience, surrender.

Speaker 1 So she just said, yes, yes, yes. She remained humble.
She remained docile. She remained receptive.

Speaker 1 All in confidence, all in confidence in the Lord and his goodness.

Speaker 1 And where did this lead her? To this place now where she is, she's been made queen of heaven and earth.

Speaker 1 And we've seen this in the Lord's life. He chose to be humble, but he is the victorious king.
We see this in Mary's life. She chose humility.

Speaker 1 But in choosing humility, she chose the royal road. And she now, right, reigns forever in heaven and earth as queen.

Speaker 1 there's going to be a temptation to look down on the humble road

Speaker 1 but our lord and our lady they show us

Speaker 1 that humility is in fact

Speaker 1 the road of royalty

Speaker 1 let us return for our alexio again

Speaker 1 A great sign appeared in heaven.

Speaker 1 A woman clothed with the sun

Speaker 1 with the moon under her feet

Speaker 1 and on her head

Speaker 1 a crown of 12 stars

Speaker 1 all of this mary has received

Speaker 1 and if you remember all the way back when we talked about thy will be done thy kingdom come like there's this invitation to becoming like a child

Speaker 1 who remains humble dependable, but filled with confidence. They don't have to take care of themselves because they expect to receive everything from the Father.

Speaker 1 Mary is expected to receive everything from the Father.

Speaker 1 And how much more than she ever expected does she receive being made queen of heaven and earth?

Speaker 1 And one last time of Lexio,

Speaker 1 a woman clothed with the sun,

Speaker 1 with the moon under her feet,

Speaker 1 and on her head a crown of 12 stars.

Speaker 1 We'll transition to our Aratio, our time of prayer falling, our template, receive, respond, request, rejoice. So, what is the good news? Being offered for us to receive?

Speaker 1 What is God revealing about himself?

Speaker 1 again? He's revealing his like that. God is never going to be out done in generosity, that he can be trusted, that he is faithful and he is powerful.

Speaker 1 But he's also tender, right? Like, he sees us, he loves us, he cares about our hearts. He comes to us so humbly, as we saw in Bethlehem.

Speaker 1 He remains so humble and meek, as we saw during his passion.

Speaker 1 Yet let's not forget who he is he is the one who is powerful he is the one who can clothe our lady with the sun put the moon under her feet and a crown of stars on her head

Speaker 1 what's the response to this invitation we'll begin by adoration and praise we adore you lord for your grandeur your power your greatness

Speaker 1 You who have created all things and hold all things in being.

Speaker 1 And now what's the response? I propose at least one response we can focus on is

Speaker 1 a renewed fondness,

Speaker 1 attraction for,

Speaker 1 surrender to humility.

Speaker 1 Reminded that again, the road of humility is the royal road.

Speaker 1 Because it's the road that's been walked by our king and our queen.

Speaker 1 So let's go ahead and we can reflect on those areas in our life where we feel

Speaker 1 or we experience our littleness.

Speaker 1 We might experience being forgotten, being looked over.

Speaker 1 We might experience our own poverty

Speaker 1 towards the world, towards relationships, towards ourselves, our relationship with God.

Speaker 1 And we're going to move here to just an acceptance and a surrender,

Speaker 1 an acceptance of our own experiences of humility, of our own littleness, our own poverty, but surrendering it to the Lord like our Lady did. Be it done unto me according to your word.

Speaker 1 Lord, we come to you with confidence. surrendering to you, asking you, Father, to provide for us, asking you, Father, to take care of us.

Speaker 1 so we're going to transition just formally now into our time of request lord we just ask for this grace

Speaker 1 for a new attraction a new fondness a new appreciation of humility

Speaker 1 lord may you give us the grace of conversion of all the ways in which we are trying to create our own dignity to create our own name in the world as opposed to receiving all things from you

Speaker 1 and blessed mother in this particular way we're going to ask for for your intercession here as we know and rejoice in you being the queen of heaven and earth

Speaker 1 that as queen you have real authority

Speaker 1 may part of your work of magnifying the lord being magnifying his goodness his grace in our own lives

Speaker 1 And now we'll conclude with our time of rejoicing. We just thank you, Lord, again, for the most holy word of God that we come to and we encounter.

Speaker 1 We thank you, Jesus, for the gift of Mary

Speaker 1 as queen

Speaker 1 and our queen, the gift that our mother is the queen.

Speaker 1 We thank you, Jesus, for the gift of her own motherhood,

Speaker 1 truly effective still in our lives.

Speaker 1 And we thank you, Lord, for all the ways in which we are invited to imitate you in your humility.

Speaker 1 That as we follow your humility and the humility of Mary,

Speaker 1 may we do so again with just this confidence that we also will be lifted up, that we will be among the lowly that are lifted up.

Speaker 1 We love you, we bless you, we thank you.

Speaker 1 All right, now we'll conclude our time of Lexi with our contemplato by praying one decade of the Most Holy Rosary.

Speaker 1 And we're just going to reflect on this truth that humility is the royal road, the road that has been walked by our king and our queen.

Speaker 1 We're going to ask for that grace for a renewed zeal, a renewed acceptance, a renewed confidence as we ourselves experience the invitation to humility.

Speaker 1 So, with our lady, let us pray in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Speaker 1 Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Speaker 1 Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Speaker 1 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Speaker 1 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Speaker 1 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Speaker 1 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus.

Speaker 1 Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Speaker 1 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Speaker 1 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Speaker 1 Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

Speaker 1 Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 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

Speaker 1 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 1 Amen.

Speaker 1 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Speaker 1 All right, friends. So that's going to conclude our time of doing Lexio Divina together.
And certainly, you've been able to get to a place of prayer with the Lord. I encourage you to keep that going.

Speaker 1 But thank you for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow.
All right, Poco Poco, friends. God bless y'all.