Mark Mary (0:00)

Foreign Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars with Renewal and this is the Rosary in Here podcast where through prayer and meditation, the Rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is day 111. Download the prayer plan for Rosary in a year. Visit ascensionpress.com forward/rosary in the year or text Riy to 33777. You'll get an outline of how we're going to pray each month and it's a great way to track your progress. The best place to listen to the Podcast in the Ascension app. There are special features Bill just for this podcast and also recordings of the full Rosary. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Rosary in a Year Prayer Guide, a book published by Ascension that was designed to complement this podcast. You'll find all the daily readings from Scripture, Saint reflections, and beautiful full page images of the sacred arts we'll be reflecting on today. We will be meditating upon and praying with the third joyful Mystery, the Nativity, with help from a writing by St Bernard on the miraculous nature of the Nativity, and the focus of our emphasis is going to be in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead. We've already had a chance to introduce our author, so we'll go ahead and get right into our reading again. This is from St. Bernard and his work on the miraculous nature of the Nativity. He who is the delight and glory of the angels, is become the salvation and the consolation of all who suffer. He who is glorious and transcendent in his own city, and beatifies its citizens by his presence, became little and humble when in exile, that he might rejoice the exiles he who in the highest heavens is the glory of the Father, became as a child on earth, peace to men of good will. A little one is given to little ones, that the Great One may be given to the great, and that those whom the Little One justifies, the Great and Mighty One, may afterwards magnify and render glorious. Hence, without doubt, St. Paul, the vessel of election, pours out to us the treasures which he had received from the fulness of this child. For Christ, though a child is full of grace and truth, in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead corporeally hence, I repeat, St. Paul utters that good word which you have heard so often during these past Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice of the showing forth of the mystery. He says, rejoice of the promise of it. He adds. Again I say rejoice, for both the mystery and its promise are causes of great joy. Rejoice that you have received the gifts of the left hand. Rejoice in the expectation of the rewards of the right. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. For the left hand raises, the right hand receives, the left hand heals and justifies the right, embraces and blesses. In the left hand are contained his merit, and the right his rewards. In the right are delights, in the left are remedies. But see how gentle the physician is. Behold how wise. Consider diligently the novelty of these remedies that he brings. See how they are not merely precious, but beautiful as well. They are fruits beneficial for our healing, and at the same time they are charming to the spiritual eye, sweet to the spiritual taste. The end of the reading. Thanks be to God. Alright, again we're going to be looking at the Nativity with this particular emphasis. In him dwells the fullness of the Godhead. I'd like to begin by taking a look at the sun. The S U N Just a reminder of the sun and like the size of the sun, the vastness of the sun. Right, so the sun, it's 93 million miles from the Earth. But without its energy, life couldn't exist on Earth. It's 100 times wider than our planet with a diameter of 865,000 miles and its gravity, it keeps the whole solar system together. At its core, the sun reaches a temperature of 27 million degrees Fahrenheit and it's moving at about 483 miles an hour. In other words, the sun is huge and it's hot and it holds the whole solar system together. But it's only considered a medium sized star. There are stars apparently 100 times larger than our sun out in the universe and it's one of about 200 billion stars in our galaxy. And that's just one galaxy with the nearest star, other star I guess being trillions of miles away. And I fact checked this all a number of times because it just seems like too big to be true. But apparently there's an estimated like trillion galaxies and remember just our galaxy has 200 billion stars. So I don't know like, I don't know any of this stuff. This is what I found online from really good sources. So, but, but the point of it is this is like all to emphasize like it's mind blowing. The vastness and the greatness of the created world. In some ways, it's really too big to, like, believe it's too big. Definitely too big to begin, for me at least, like, wrapping my head around. And yet all of it is being held in being by God. All of the stars, galaxies, an entire universe, they can't even begin to contain the fullness of God. But through the sublime mystery of the incarnation, God becomes man. And the fullness of the Godhead came to be contained in a little baby born in Bethlehem, small enough and light enough to be held in the arms of the Blessed mother. To quote St. Bernard, right, he who in the highest heavens is the glory of the Father, became a child. And Christ, though a child, is full of grace and truth, and in him dwells the fullness of the Godhead corporeally. Again, think about the fullness of the created world. In some ways, it's beyond comprehension, yet God is greater, infinitely greater. And this God became a child.