Day 99: Stay in Dialogue

Summary

Episode Summary: Day 99 – Stay in Dialogue

Podcast: The Rosary in a Year
Guest: Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR
Host: Ascension
Release Date: April 9, 2025

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Introduction

In Day 99 of The Rosary in a Year podcast, Fr. Mark-Mary Ames delves into the profound theme of maintaining dialogue with God amidst fear and adversity. This episode, titled "Stay in Dialogue," offers listeners a blend of spiritual reflection, personal anecdotes, and practical guidance to deepen their prayer life through the Rosary.

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Reflection on Jesus' Agony in the Garden

The core of the episode revolves around the first Sorrowful Mystery of the Rosary: The Agony in the Garden. Fr. Mark-Mary reads a passage from Saint Alphonsus Liguori’s Passion and Death of Jesus Christ, highlighting Jesus’ human experience of fear and anguish before His Passion.

Father Mark (00:06): "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."

Fr. Mark-Mary emphasizes Jesus' struggle with fear of death and suffering, yet His unwavering commitment to the Father's will. He shares poignant excerpts from Saint Alphonsus:

Father Innocent (01:25): "Behold our most loving Savior, having come to the garden of Gethsemane, did of his own accord make a beginning of his bitter passion by giving full liberty..."

Fr. Mark-Mary underscores the lesson of remaining in dialogue with God, using Jesus' example to encourage listeners to face their fears by trusting in the Divine.

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The Moab Desert Experience

Transitioning from theological reflection to personal experience, Fr. Mark-Mary shares an inspiring story from his time leading postulants—the initial phase of formation—for the Franciscan friars of the Renewal.

Father Innocent (02:24): "We have begun a tradition of taking the men in our first phase of formation called postulancy... on a 21-day backpacking trip to the Moab Desert."

He recounts the grueling conditions of the trip, particularly the extreme cold during November in Moab, and the daily spiritual practices undertaken despite the hardships.

Father Mark (03:24): "Of the morning, just out in the elements."

One of the most striking challenges discussed is rappelling—descending 250 feet down a mountainside. Fr. Mark-Mary highlights his personal struggle with heights and his steadfast commitment to lead by example.

Father Innocent (05:26): "He is always going to be the first one down when we're doing some sort of rappelling exercise."

This anecdote serves as a metaphor for confronting personal fears by placing trust in God, mirroring the episode’s central theme of staying in dialogue despite fears.

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Applying the Reflection to Personal Prayer Life

Drawing parallels between his experience in the desert and Jesus’ agony, Fr. Mark-Mary offers practical advice for listeners seeking to build a resilient prayer life:

1. Acknowledging Fear: Fr. Mark-Mary encourages listeners to recognize and admit their fears, whether it’s fear of saying yes to God or anxiety over life's uncertainties.

   Father Innocent (08:19): "We may be experiencing in our lives, particularly where we're afraid to say yes."

2. Entrusting to the Father: Emulating Jesus’ dialogue with the Father, believers are urged to bring their fears to God, trusting in His support and guidance.

   Father Mark (08:23): "Let us ask Jesus to teach us how to entrust it to the Father and hear Jesus himself, like, speak to you. Hey, hey, look at me. I've got you."

3. Maintaining Dialogue: The importance of continuous communication with God is emphasized as a means to overcome fear and remain steadfast in faith.

   Father Innocent (08:23): "Remaining in this dialogue, remaining with Jesus in our fear, but also learning from Jesus, like, how to keep going forward even though we experience fear."

Fr. Mark-Mary ties these practices back to the Rosary, illustrating how meditative prayer can reinforce trust in God and deepen the relationship with Jesus and Mary.

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Conclusion and Prayer

The episode culminates with a heartfelt call to action for listeners to incorporate these reflections into their daily lives. Fr. Mark-Mary leads the congregation in prayer, reinforcing the themes discussed and seeking God’s grace to remain in dialogue amidst challenges.

Father Innocent (12:40): "Thanks so much for joining me and praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow."

The concluding prayers—Our Father, multiple Hail Marys, and the Glory Be—serve as a practical application of the episode’s teachings, embodying the continuous dialogue with God that Fr. Mark-Mary advocates.

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Key Takeaways

• Embrace Fear with Faith: Acknowledge personal fears and confront them by trusting in God's unwavering support.

• Modeling Courage: Leaders and mentors can inspire others by openly facing their own fears, demonstrating the path of faith.

• Deepening Prayer Life: Utilize the Rosary as a tool for meditation and dialogue with God, fostering a stronger spiritual relationship.

• Continuous Dialogue: Maintain an ongoing conversation with God, especially during times of uncertainty and adversity, to cultivate resilience and faith.

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For More Resources:
To access the complete prayer plan and additional materials referenced in the episode, visit Ascension Press - Rosary in a Year.

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This episode of The Rosary in a Year eloquently intertwines scripture, personal experience, and practical spirituality to guide listeners in fostering a profound and resilient prayer life through the Rosary. Fr. Mark-Mary Ames’ insights offer a roadmap for navigating fear with faith, encouraging a deeper relationship with Jesus and Mary.

Transcript

[Father Mark]

Foreign.

[Father Innocent]

With Franciscan friars.

[Father Mark]

They're new and this is the Rosary.

[Father Innocent]

In 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.

[Father Mark]

To you by Ascension.

[Father Innocent]

This is day 99. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a year, visit ascensionpress.com forward/rosary in a year or text RIY to 33 777. 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 the podcast in the Ascension app. There are special features built just for this podcast and also recordings of the full Rosary. I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Rosary New Year Prayer Guide, a book published by Ascension that was designed to complement this podcast.

[Father Mark]

You'll find all the daily readings from.

[Father Innocent]

Scripture, Saint reflections and beautiful full page images of the sacred art we'll be reflecting on today. We will be meditating upon and praying with the first sorrowful mystery, the agony in the garden, enriched by a reading from Saint Alphonsus Liguori from his work the Passion and death of Jesus Christ.

[Father Mark]

And the emphasis of our reflection are going to be these words from the writing of Saint Al Take upon thee our fearfulness in order to give us thy courage. Now we'll have our reading from St. Alphonsus.

[Father Innocent]

Behold our most loving Savior, having come to the garden of Gethsemane, did of his own accord make a beginning of his bitter passion by giving full liberty.

[Father Mark]

To the passions of fear, of weariness.

[Father Innocent]

And of sorrow to come and afflict.

[Father Mark]

Him with all their torments.

[Father Innocent]

He began to fear and to be heavy, and to grow sorrowful and to be sad. He began then first to feel a great fear of death and of the sufferings he would soon have to endure. The reading continues. O most amiable Jesus, Thou wouldst take upon thee our fearfulness in order to give us Thy courage in suffering the trials of this life. O be Thou forever blessed for Thy great mercy and love. O may all our hearts love Thee as much as Thou desirest and as.

[Father Mark]

Much as Thou deservest.

[Father Innocent]

The end of the reading so we and by we I mean the Franciscan friars of the Renewal, have begun a tradition of taking the men in our first phase of formation called postulancy, the men themselves called postulants, on a 21 day backpacking trip to the Moab Desert around that area and the details and what we ask for this trip is for it to be intentionally very difficult and challenging on a variety of levels. They have a variety of options they offer, and we take the hardest one and make it, I believe, more difficult. For me personally, by a long shot. The biggest challenge was always the cold. The times I've done it, we've done it in November, like, so Moab in November. And we're intentionally. We're out in the middle of nowhere, and the first thing we do each morning is have mass and then we have a eucharistic holy hour. So you're just there, you're seated there, you're stationary there for the first hour and a half hour and 45 minutes.

[Father Mark]

Of the morning, just out in the elements.

[Father Innocent]

At the end of the holy hour, the priest, he consumes the host as we. We're not going to be back to the spot again. So we have our traveling mass kits and this is what we do every morning. I mean, one of these mornings, looking back at it, it was literally as.

[Father Mark]

Cold as six degrees.

[Father Innocent]

Like, dude, brutal. Like this, this California country club boy, like, I'm made for sunshine, like Newport beach, not the Moab desert when it's 6 degrees. But I learned and I grew for others. And for a lot of the guys, the biggest challenge is the variety of activities we do which involve heights. In particular, rappelling. Repelling is when you're rappel down like the side of a mountain, basically. And we're with trained guides who really, really are elite at their craft. They know exactly what they're doing. So we're in great hands. But for a lot of the guys, still, like, when you're being asked to step off, you know, hard surface a flat ground and start to descend 250ft down like the side of a mountain, it can, and reasonably so, stir up a lot of fear. Father Innocent is the postulant director, so that means the friar who's in charge of these guys. Father Innocent himself is not a fan of heights at all. He's gone on multiple of these trips, and he still doesn't like anything about rappelling, not even a little bit. But he has this commitment, a commitment which he keeps like very, very faithfully and he holds to very earnestly. His commitment is that he is always going to be the first one down when we're doing some sort of repelling exercise. He always faces his fear first to show the men the way. He experiences real fear, but he does it anyway because he's not going to.

[Father Mark]

Ask the guys to do anything that.

[Father Innocent]

He'S not willing to do first. And actually how he does it is as important probably as that he does it. He doesn't just man up and do it. He's quite vocal and quite honest and really, really humble the whole time. He's getting ready to take the big step off the side of the cliff to begin the descent. Like, he's talking to the guys. Hey, talk to me. Jacob, look at me. Jacob. Jacob, I can't hear you. Look at me. Jacob. Hey, hey, hey, look at me. And what he's doing, right, in a really beautiful way, is he's not focusing on the fear. He's not focusing on the heights. Instead, he is keeping focused on the one in whom he is placing his trust. He's keeping his focus, his eyes, his.

[Father Mark]

Dialogue on, and with the one in.

[Father Innocent]

Whom he is placing his trust. I think in a parallel, though obviously.

[Father Mark]

Much more profound way.

[Father Innocent]

This is a bit of the angle that Saint Alphonsus Liguori has for us.

[Father Mark]

As we reflect on Jesus and his.

[Father Innocent]

Agony in the garden today, Saint Alphonsus, he highlights the true fear that Jesus.

[Father Mark]

Experiences before his forthcoming agony.

[Father Innocent]

Jesus experiences real, deep human fear and anguish. And how does he move through this trial?

[Father Mark]

He stays focused and he stays in dialogue with his Father. Three times.

[Father Innocent]

Again and again, he returns to the Father. Now, Jesus knows that we will often experience fear before the Father's will for our lives, before the future, before the unknown.

[Father Mark]

Jesus has gone before us.

[Father Innocent]

He has known fear and human fear.

[Father Mark]

To the height and the depths of human capacity for this experience.

[Father Innocent]

But still he says yes. Still he says yes to the Father.

[Father Mark]

Jesus is not going to ask us to do anything. He doesn't ask us to do anything that he hasn't done as well. He also shows us the way how to stay faithful to the Father's will.

[Father Innocent]

Even though we experience fear, we stay.

[Father Mark]

Focused on the Father. We stay in dialogue with the Father.

[Father Innocent]

If we remain in this relationship, we.

[Father Mark]

Remain in relationship with God, with the Father.

[Father Innocent]

Fear, suffering, even death, they will never.

[Father Mark]

Have the last word.

[Father Innocent]

But the Father's power and his fidelity will always. Like in the Moab desert, right?

[Father Mark]

Like our hope in the instructors and the climbing gear.

[Father Innocent]

It was really, really confident.

[Father Mark]

But our hope in God, our hope in the Father is absolutely certain. So as we pray today, like, let us go ahead and acknowledge any fears.

[Father Innocent]

We may be experiencing in our lives, particularly where we're afraid to say yes.

[Father Mark]

To God, or we're struggling to trust that he can carry us through a struggle or a suffering for ourselves or a loved one. But also let us, like Jesus, bring This to the Father. Let us ask Jesus to teach us how to entrust it to the Father and hear Jesus himself, like, speak to you. Hey, hey, look at me. I've got you. I've got you. We're gonna get through this. Look at me. Trust me. I've got you. And now, my brothers and sisters, like just remaining in this dialogue, remaining with Jesus in our fear, but also learning from Jesus, like, how to keep going forward even though we experience fear, how to stay in relationship and dialogue with the Father even though we experience fear. And now with Mary. Let us pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

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.

[Postulants]

Amen.

[Father Mark]

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right.

[Father Innocent]

Thanks so much for joining me and.

[Father Mark]

Praying with me today. I look forward to continuing this journey. Journey with you again tomorrow.

[Father Innocent]

Poco Poco. Friends, God bless y'all.