Hi, I'm Father Mark Mary with Franciscan Friars of the renewal, 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 and becomes a source of grace for the whole world. The Rosary in the Year is brought to by Ascension. This is day 244.

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.

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 this 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. No matter what app you're listening in, remember to tap,

follow, or subscribe for your daily notifications. Hey, everybody, welcome back to day 244. Today, we've hit another, if you will, threshold.

We finished up our time of having the focused two decades of prayer. And today we're going to move to three decades.

And we'll pray the first three sorrowful mysteries, the agony in the

garden, the scourging at the pillar, and the crowning with thorns. Now again, the worldview

behind building up the decades is it's twofold. It's at the service of just being able to be a little bit slower and go deeper,

but also it's a response to those who maybe struggle to pay attention, those who want to, if you will,

strengthen or need to strengthen their concentration muscle, which is part of the foundation of this extended

meditative prayer that we are doing and praying the rosary. I do think, again, as I mentioned,

very early on, for a lot of folks praying five decades at a time, it's just really difficult,

but I do believe that we can build up the muscle. And so we are intentionally at this point, backing up as far as what I am saying to you,

kind of the input of new information at the service of you kind of putting into practice and

bringing to prayer what you have already received. So there's going to be again kind of less

from me, less guidance from me, less teaching or reflections from me, confident that you have

what you need at your disposal. And then we're just going to continue this journey of praying together

and praying up the decades, confident that this is transformative for us, salvific for us,

and a source of grace for the whole world.

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