Day 66: Wait and Pray

0:00Pym, Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars with Renoul, and this is the Rosary in the Year podcast, where through prayer and meditation, the Rosary brings us deeper into relationship with Jesus and Mary. It becomes a source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in the Year is brought to you by Ascension. This is day 66. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in the Year, visit ascensionpress.com-4-rosary in a year, or text R-I-Y to 3-3-777. You'll get an outline of how we're going to preach month and it's a great way to track a progress. The best place to listen to podcasts in the Ascension app, their 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 from Scripture, same reflections, and beautiful full-page images of the sacred art will be reflecting on. The third glorious mystery is the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

1:04Acts chapter 2, verses 1-13. When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting, and they appeared to them tongues as a fire, distributed and resting on each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem, Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven, and at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered because each one heard them speaking in his own language, and there were maids and wandered saying, are not all these who were speaking gaolanes, and how is it that we hear each of us in his own native language? Parthians and maids and alamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, and Cappadocia, Pontus in Asia, Fridia, and Pamphilia, Egypt, and the parts of Libya belong to Cyrene, and visitors

2:10from Rome, both Jews and proselytites, Creans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God, and all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, what does this mean? But others mocking said, they are filled with new wine. Honestly, I felt like I needed a pentacost to get all those names right, not only just speak their language, just the same right. I think I did okay. I think I did okay. That was one take. One take wonder over here. Hopefully, I did okay on some of those names. Anyway, one of the gifts of being a friar is that when you answer, you have classmates and your classmates become your friends, become your brothers, and eventually they become your heroes. One of these guys, one of these brothers in my life, is Father Innocence, and I'm going to share a story that he shares often publicly, and it's kind of like a story of his second conversion. He answered the friars, and for the first few years, he was just a total champ, like

3:13a total super friar. He talks about like, yeah, I made it look good. I was praying, and I was generous, and I was working with the poor, and I was doing all of the things. And still when he was early on his friars, he was just beginning his 30-year vow, so about four and a half years in, he was having some back pain, so he ended up having to go in for what they call a routine back surgery. It's like the bread and butter of back surgeries. As a young man, he goes in the surgery, and he starts to come out of the anesthesia in the hospital room. He notices the doctors and the nurses starting to visit with an increasing frequency, and at first, they're not really communicating what's happening. And eventually, the doctor comes in and says, Father Innocent, we don't know what happened. As of right now, you don't have movement or feeling in the lower half of your body, and you should. So, Father, it looks like at this moment, you're paralyzed from the waist down.

4:14The worst case scenario is we don't know if movement and the feeling is going to come back again in the lower half of your body. And of course, this is shocking to the young Father Innocent. A lot happens in his mother's already in town because of the surgery, but eventually it gets towards the end of visiting hours. And he's there all alone in the hospital room. You know, it's totally dark and totally silent, except for the movements of light and beeps from the medical devices. And here's this young man who'd excelled in really everything in his life, including being a friar, like a young super friar. He's paralyzed from the waist down. He has no answers. He has no way to do anything to try and solve the problem. And he's alone without his brothers, without his family, without the tabernacle.

5:17He doesn't even have his habit. And he shares that he was in this moment like absolutely and totally poor. And so he just cried out from this place of poverty to the Lord. In my brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit came. The Holy Spirit descended upon him. And Jesus came to him. And my brothers and sisters in that little lonely dark hospital room, something happened. And this young man, Father Innocent, was changed forever. He experienced unconditional love and a radical and new freedom because he knew he was loved unconditionally and didn't have to perform and achieve and earn anymore. Eventually over a very, very slow and long process, over nine months, he would receive

6:20feeling back in his toes and then his feet and his legs. And eventually through extended periods of physical therapy, he would learn how to walk again. And at this point, he's kind of a fully functioning, normal friar, but he lives different. He does all of the things and he's still a super friar, but he's not doing it from this place of poverty and need and insecurity, but he's doing it from a place of freedom. He's living as a son who knows he's loved. And it's really powerful and beautiful to see him live this way. But also what's a profound grace from this moment is the way in which he prays and the ways in which he teaches other people to pray. Father Innocent has that experience of being totally in need and totally important praying and God coming and answering the prayer and that being the answer. And so when he needs something or when people come to him and bring to him their poverty and their need, that experience of like the thing I need the most, I can't give myself I need God with radical faith and confidence and hope he says pray.

7:26My brothers and sisters, the day of Pentecost after the Lord's ascension, the disciples are gathered with our lady in the upper room and they're in a place of real dependence and real poverty. That which they need the most, they can't give themselves. They need God, they need the gift of the Holy Spirit and they can't earn it and they can't manufacture it and they can't make it happen. Jesus says to them, I will send to my father and I will send the promise of the father, but like wait and pray. And so for about those nine days after the Lord's ascension, I just imagine our lady being with them and them feeling all of the things that we feel when we're told you just got to pray, you got to ask God the discouragement, the impatience, perhaps the distrust, the frustration and I just imagine our lady like going to them and calling to mind and reminding them of what she experienced at the Annunciation as she, as the birth of the Savior was foretold and she says to the individual, how can this be because I don't know man?

8:30And the angel says to her, like Mary, the Holy Spirit will come, you will overshadow you because nothing will be impossible for God. So how many times our lady who experienced this and knew it to be true, like father innocent, who experienced it and knows it to be true, said to them like, pray, nothing will be impossible for God. The Holy Spirit will come and my brothers and sisters, what did they do? They waited and they prayed and what happened? The Holy Spirit came and they were transformed. Their hearts were set on fire and they went forth with a new boldness and a new power and a new confidence to proclaim the gospel. My brothers and sisters, again and again and again, we experience in our lives this poverty, this need, we might experience a variety of pains and sufferings and we're told of the good news of God.

9:31We're told he's a good father and we might say like, how can this be because they don't have my health because I don't have the vocation I'm looking for. How can this be? How can this be? And with our lady, like God says, like, wait and pray, the Holy Spirit will come, the promise of the Father will come. And my brothers and sisters, I deeply believe and have seen again and again and again, we see it in the life of our lady, we see it in the life of our father innocent. I've experienced it in my own life. When Jesus says the Holy Spirit will come, I will send the promise of the Father. He means it. We have a God who keeps His promises. Wait and pray and ask our lady's prayers, ask her to encourage you. Nothing will be impossible for God. The Holy Spirit will come. And so we bring our own hearts, our own needs, our families and we bring our church and we bring our world. We need more of the Holy Spirit. Come Lord. Come Holy Spirit. My brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit will come with this confidence and hope.

10:32Let us pray in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Our Father who art in heaven, howl would 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 trust pass 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 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 thee,

11:33blessed 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, and the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. All right, friends, thanks for joining me and praying with me again today. I look forward to continuing this journey with you again tomorrow. All right, poco a poco. God bless you all.