Day 68: Fancy Friends

Summary

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

Episode Summary: Day 68 — Fancy Friends

Date: March 9, 2026
Host: Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR
Podcast by: Ascension

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Overview

In this episode, Fr. Mark-Mary Ames guides listeners in meditating on the Fifth Glorious Mystery—the Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. He reflects on the special privileges granted through connections ("fancy friends"), drawing a parallel to Mary as our “friend in the highest place.” Fr. Mark-Mary explores how, as Queen, Mary lovingly uses her authority to grant us access to graces, and encourages listeners to approach her in times of trial and triumph with trust and hope.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Meaning of "Fancy Friends"

• Personal Anecdotes (02:00 - 04:27):
  • Fr. Mark-Mary reminisces about childhood experiences of having “fancy friends”—not people in high worldly places, but those with some special access that leads to joy and privilege (e.g., his parents as chairpersons of a church carnival; a friend in an Off-Broadway musical; being friends with priests who can offer the sacraments on call).
  • Notable Quote (03:44):
    • “A lot of my best friends are priests. And so I rarely have to wait in line for confession.”
  • Insight:
    • These stories underscore the joy and blessing that come from knowing someone with unique authority or access.

2. The Joys and Use of Authority

• Role as Local Servant (04:27 - 05:30):
  • As the friar in charge at his community, Fr. Mark-Mary appreciates being able to bless people—especially the poor—in concrete ways, without having to seek permission.
  • Notable Quote (05:24):
    • “One of the great uses of my authority is that I can just bless people…look into whatever treasures we have and give them freely.”

3. Mary as Our Queen and Advocate

• The Fifth Glorious Mystery (05:30 - 07:18):
  • The episode transitions to the Rosary meditation: Mary’s coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth (Revelation 12:1–5 is read, 01:08–01:55).
  • Key Insight:
    • Fr. Mark-Mary relates his previous reflections to Mary: She is our “friend in the highest of places,” using her authority to “lavishly and lovingly pour out graces upon us.”
  • Notable Quote (06:47):
    • “Our Lady, our Queen, is at work giving us new access to privileged places, particularly the privileged place of intimacy with her Son.”

4. Pope Pius XII on Mary’s Queenship

• Encyclical Quotation (06:48 - 07:55):
  • Fr. Mark-Mary reads from Pope Pius XII’s 1954 encyclical, emphasizing how, for centuries, Christians have turned to Mary in prayer both in times of crisis and times of joy.
  • Notable Quote (from Pope Pius XII, cited at 07:28):
    • “Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother’s solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a queen.”
  • Insight:
    • Mary’s queenship is characterized by maternal care, not distant rule—she reigns with a “mother’s solicitude.”

5. Encouragement to Bring Every Need and Joy to Mary

• Personal Application (07:55 - 09:03):
  • Fr. Mark-Mary urges listeners to come to Mary their Queen, both in difficulties and joys, with confidence and hope: “Let us bring our petitions with total confidence…where we have triumph, let us share these with joy and veneration.”

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Memorable Quotes

• On Mary’s authority (06:47):
  “Our Lady is again and again going to the storehouse of grace, the font of grace which is the heart of God, and she is lavishly and lovingly pouring out these graces upon us.”

• From Pope Pius XII’s Encyclical (07:28):
  “Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother’s solicitude over the entire world…”

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:08–01:55 — Reading of Revelation 12:1–5
• 01:59–04:27 — Fr. Mark-Mary's personal stories about “fancy friends” and experiencing joy from special access
• 04:27–05:30 — Reflections on joys of priestly authority (especially blessing the poor)
• 05:30–06:47 — Transition to the Fifth Glorious Mystery: Mary’s queenship and how she uses her authority
• 06:48–07:55 — Quotation and reflection on Pope Pius XII’s encyclical on the Queenship of Mary
• 07:55–09:03 — Application: Encouragement to approach Mary in trial and triumph
• 09:03–10:26 — Praying a short decade of the Rosary

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Tone & Language

Fr. Mark-Mary’s tone is warm, down-to-earth, and inviting—blending relatable personal stories with spiritual reflection. His language is accessible, using everyday examples to bridge the gap between doctrine and daily life.

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Conclusion

Fr. Mark-Mary beautifully connects the concept of “fancy friends” with the reality of Mary as our greatest advocate and friend in Heaven. He invites listeners to rejoice in having such a powerful, loving Queen and to continually approach her in both need and gratitude, just as Christians have done through the ages.

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For further resources and the complete prayer plan, visit Ascension’s Rosary in a Year.

Transcript

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Foreign.

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Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal and this is the Rosary into

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youo podcast where through prayer and meditation,

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the rosary brings us deeper into relationship

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with Jesus and Mary and becomes a source of grace for the whole world.

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

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This is day 68.

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To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a year, visit ascensionpress.com rosary in a year or text on R I Y to 33777. You'll get an outline of how we're gonna preach 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. 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.

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And if you haven't already, please consider supporting [e-mail] support the Fifth Glorious Mystery is the coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and earth. Revelation, chapter 12, verses 1 through 5

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and a great sign appeared in heaven,

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a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars.

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She was with child, and she cried

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out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold a great 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. 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. She brought forth a male child, one

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who is to rule all the nations

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with a rod of iron.

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But her child was caught up to

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God and to his throne.

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You know, friends, at this point in my life, I don't have a lot of fancy friends. Some of my friends have fancy friends, but I don't really have fancy friends. By fancy friends I mean kind of people in high places. I have had, however, a couple of experiences of people kind of being being in charge of smaller little things or having particular access. I think back to when I was a young kid, probably 7 or 8. My parents were the chairman of our

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parish fiesta, so that was like the

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church carnival, and my parents were in charge of it. And because my parents were the chairman, I got to go down early while they're setting up and play all the little fair Games. My particular favorite was the one where you throw, like, a baseball at these, like, milk cartons set up on a little stand. I don't know that I was particularly good at it, but I loved the loud noise they made when I did hit them or later on, you know, having special access to the funnel cake. So, for me, you know, my parents being in charge of this little fiesta was, like, awesome. And I'd like to think one of the joys for them of doing it is that it brought joy to me, their son, and also their daughter, my. My older sister. But also, you know, that their work brought a whole lot of joy to a whole lot of other people. One other kind of cool, fancy friend I had was a friend of mine who was playing the part of Fantine.

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Fantine.

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I don't know how you actually say it in, like, the Off Broadway, the traveling performance of Les Mis. And so she got us tickets to come see the show, myself and a couple friends in Philadelphia. And at the end, she's like, hey, do you want to come up on stage? So, yeah. Awesome. So we got to go up on stage and see how it all worked and see all the different parts in my life. A particular type of friend in high place with particular authority or access is

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the fact that a lot of my

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best friends are priests. And so I rarely have to wait

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in line for confession.

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I'm often around a friend, give him a call or send him an email. Or I'm just around. I'm like, hey, bro, do you have time for a confession? And of course, myself, being a priest, I'm able to extend this both in the context of confession or also if I have some friends visiting, and they're

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like, hey, what time?

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We're trying to work our schedule. What time's Mass?

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Parishes in the area.

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I'm like, hey, you know what? You know, I'm a priest. We can celebrate Mass whenever you get here. And so whenever you do it, I'll just celebrate Mass in the friary chapel. There's many joys to the priesthood, but being able to make the sacraments, to be able to bless people in this way is a particular joy of mine. For the last two years or so, I've been what we call the local

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servant, which is the friar in charge

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of a friary, like the local superior.

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We use the word local servant.

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And as I talk to people, and they often ask me, like, hey, so

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what's your favorite part of being a local servant?

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One of my favorite parts, if not my favorite part, I can bless our neighbors. I can bless the poor who come to us kind of however I want because I don't have to ask anybody else permission. And so, for example, on weekdays, we serve meals to a number of day

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laborers and homeless who come to our

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door because I'm the boss. Like, you know, if we've got some extra dessert, desserts, we had, you know, some wedding cupcakes donated, left over from wedding. We have some Oreos. You know, I don't have to ask permission or track somebody down to see, okay, it's okay. If I give this, I can just do it. And it really is one of the great joys of my. One of the great uses of my authority that I can just bless people. I can look into whatever treasures we have and give them freely, because if you will, like, that is how I

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like to and desire to use my authority.

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So, my friends, today we are praying with and reflecting on the fifth glorious

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mystery, which is the coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth. My brothers and sisters, the good news

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is

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we now have the best of friends in the highest of places. Our Lady Our Mother reigns in heaven, and she is Queen of Heaven and Earth. And what is the nature of her queenship? What is she doing with this authority? With a particular access? She is pouring out graces. Our lady is again and again going to the storehouse of grace, the font of grace, which is the heart of God, the heart of her son, and she is lavishly and lovingly pouring out these graces upon us. Our Lady Our Queen is at work giving us new access to privileged places, particularly the privileged place of intimacy with her son.

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She is at work again.

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Our Lady Our Mother our Queen loves to bless us with her authority in her particular access as Queen of Heaven and Earth.

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I'm going to go to the encyclical

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letter of Pope Pius XII proclaiming the queenship of Mary. This was in 1954. And this is the opening paragraphs. From the earliest ages of the Catholic Church, a Christian people, whether in time of triumph or more especially in time of crisis, has addressed prayers of petition and hymns of praise and veneration to the Queen of Heaven. So what Pope Pius XII here is opening with, which is really important, is

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this just reminder that from the very beginning to the earliest ages, when we were in times of trial, we brought

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petitions to our Lee asking for her help as Queen of Heaven.

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When we were times of triumph, we

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brought to her praise and veneration. Okay, so it goes on to say, and this is really beautiful, and never has that Hope wavered, which they placed in the mother of the divine King, Jesus Christ. Nor has that faith ever failed, by which we are taught that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God. And here's the part that I really want to emphasize, that Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, reigns with a mother's solicitude over the entire world, just as she is crowned in heavenly blessedness with the glory of a queen. My brothers and sisters, our friend in high places, in the highest of places. The queen is our mother, and she reigns with a mother's solicitude. And so, as Christians have done from the earliest of ages, let's go ahead and look in our own life. Are we in a time of trial, time of triumph? A little bit of both. Let us come to Our Lady. Let us come to our Queen. In those areas where we need help. Let us bring our petitions with. To total confidence and hope. Where we have places of triumph and joy. Let us share these with joy and veneration. And my brothers and sisters, let us rejoice in the glorious news that our Lady, Queen of heaven and earth, loves us and serves us and reigns with a mother's solicitude. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 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 deliver us from evil. Amen. 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. 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. Amen. 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. Amen. 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. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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All right, brothers and sisters, thanks for joining me. Praying with me again today.

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I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. All right, Poco Poko, friends.