religionspiritualitychristianity

Day 74: Beloved of the Father

The Rosary in a Year (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames)·Mar 15, 2026·15:27

About this Episode

We know Jesus is the beloved of the Father, but today Fr. Mark-Mary tells us that we too should see ourselves as beloved through the grace of our Baptisms. As we pray lectio divina, we meditate on how we are not only beloved, but can become pleasing to the Father. Today’s focus is the mystery of the Baptism in the Jordan and we will be praying one decade of the Rosary.

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Transcript

Hey, I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Nule, and this is The Rosary in

Your 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.

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This is day 74.

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Today, we'll be doing our lexio divina with the first luminous mystery, which is the

baptism of Jesus, Matthew chapter 3, verses 13 through 17.

And our theme we'll be focusing on is begin as the beloved to begin with lexio.

When Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him, John would

have prevented him saying, I need to be baptized by you and you come to me.

But Jesus answered him, let it be so now for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all

righteousness.

Then he consented.

And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water and behold the heavens were opened

and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and a lighting on him and behold

a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.

Let's now engage the scripture here for our time of Meditatio.

We come in the context of reflecting on the baptism of Jesus as a luminous mystery, which

we've discussed as mysteries of light, mysteries that are revealing something of Jesus.

So the overall narrative, the luminous sort of arc here is revealing Jesus as the anointed

one, as the Messiah.

What else do we see?

We see a glimpse of the trinity, the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, and we hear the father.

And we're also given an introduction, like the veil is torn back a little bit, to the

nature of the relationship between father and son.

The father's voice saying, this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.

Continuing with our lexio, in this theme of begin as the beloved, we have heard the transition

where Jesus is moving from his hidden years in Nazareth to what will become his public

ministry.

And how does it begin, by revealing the true nature of who he is, he is the beloved.

He is the beloved in whom the father is pleased.

So often we're going to be coming back to this, like the grace, the good news is going

to come from our living as beloved.

What I'm going to offer for us in our ongoing meditation here is, like, how much do you desire

this?

Do you dare to desire to know, to experience yourself as beloved?

And I think there is a little distinction here, is that Jesus is the beloved son, with

whom the father is well pleased.

And as by our baptism, as we become children of God, we become beloved sons and daughters.

And that's just something a good father is going to feel towards their children.

They are beloved.

At the same time, like, we can sin, and we can choose to act in a way which is not pleasing

to the father.

And Jesus, particularly in his obedience, is always pleasing to the father.

In ourselves, like, we are always beloved, and the father always wants the best for us.

But at the same time, we're able to sin and to reject him.

And if we do reject him, it's not necessarily going to be pleased with us, right, as we

sin.

So it's just going to, like, sit here for a moment and we're going to just going to

revisit it again in a deeper level, just the father's voice.

It'll encourage you to continue to reflect on, like, the beauty of it, the beauty of

the love that the father has for the son.

But also, that this is what Jesus comes to reveal and to bring us into is his own relationship

with the father, so that we may be an experience, being beloved of the father, and also living

lives that are pleasing to the father.

Okay, let's go one more time and behold, a voice from heaven saying, this is going to

is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.

So now we're going to really transition to focusing on your own heart and your own desire

to hear the father say this, you are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter.

And Christianity in our Lord doesn't just invite us to a set of rules, a best way to live

life, to interact with one another.

At its height, Christianity brings us into this relationship.

It reveals to us that our God is father and a loving father and that we are beloved.

And so we want to begin here as being beloved and to build our lives upon this rock, our faith,

our hope, our confidence comes from knowing God is father and we are his beloved.

Therefore we can trust him and entrusting him and being obedient to him, we will also

be pleasing to him.

So the question like, do you believe this?

Do you believe that your beloved of God, beloved of the father?

Well, last time of Lexio before going into our Orazio, behold a voice from heaven saying,

this is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.

We will transition to our Orazio following the template, receive, respond, request, rejoice.

What is the good news that's been offered, the good news that we are here to receive?

What is father?

We notice the love between the father and the son.

This love doesn't win.

We have to know that throughout Jesus' life, even through his passion, he experiences it,

he builds upon this rock that he is beloved of the father.

We have here being offered to us, revealed again, like the rock in which to build our lives,

the source of our hope, our strength, our perseverance.

In all of the baptized, share in Jesus' own relationship with the father as beloved.

How do we respond?

What's the invitation?

We begin with praise.

We thank you, Jesus, for your baptism.

We thank you for revealing to us the true nature of the father, the true rock on which

to build our lives, that we can begin and build upon being beloved sons and daughters

of the best of fathers.

We thank you, Jesus, for inviting us into your own relationship and showing us the way

to be beloved and pleasing of the father.

For showing us the way where we can come to a place where we can hear and experience

ourselves, the father's voice saying, you are beloved, you know, what is our subjective

response here towards this gift, Jesus, help us, Jesus, to follow you with a greater

zeal, a greater desire, knowing that you are the way to the father.

Help us to build, Lord, with this is the foundation of our lives, to experience all things

in the context of knowing that God is God, that God is Father, that God is good and we

are his beloved.

Now we move to request, let us ask for the grace to continue to remain here and to believe

and to hope when life is most difficult.

We see how Jesus persevered in relationship and in obedience and being rooted in his identity

as beloved son of the father, through his passion, through his rejection, through his

condemnation, through his scourging, he still trusted the father.

So Jesus is like, we are just going to ask for the grace to be able to trust you and to

remain firm in this foundation of being beloved sons and daughters of the best of fathers.

His life unfolds, we can't do it by ourselves, but we have the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Come Holy Spirit in a light upon us, come Holy Spirit and fill us again with your supernatural

grace, your supernatural hope that we may stay rooted in a bide and persevere in this

good news when life is most difficult.

Now it's end with the rejoice and we thank you, again Lord, for your revelation.

We thank you for the gift of inviting us through baptism into your own relationship with

the Father.

We thank you for speaking to us.

We thank you for this moment of prayer.

We thank you for the peace that we have received, the grace that we have received.

And we'll conclude our Alexa Divina with our time of contemplation receiving deeply

of this grace as we pray a decade of the rosary 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 in too temptation but deliver us from evil, amen.