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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 Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in the Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is day 208. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a year, visit ascensionpress.comrosaryinayear or text RIY to 33777. You'll get an outline of how we're gonna pray each month, and it's a great way to track your progress. The best place to listen to this 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. No matter what app you're listening in, remember to tap, follow or subscribe for your daily notifications. Today we will be meditating upon and praying with the fifth glorious Mystery, the coronation of Our lady as Queen of Heaven and Earth. Now, before we get into our time of prayer, just a review of some of what we have discussed and prayed with up to this point. So in our reflection on Revelation chapter 12, verses 1 through 5, where we see Our lady depicted kind of in the heavens as Queen, we were reminded that we have, like, if you will, the best of friends in the highest of places that in Mary, like we have access to the Queen and the Queen is our mother. And what she loves to do from this place of authority, this privileged place given to her by God, is to pour out grace upon grace upon grace upon her children. Mary, who is the best of mothers like, she, desires to love her children and to take all of the treasure she has and put them at our service, put them at our disposal. So we want to have like this freedom. We want to have this confidence to come to Mary and to come to her often and come to her quickly and come to her with the highest of confidences. But it's important for us to remember, like, what are in fact heavenly treasures and what are not. And the number one treasure that Mary wants to pour upon us is grace is a share in God's own life at the service of our intimacy with her Son and our fidelity to the Father's will. And so first and foremost, what we're asking for is grace for more of God's life alive and at work within us. Secondly, for today, looking at a writing of St. John Henry Newman, we looked at Mary again as the Queen of Angels, and we remind her that certainly Mary is mother to us, but also she is a Queen of angels and part of the maternal heart of a mother is one of consolation, of comfort, of care. But also there's, like, the whole Mama Bear thing is real. Like, there's a way in which for her children, a mother becomes a warrior. And that Mary is this kind of perfection of a motherly heart, which also means that, like, she deeply desires and is willing to, like, fight for her children and to put all of her resources at the service of the safety and the protection of her children. And what is the number one danger that Mary is concerned about in our lives? It is the danger of. Of Satan. It is the danger of sin. And my invitation for our prayer today with this is just this reminder of who she is, of how much she cares for us, of the resources at her disposal. And that when we are facing temptation towards sin, when we are facing temptation towards discouragement or despair, like, let us come to Mary and let us with confidence and boldly ask her to send hosts and hosts of angels to come and fight for us and protect us, protect us and deliver us from all temptation and all torments of Satan and the fallen angels. And then lastly, for today, kind of a different direction, different way in which we can pray with Mary's coronation is prompted by Diego Velazquez's painting of the Coronation of Mary, where we saw the coronation depicted as a work of the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And we see these identities of Mary, spouse of the Spirit, like daughter of the Father, Mother of the Son, Mary's coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth, like, it is glorious and it's powerful and it's theologically rich. But what I propose is that at its core, it is a mystery of the most profound loves and joys and intimacies, as she's made Queen of Heaven and Earth by the Father, by the Son, and by the Holy Spirit. And a just response to a beautiful thing is simply to sit in awe and to wonder and to appreciate the beautiful thing. And how beautiful is Our Lady? And how beautiful is this intimate moment, how beautiful is this expression of love from the heart of the Trinity toward Our lady, and that there's this invitation just to sit before this truth, this beauty, to receive it, to ponder it, and to rejoice in it. So now let's just go ahead and take a moment of prayerful lingering and resting here, and then we'll move through our roadmap of prayer, our four R's today. Like, 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, particularly at the service of this response.