I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

And this is the Rosary in New 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 the Year is brought to you by Ascension.

This is Day 221. To download the prayer plan for Rosary in Year, is brought to you by Ascension. This is Day 221.

To download the prayer plan for Rosary in a Year, visit ascensionpress.com forward slash rosary in a year or text, R-I-Y to 33777-7. 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 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. And if you haven't already, please consider supporting us at ascensionpress.com forward slash support. Today we'll be praying with

the fifth joyful mystery, the finding of Jesus in the temple, and the first luminous mystery,

the baptism of Jesus at the Jordan. Today we will be praying two decades,

specifically practicing, developing the habit of focusing on the words of the prayers. And as a

reminder, this phase, it's called building up the decades. And so you might come to the end of

these two decades and realize it, it wasn't a stretch. Like you kind of, you're hungering for

more prayer. And that's a good thing. If that's the experience, certainly you can continue to pray.

But the idea, if you will, the pedagogical sort of world, be behind it is just understanding

that like extended concentration, meditation, contemplation on a natural level is a muscle

and it's a habit that we can grow and develop.

And so we're trying to, at the service of really kind of praying and focusing and paying attention,

we're starting slow and building up.

And so the two decades might feel like it goes pretty quick, but that's all right.

We're just continuing to grow and to build the muscle.

And slowly but surely, we'll add the amount of decades that we're praying.

So as we're praying the Hail Mary, you can focus on the opening words of the Hail Mary

drawn from Luke chapter 1 versus 28, right?

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