Day 198: The Love of Jesus

Summary

Summary of "Day 198: The Love of Jesus" from The Rosary in a Year Podcast

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames)
• Host/Author: Ascension
• Episode: Day 198: The Love of Jesus
• Release Date: July 17, 2025

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Introduction

In the 198th episode of The Rosary in a Year podcast, Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, a member of the Franciscan Friars of Renewal, delves into the profound mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist, the fifth luminous mystery of the Rosary. This episode focuses on understanding the deep love of Jesus as revealed through the Eucharist and explores how this sacrament fosters a closer relationship with both Jesus and Mary.

Key Themes

1. The Creativity of Love

Fr. Mark-Mary Ames begins by discussing the concept of the "creativity of love," a phrase shared by a monastic sister in response to a question about maintaining prayer practices from their friary in the South Bronx (00:00). He explains that:

"When you love someone, you create a way, a space to be with them. But we have to always remember that the creativity of our love is always a response. It's a response to the creativity of God's love." (02:30)

This idea emphasizes that human expressions of love are reflections and responses to God's infinite love, exemplified in the Eucharist where Jesus offers Himself as bread and wine.

2. The Abyss of Love

Fr. Mark-Mary introduces the metaphor of an "abyss of love" to describe the depth of God's love, inspired by St. Catherine of Siena's writings and Jesus's words in Luke's Gospel:

"This abyss of love is the heart of the Divine Bridegroom, who gives Himself to the bride, his Church, desiring to give Himself to the Church, but also to receive the Church his bride." (04:15)

This abyss signifies the boundless and consuming love Jesus has for humanity, a love that remains steadfast even in the face of suffering and betrayal.

3. The Peace of Jesus at the Last Supper

Reflecting on Giacomo Raffaelli's mosaic of the Last Supper, Fr. Mark-Mary emphasizes Jesus's inner peace despite knowing the impending chaos:

"He knows who's he is. He knows who the Father is. ... rooted in his sonship, lives in trust, lives in surrender, lives in confidence." (05:30)

This peace stems from Jesus's unwavering trust in God's providence and His confidence in the resurrection, demonstrating a profound serenity that believers are called to emulate through the reception of the Eucharist.

Practical Applications

1. Preparing for Mass and Holy Communion

Fr. Mark-Mary highlights the importance of approaching the Eucharist with a prayerful and devout heart to fully experience the grace it bestows:

"Each time we prepare for Mass, each time we go to visit the Holy Eucharist for adoration, ... Holy Communion is this most intense and intimate and beautiful of exchanges." (05:50)

By fostering a daily habit of prayer and reflection, believers can cultivate a deeper connection with Jesus, experiencing His love and peace in all circumstances.

2. Invitation to Transformation

The episode underscores the transformative power of the Eucharist, inviting listeners to allow the sacrament to deepen their relationship with God:

"The grace we receive through the Most Holy Eucharist gives us a greater, fuller, richer share in Jesus own relationship with the Father." (06:40)

This transformation is an ongoing journey, continuously enriched through regular participation in the Eucharist.

Four Rs Reflection

Fr. Mark-Mary introduces the "Four Rs" as a guide for personal reflection and prayer:

1. Rejoice: Give thanks and praise to the Lord for the gift of the Eucharist and the graces received.
2. Reflect: Meditate on the truths revealed in the Eucharist and their significance in your life.
3. Respond: Consider how you can embody and respond to the love and grace received.
4. Request: Ask for specific graces or support in living out your faith more fully.

This structured approach encourages deeper engagement with the mysteries of the Rosary and the Eucharist.

Conclusion

Fr. Mark-Mary Ames concludes the episode by inviting listeners to embrace the peace and love exemplified by Jesus at the Last Supper. He encourages a continued journey of prayer and reflection, fostering a transformative relationship with God through the Rosary and the Eucharist.

"I believe this is a beautiful intention and a beautiful way for us to come asking to receive that grace, to experience the peace and the confidence that Jesus has in His Father." (06:00)

Listeners are reminded to utilize the Rosary in a Year Prayer Guide and the Ascension app for a comprehensive and enriching prayer experience.

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Notable Quotes:

• "When you love someone, you create a way, a space to be with them. But we have to always remember that the creativity of our love is always a response." (02:30)
• "This abyss of love is the heart of the Divine Bridegroom, who gives Himself to the bride, his Church." (04:15)
• "Holy Communion is this most intense and intimate and beautiful of exchanges." (05:50)
• "The grace we receive through the Most Holy Eucharist gives us a greater, fuller, richer share in Jesus own relationship with the Father." (06:40)

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Resources Mentioned:

• Prayer Plan Download: Visit ascensionpress.com/riy or text RIY to 33777.
• Rosary in the Year Prayer Guide: Available for purchase through Ascension.
• Ascension App: Recommended for accessing podcast features and full Rosary recordings.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of 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 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 198. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a year, visit ascensionpress.com 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 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. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Rosary in the Year Prayer Guide, a book published by Ascension that was designed to complement this podcast. You'll find all the daily readings of scripture, saint reflections and beautiful images of the sacred art will be reflecting on Today. We will be meditating upon and praying with the fifth luminous mystery, the institution of the Most Holy Eucharist. So our review and reflection today. I'd like to begin with the language we use when looking at the Eucharist, namely the creativity of love. Shua shared this story of a kind of a monastic sister in response to one of the brothers asking like, how can we pray like we did on this mountaintop back in the friary in the South Bronx? And she gave us this phrase, the creativity of love. When you love someone, you create a way, a space to be with them. But we have to always remember that the creativity of our love is always a response. It's a response to the creativity of God's love and how beautiful an expression of the creativity of love is Jesus remaining with us in the form of bread and wine through the mystery of the Most Holy Eucharist and how Jesus gives Himself totally to us in the Holy Eucharist, he remains to us in our neighborhood parish missions, but also he's able to give Himself totally the creativity of his love can get into, if you will, like prisons and I've been a part of the celebration the Most Holy Eucharist in the prisons in Honduras and there is Jesus sacramentally present body, blood, soul and divinity, giving Himself receiving totally in those prison cells or in the mountaintops. Or Jesus can come to those who are homebound, right? The creativity of the love of Jesus, which invites the response of the creativity of our own love that we like create space, particularly in our own lives to remain with Him. And then also aided by St. Catherine of Siena's dialogue, we just spent some time just receiving again the gift to seeing again the truth, that the heart of God, truly present through the most Holy Eucharist, is an abyss of love. And then Luke's gospel, as Jesus says, like I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you. It's like this visceral, this deep, this abyss of love which desires to eat this Passover with us. It is an abyss of love, a burning fire of love who gives Himself to us, who remains with us through this sacrament, through this mystery and that yearns, that longs, that earnestly desires to give Himself to us and to receive us. This. This abyss of love is the heart of the Divine Bridegroom, who gives Himself to the bride, his Church, desiring to give Himself to the Church, but also to receive the Church his bride. And this is true for us as individuals as well, like the Divine Bridegroom of our souls, like his heart is in an abyss of love, giving Himself to us and earnestly desiring, totally desiring us, like inflamed with desire to receive us totally. So as we come to the Eucharist, particularly to receiving Holy Communion, on the surface, it's somewhat sober and still and solemn and simple. But above the census, through faith, we know that Jesus is burning with love, and that Holy Communion is this most intense and intimate and beautiful of exchanges, where he gives Himself again with fire, with love, with desire to us, and he receives us with the same desire and fire. So I think this is a beautiful reflection. Each time we prepare for Mass, each time we go to visit the Holy Eucharist for adoration, and particularly in those moments before and after receiving Holy Communion. And then lastly, for today, as we looked at the mosaic of the Last Supper by Giacomo Raffaelli, we notice Jesus's peacefulness at the Last Supper. He knows the chaos and the commotion, the betrayal, the arrest, the passion that's about to come. But still, in this moment, he's at peace. He's at peace. Why? Because he knows who he is. He knows who the Father is. And that Jesus, rooted in his sonship, lives in trust, lives in surrender, lives in confidence. The upcoming betrayal and passion will not steal his peace, because he knows there's nothing outside the providence of His Father. There's nothing that His Father can't use. Even before His Passion, Jesus knew and trusted and was confident in the resurrection. So at the Last Supper, he's at peace. And in this, there's this Invitation to become what we receive, to be transformed by the Most Holy Eucharist, by Jesus himself, and that the grace we receive through the Most Holy Eucharist gives us a greater, fuller, richer share in Jesus own relationship with the Father. Of course, by baptism this is true, like we share in this relationship, but it continues to grow and to come to a place of fulfillment.

[B]

In a.

[A]

Primary, a principal place of receiving this grace so that we can experience the trust, the surrender, the peace of Jesus at all times and in all situations like comes through like a holy, prayerful, devout reception of Most Holy Communion. I believe this is a beautiful intention and a beautiful way for us to come asking to receive that grace, to experience the peace and the confidence that Jesus has in His Father, no matter what awaits us or what already surrounds us. So now we'll go ahead and just take some time to be still, to reflect. Perhaps something we review today on the creativity of love, the abyss of love, the peace of Jesus you experience as a prompting, an invitation to prayer.

[B]

Or.

[A]

Perhaps as we meditate upon this mystery, the Lord's inviting you to reflect on, to pray with another truth, another invitation. So now we'll go into these four Rs today for you. What is the grace being offered, the truth being revealed, that you are invited to receive? How can you respond? What is the grace that you would like to request.

[B]

Now?

[A]

Rejoice, give thanks and praise to the Lord for the gift of the Most Holy Eucharist and for this time of prayer and the graces bestowed in the life shared. And now, together with Mary, let us pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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 those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but but deliver us from evil.

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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.

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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.

[B]

Amen.

[A]

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with the Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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.

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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

[B]

Amen.

[A]

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 you.