The number one podcast in the world to begin off the brand new 12 months doesn’t belong to Joe Rogan.
It doesn’t belong to Alex Cooper, Mel Robbins, or anybody from the Kelce clan.
It belongs to Father Mark-Mary Ames of Ascension Press. Or, actually, as he instructed Fox Information Digital, it belongs to God.
In a time when Bible sales are seeing a sudden spike amid analysis that means individuals are unsubscribing from religiosity at massive, it comes as considerably of a shock that “The Rosary in a 12 months (with Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR)” climbed to #1 on Apple Podcasts to begin off the brand new 12 months — holding that spot for 3 consecutive days earlier than falling to a noteworthy #2 on January 4.
Its humble host is the director of communications and the director of Priestly Research of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal (CFR), whose major mission is the “wholehearted embracing of Jesus Christ and their Holy Father, St. Francis of Assisi.”
The “Habits for Holiness” creator sat down with Fox Information Digital at SEEK25 DC, a four-day occasion consisting of convention periods, world-class Catholic keynote audio system, music, mass and adoration for anybody looking for their pillars of prayer, fellowship, inspiration, and leisure. There, he defined all the pieces from what motivated him to reside a virtuous life, what the rosary is really meant to be, and the way he actually feels concerning the success of his podcast.
Podcast legend Joe Rogan’s ‘The Joe Rogan Expertise’ at the moment sits at #3 on Apple Podcast’s High Exhibits, simply behind Father Mark-Mary Ames’ ‘The Rosary in a 12 months,’ which fell to #2 on January 4th after three consecutive days of topping the chart.
Father Mark-Mary Ames, who was born and raised in Orange County, California in what he described as a “rich household,” mentioned he was impressed by Mom Teresa to surrender a lifetime of privilege for the service of others.
“I heard that there is a group of Franciscans in New York who’re hardcore and sleep on the bottom. And I regarded them up, and I learn our constitutions — that are what we are saying we’re about — and I’m like, ‘if that is true, that is all the pieces I am on the lookout for.’ So I used to be a really, very regular child, on a standard path. After which God simply kind of made this occur.”
“I am made to offer my life to the poorest of the poor,” he added. “The large, deep expertise of my life is what God’s completed in generosity. And so there’s nothing I’ve left behind or sacrificed that he hasn’t been repaid a hundred-fold. It is in new and deeper methods.”
Although it isn’t the work he’s most pleased with, the priest spoke to Fox Information Digital about being handed the baton from successful Ascension Press alum Father Mike Schmitz for his “Rosary in a 12 months” podcast, describing the rosary itself as “the nice treatment for our time.”
“There’s one thing specific that God wants to do through Mary that additionally continues now. So, it is attention-grabbing that even Mary’s the one who continues to return,” he mentioned. “I believe the primary factor is [that] there appears to be some kind of particular grace given by God to the Rosary the place he desires to do some particular work. And the rosary is the factor that unlocks it. It opens the door to grace.”
‘The Rosary in a 12 months’ podcast was #1 on Apple in all classes, forward of Joe Rogan, for 3 days to begin off 2025.
The rosary could be complicated and even intimidating for some — however the priest asserts it’s truly “good.”
“Praying the rosary… is like bodily remedy for the soul.”
“It took a whole bunch of years to be developed to get to what it’s, as an ideal prayer that has our approach of receiving and coming to God,” he mentioned. “But additionally, it is actually good for our humanity. We’re all over. It is actually onerous for us to focus and to pay attention and the human skill to focus within the concrete for an prolonged time frame is considerably of like, the muse on which prayer is constructed. It’s going to be actually onerous to listen to God, to return to God, if you cannot listen in any respect. And so I believe there’s part of praying the rosary, which is like bodily remedy for the soul. The content material works the focus muscle inside. It is actually atrophied.”
Whereas his podcast serves to interrupt down each of the Marian mysteries and the construction of this good prayer with palatability in thoughts, providing each seasoned meditators and newcomers alike an opportunity to know it in deeper methods, Father Mark-Mary revealed that the devotion of the rosary can truly be a personalised expertise — including to its perfection.
“[Praying the rosary] isn’t truly a commandment, however you do need to go to Mass on Sunday,” he mentioned, explaining the distinction between devotional and liturgical prayer. “And so throughout the devotional are good, good issues. Whether or not or not it’s factor for you, there’s truly some area so that you can make that call inside it. There’s way more area for personalization.”
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The rosary skilled went on to admit that even he can lose focus when praying it.
“1,000,000 %,” he admitted. “And that’s one thing that’s like…it shouldn’t be controversial to individuals or put them off. That is my very own journey as a result of I wish to do higher and develop deeper.”
That was the very motivation — or calling, as he described it — that compelled him to signal on to host “The Rosary in a 12 months.”
“I simply attempt to be devoted to what’s earlier than me. And if God desires to make this factor primary, superior. If he desires to do all types of superior, that is sort of for him.”
Regardless of its success to date, the well-known friar instructed Fox Information Digital there are “extra stunning” issues occurring on the planet the media would not shine a highlight on:
“There’s many, many individuals in my life who’re doing issues which might be way more stunning and way more shifting than having a podcast hit primary. Individuals simply do not find out about it,” he mentioned. “I am very grateful for the podcast, its recognition, and it is a supply of grace for individuals and serving to them pray. [But] it’s not the toughest factor I do. It isn’t probably the most honorable factor I do. And it is positively not probably the most heroic or kind of shifting factor that my brothers and neighbors do.”
Readers can be taught extra about these stunning issues here.
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