Day 66: Wait and Pray

Pym, 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.

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The third glorious mystery is the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

Acts 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

from 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

a 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.

The 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.

He 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

feeling 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.

My 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?

And 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.

We'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.

Let 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,

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, 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.