Day 143: Fulfillment of the Promise

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames)

Episode: Day 143 – Fulfillment of the Promise

Date: May 23, 2026
Host: Fr. Mark-Mary Ames (Ascension)

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Overview

Day 143 of The Rosary in a Year centers on the theme of “Fulfillment of the Promise.” Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, joined by an art historian and commentators, meditates on the Fifth Sorrowful Mystery—the Crucifixion—using a powerful fresco by Pietro Gagliardi as a source for visio divina. The episode explores how the image of the rainbow in the painting illuminates the deep biblical promise of hope, as revealed in Christ’s death on the cross, and encourages listeners to find hope in their own suffering by remaining close to Jesus and Mary.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Art and Meditation: Gagliardi’s Crucifixion Fresco (01:03–03:24)

• Context of the Fresco:
  Painted by Pietro Gagliardi for the Church of San Girolamo (1847–1852), commissioned during a restoration by Pope Pius IX.

  • Late Romantic style: luminous colors, soft transitions, open compositions, graceful movement.

• Description of the Scene:

  • Christ is elevated on the cross above a rugged landscape ([02:11]).
  • Behind the cross, a vibrant rainbow shines through golden light, contrasting dark clouds over the rest of the scene ([02:14–02:21]).
  • Angels hover between ominous clouds and Christ’s halo.
  • The two thieves: one turns towards Christ in light; the other turns away enshrouded in darkness.
  • At the foot of the cross: Mary (in blue, golden halo) clutching her chest in pain; John in yellow, kneeling in anguish; women mourn; soldiers gamble and jeer; bystanders show a spectrum of reactions ([02:51–03:24]).

“Those gazing towards Jesus at the foot of the cross are colorfully illuminated... Some onlookers jeer, some fight, some bow in humble reverence.”
— Art Historian ([02:51])

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2. The Rainbow: Symbolism and Biblical Connection (03:24–04:46)

• Rainbow as Divine Promise:
  • The rainbow references God’s promise to Noah after the flood—a covenant of mercy and life ([03:38–04:12]).
  • In Gagliardi’s fresco, Jesus’s outstretched arms visually complete the rainbow’s arc, linking the Old Testament promise to its New Testament fulfillment.

“That unique detail of the large, vibrant rainbow behind our crucified Lord... you can see his own outstretched arms completing this circular rainbow. And this rainbow, of course, it harkens back to God’s promise to Noah after the flood.”
— Art Historian ([03:34–04:12])

• Crucifixion as Fulfillment:
  • The cross becomes the sign that death is not the last word; life is.
  • The rainbow in the artwork underscores Christ’s sacrifice as the ultimate fulfillment of God’s covenant ([04:17–04:31]).

“The crucifix... as like the fulfillment, like the rainbow from the promise of God to Noah, the sign that death does not have the last word, but life does.”
— Matt ([04:17–04:25])

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3. Meditation on Suffering, Hope, and Victory (04:46–07:39)

• Storms Will Cease, Hope Prevails:
  • The rainbow’s placement at Calvary reveals that darkness, suffering, and death are not the finale; light and life will triumph ([04:46–05:37]).
  • Mary will not hold only her son’s lifeless body, but meet him alive and victorious ([05:37–05:58]).

“This darkness, that this storm, this suffering, the death that we are witnessing will not be the end of the story... He will rise.”
— Commentator & Prayer Reader ([05:24–05:37])

• Relevance for Today’s Suffering:
  • The meditation speaks directly to those enduring pain or walking with loved ones in suffering ([06:10–06:43]).
  • Listeners are encouraged to anchor their hope in Christ’s victory, trusting that “the storm shall cease,” and “life will conquer” ([06:45–07:10]).

“Jesus hanging from the tree at Calvary, it says to us, I know your suffering, but I also know his goodness. I am with you. Stay with me and we will rise together.”
— Matt ([07:08–07:18])

• Call to Radical Hope:
  • Listeners are invited to pray not just for human resilience, but for the supernatural grace of hope—even from a place of poverty and dependence ([07:39–08:01]).
  • “To see the rainbow in our modern day Calvaries...” is to trust God’s promise of victory ([08:01–08:16]).

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4. The Praying of the Rosary (08:25–11:54)

• The episode flows into the praying of the ten Hail Marys, reflecting on Christ’s crucifixion and Mary’s suffering, culminating in the Glory Be and closing prayers.
• The communal prayer emphasizes unity with Jesus and Mary, and the hope that those who suffer and die with Him will also rise with Him.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “From here on, all storms will cease and the dawn shall break. In other words, like darkness, suffering, death, they will not have the last word, but rather light and love and life.”
  — Art Historian ([04:46–05:11])

• “We can take hope that suffering and death and darkness are not victorious. They don’t have the last word, but in Christ, our hope, the storm shall cease.”
  — Matt ([06:32–06:45])

• “Stay with me and we will rise together. We will experience the Father’s goodness, a goodness which may not seem possible in this current situation. But stay with me. Trust this promise that the storm will cease and the dawn will break in all things, for all eternity.”
  — Matt ([07:10–07:30])

• “Let us really ask for this grace not just from a human like resoluteness... But let us like profoundly in even from a place of like radical poverty and dependence, let us ask for the grace, the supernatural gift of grace that is hope.”
  — Art Historian ([07:44–08:01])

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Key Timestamps

• 01:03: Introduction to today’s meditation & Gagliardi’s Crucifixion fresco
• 02:11: Visual and symbolic description of the artwork
• 03:34: Meditation begins: the rainbow’s meaning
• 04:17: The Crucifix as fulfillment of God’s promise
• 05:24: The rainbow as sign that suffering is not the end; “He will rise”
• 06:10: Addressing listeners experiencing suffering
• 07:10: “Stay with me and we will rise together.”
• 07:58: Invitation to ask for supernatural hope
• 08:25: Transition into the formal recitation of the rosary decade

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Tone and Language

Fr. Mark-Mary and the team use gentle, contemplative, and encouraging language, inviting the listener to enter deeply into the mystery. Emphasis is placed on the beauty of hope rising from sorrow, and the accessibility of grace for all, no matter their struggles. The episode blends theological insight, art appreciation, scripture, and heartfelt prayer.

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For a deeper experience, listeners are encouraged to reflect upon the rainbow’s symbolism in their own spiritual “calvaries,” and to join together with Mary and Jesus in radical, supernatural hope.

Transcript

[Matt]

Foreign.

[Host]

Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the

[Art Historian]

Renewal and this is the Rosary in

[Host]

a Year podcast where through prayer and meditation, the Rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary and becomes

[Friar]

a source of grace for the whole world.

[Host]

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

[Friar]

This is day143.

[Host]

To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a year, visit ascensionpress.com forward/rosary in a 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 podcasts is in the Ascension app. There are special features built just for this podcast and also recordings of the

[Friar]

full rosary with myself and other friars.

[Host]

On behalf of myself and the whole team here at Ascension, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who's helped support this podcast financially. Your support is so appreciated and helps us to reach as many people as possible. And if you haven't already, please consider supporting [e-mail] support

[Art Historian]

today we will be

[Prayer Leader]

meditating upon and praying with the fifth

[Art Historian]

Sorrowful Mystery, the Crucifixion, with help from a fresco of the Crucifixion by the artist Pietro Gagliardi.

[Commentator]

So our work today is a fresco,

[Art Historian]

and it's a fresco of the Crucifixion by the artist Pietro Gagliardi, and it's in the Church of San Girolamo. The fresco here was done between the years 1847 and 1852. The style is known as Late Romantic, which is characterized by luminous palettes with soft, gentle nuances of color and open, spacious compositions, graceful figure movements in celestial realms. This particular fresco is part of an overall restoration of the Church of San Girolamo that was commissioned by Pope pius IX in 1847. Now a description of our painting. Christ hangs high on a cross above a mountainous terrain.

[Commentator]

The sky directly behind Jesus cross is

[Art Historian]

blue with beaming golden light and a vibrant rainbow, which starkly contrasts to the brooding black and gray clouds over the

[Matt]

rest of the scene.

[Art Historian]

Angels in attendance hover between the ominous skies and Christ's shining celestial halo. Jesus is flanked by the two thieves. One faces him and his body reflects the glow of Jesus light, and the other, enshrouded in darkness, turns away. Beneath them, a tableau of drama unfolds. Those gazing towards Jesus at the foot of the cross are colorfully illuminated, including

[Prayer Leader]

Mary wearing blue with a golden halo

[Art Historian]

as she clutches her chest in pain. Saint John in yellow falls on his knees, hand against his head in agony. And several women join Mary in her mourning at the foot of the cross. Some soldiers hold spears and others cast lots. People of all kinds witness the scene. Some onlookers jeer, some fight, some bow in humble reverence.

[Commentator]

Now our meditation as we sit before this most tragic of scenes, which is

[Friar]

depicted so beautifully by our artist, what

[Commentator]

catches my attention is that unique detail

[Art Historian]

of the large, vibrant rainbow behind our crucified Lord, which, if you look closely, seems to be having its colorful bows being completed by the outstretched arms of Jesus. You can see his own outstretched arms completing this circular rainbow. And this rainbow, of course, it harkens back to God's promise to Noah after the flood in the rainbow, like it speaks to Noah and then to us, the promise of God.

[Matt]

And what we see depicted here so beautifully is Jesus crucified and the crucifix

[Commentator]

as like the fulfillment of, like the

[Matt]

rainbow from the promise of God to

[Congregation]

Noah, the sign that death does not

[Friar]

have the last word, but life does.

[Matt]

So we see that in the rainbow, and we see that perfected and fulfilled in the crucifix, the cross, the sure sign of our hope and of God's fidelity.

[Art Historian]

From here on, all storms will cease and the dawn shall break. In other words, like darkness, suffering, death, they will not have the last word,

[Commentator]

but rather light and love and life. This is God's promise which is perfected

[Art Historian]

and fulfilled in the paschal mystery of Jesus.

[Matt]

Hope, light, life, and God's goodness towards

[Friar]

his people will be victorious.

[Art Historian]

It will be what endures.

[Commentator]

And I feel like the placing of

[Art Historian]

the rainbow in the scene of the crucifixion, it's a way of communicating to us that this darkness, that this storm, this suffering, the death that we are witnessing will not be the end of the story.

[Prayer Reader]

He will rise.

[Commentator]

The last time that Mary, the mother of God, the mother of Jesus, holds

[Art Historian]

her son, it will not be his

[Friar]

lifeless body on Calvary.

[Art Historian]

She will encounter him and hold him

[Matt]

again, alive and victorious.

[Art Historian]

The Father's goodness right towards the Son will have the final word. And with him we too shall rise.

[Matt]

And so those of us who are

[Art Historian]

currently, like, deeply, really sharing in the Lord's passion in our own lives, those of us who are really sharing in

[Matt]

Mary's sorrow as we see those we

[Congregation]

love so much, suffer so much,

[Matt]

we can take hope that suffering and death and darkness are not victorious.

[Friar]

They don't have the last word, but

[Matt]

in Christ, our hope, the storm shall cease. The waters which feel like they're drowning us in suffering, they will recede and life, like life, will conquer. Jesus hanging from the tree at Calvary, it says to us, I know your suffering,

[Congregation]

but I also know his goodness.

[Matt]

I am with you. Stay with me and we will rise together. We will experience the Father's goodness, a goodness which may not seem possible in this current situation. But stay with me. Trust this promise that the storm will cease and the dawn will break in

[Prayer Reader]

all things, for all eternity.

[Matt]

If we remain with him, if we

[Congregation]

hope in him, if we let him.

[Matt]

So as we pray today, as we pray with Mary, who knew the depths

[Art Historian]

of suffering, but also the heights of

[Commentator]

God's fidelity, like, let us really ask for this grace not just from a human like resoluteness, not just a deeper human commitment to trust when it's hard. But let us like profoundly in even from a place of like radical poverty and dependence, let us ask for the

[Art Historian]

grace, the supernatural gift of grace that is hope.

[Matt]

Like to. To see the rainbow in our modern day calvaries, like this promise of God's victory. And to remain with Mary and Jesus

[Congregation]

in hope in the midst of our

[Matt]

sufferings, so that we who suffer with him, we who die with him, may

[Friar]

also rise with Him.

[Matt]

And now with Mary. Let us pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and and of the Holy Spirit.

[Prayer Leader]

Amen.

[Congregation]

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[Matt]

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[Friar]

Give us this day our daily bread

[Matt]

and forgive us our trespasses as we

[Friar]

forgive those who trespass against us.

[Matt]

And lead us not into temptation, but

[Friar]

deliver us from evil.

[Prayer Leader]

Amen.

[Prayer Reader]

Hail Mary, full of grace.

[Friar]

The Lord is with the Blessed art

[Congregation]

thou among women and blessed is the

[Prayer Reader]

fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[Prayer Leader]

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for

[Matt]

us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

[Prayer Leader]

Amen.

[Prayer Reader]

Hail Mary, full of grace.

[Friar]

The Lord is with the Blessed art

[Congregation]

thou among women and blessed is the

[Prayer Reader]

fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[Prayer Leader]

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for

[Matt]

us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

[Prayer Leader]

Amen.

[Prayer Reader]

Hail Mary, full of grace.

[Friar]

The Lord is with the Blessed art

[Congregation]

thou among women and blessed is the

[Prayer Reader]

fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[Prayer Leader]

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for

[Matt]

us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

[Prayer Reader]

Hail Mary, full of grace.

[Friar]

The Lord is with the Blessed art

[Congregation]

thou among women and blessed is the

[Prayer Reader]

fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[Prayer Leader]

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for

[Matt]

us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

[Prayer Leader]

Amen.

[Prayer Reader]

Hail Mary, full of grace.

[Friar]

The Lord is with the blessed art

[Congregation]

thou among women, and blessed is the

[Prayer Reader]

fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[Prayer Leader]

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for

[Matt]

us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

[Prayer Reader]

Hail Mary, full of grace.

[Friar]

The Lord is with the blessed art

[Congregation]

thou among women, and blessed is the

[Prayer Reader]

fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[Prayer Leader]

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for

[Matt]

us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

[Prayer Leader]

Amen.

[Prayer Reader]

Hail Mary, full of grace.

[Friar]

The Lord is with the blessed art

[Congregation]

thou among women, and blessed is the

[Prayer Reader]

fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[Prayer Leader]

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for

[Matt]

us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

[Congregation]

Amen.

[Prayer Reader]

Hail Mary, full of grace.

[Friar]

The Lord is with the blessed art

[Congregation]

thou among women, and blessed is the

[Prayer Reader]

fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[Prayer Leader]

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for

[Matt]

us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

[Prayer Reader]

Hail Mary, full of grace.

[Friar]

The Lord is with the blessed art

[Congregation]

thou among women, and blessed is the

[Prayer Reader]

fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[Prayer Leader]

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for

[Matt]

us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

[Prayer Leader]

Amen.

[Prayer Reader]

Hail Mary, full of grace.

[Friar]

The Lord is with the blessed art

[Congregation]

thou among women, and blessed is the

[Prayer Reader]

fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

[Prayer Leader]

Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for

[Matt]

us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

[Prayer Leader]

Amen. Glory be to the Father and to

[Matt]

the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

[Congregation]

As it was in the beginning, is

[Prayer Leader]

now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. In the name of the Father and

[Matt]

of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[Prayer Leader]

Amen.

[Matt]

All right, friends, thanks so much for

[Prayer Leader]

joining me and praying with me again today.

[Prayer Reader]

I look forward to continuing this journey

[Matt]

with you again tomorrow.

[Host]

Poco.

[Prayer Leader]

Poco.

[Matt]

All right. God bless y'. All.