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When you pray, is your heart in it? The Church has an amazing tradition of powerful vocal prayers that transcend this world into Heaven. However, sometimes we can find ourselves mouthing the words without intention. While there are some prayers that have an objective power to transcend our reality, we should always aim to pray from our hearts, inviting the Lord into them as we do. Today, Fr. Mark-Mary explains how to pray from the heart. ❓ Have ideas for future videos ❓ Topics you want to hear about ❓ Questions you want answered ❓ Make sure to put #AskAscension in your comment 👍 — MORE FROM ASCENSION — 🔸Ascension’s main website: https://tinyurl.com/yzlms4hu 🔸Ascension Media: http...

Have you ever heard of arrow prayers? Arrow prayers are part of ancient Church teaching, and are still pretty popular in the Eastern Church. They’re short little prayers that we throw out to God, and are specific in engaging the present moment, or “piercing” it like an arrow. In a simple sense, they serve in bringing God into the little moments of our lives, and make our ordinary reality extraordinary through grace. Question is, why are they so powerful? Today, Fr. Mark-Mary explains the concept of arrow prayers, and gives practical examples of incorporating them into our everyday lives. ❓ Have ideas for future videos ❓ Topics you want to hear about ❓ Questions you want answered ❓ Make...

Food cannot be reduced to merely fuel, but we also can’t worship it. What’s the balance? Food is one of the gifts the Lord has given us in this life, and is meant to be pleasurable and enjoyable. Relationships are often cultivated around food, and it’s become a focal point in our society—not just for our bodily necessity of it, but for the joy it brings as well. But as we know, there are so many around us who don’t have the luxury of eating their favorite meals, and often don’t even know if they’ll have food to eat before they go to bed tonight. Today, Fr. Mark-Mary explains how we can have an appropriate relationship with food while still recognizing our brothers and sisters who don’t...

“...only they would have us remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do.” - Galatians 2:10 This verse from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians may be one of the most important verses when it comes to our care for the poor, but unfortunately it’s often forgotten. In this verse, God is not only instructing us how we as Christians should approach the poor, but is also revealing a part of his heart to us. Question is, how do we incorporate this verse into our lives? Today, Fr. Mark-Mary explains why all Christians must care for the poor. To contribute to Mary's Meals' goal of feeding 1,000 children, go to MarysMealsUSA.org/grow. Thank you! ❓ Have ideas for future videos ❓ Topics ...

Did you know there are different kinds of Scapulars? Most of us just think of the brown Carmelite Scapulars we wear around our necks, but religious orders have a history of wearing them as well—even the Dominican friars. Question is, why are they so important? Today, Fr. Mark-Mary and Fr. Gregory Pine explain how scapulars actually work. Ascension is proud to partner with authentically Catholic institutions and organizations committed to spreading the Gospel. Learn more about the sponsor of this video, Ave Maria University: https://tinyurl.com/yhbzmjsy ❓ Have ideas for future videos ❓ Topics you want to hear about ❓ Questions you want answered ❓ Make sure to put #AskAscension in your c...

Fr. Mark-Mary brings guest Joanna Griffin on camera to share her (first) birthing experience and how it made her look at Christ’s passion in a whole new light. And just like her son Benedict—who is alive because of her efforts—will never fully understand what she went through to bring him into this world, we’ll never fully understand what Christ gave in order to bring us into eternal life. Ascension is proud to partner with authentically Catholic institutions and organizations committed to spreading the Gospel. Learn more about the sponsor of this video, Ave Maria University: https://tinyurl.com/yhbzmjsy ❓ Have ideas for future videos ❓ Topics you want to hear about ❓ Questions you want...

As Christians, we often face people who question our religion—even God’s existence in general. One of the most common arguments is “how can an all-loving God allow such hate, evil, and crime in the world?” It’s a good question. Today, Fr. Mark-Mary and Fr. Gregory Pine tackle the “problem of evil” and how God remains good in spite of the suffering of this world. Ascension is proud to partner with authentically Catholic institutions and organizations committed to spreading the Gospel. Learn more about the sponsor of this video, Ave Maria University: https://tinyurl.com/yhbzmjsy ❓ Have ideas for future videos ❓ Topics you want to hear about ❓ Questions you want answered ❓ Make sure to pu...

We have a cause to celebrate. But we’re really bad at celebrating. Today, Fr. Mark-Mary teaches us how we can celebrate the gift of Christ more each day. Celebrating can be defined as “the work of receiving the gift”. Celebration is seen all throughout scripture, from the story of the Prodigal Son to the celebration of every Sabbath day. And it's in this celebration that we receive the gift of God’s mercy and grace. Fr. Mark-Mary explains why we’re not great at receiving the gift and how we can get better at it. Ascension is proud to partner with authentically Catholic institutions and organizations committed to spreading the Gospel. Learn more about the sponsor of this video, Ave Mari...

How often do you talk about Jesus in conversation? Do you avoid mentioning him around certain friends or family? Lent is a time of aligning our hearts back to the Lord in preparation for his Passion and sacrifice on the cross, but how are we going to do that if we won’t even say his name? Today, Fr. Mark-Mary encourages us to mention Jesus in at least one conversation each week during Lent, and explains why it’s so important. Love learning from Fr. Mark-Mary and the CFRs? Dig deep with his new book, Habits for Holiness: https://tinyurl.com/yhrxe8wz Ascension is proud to partner with authentically Catholic institutions and organizations committed to spreading the Gospel. Learn more about...

When it comes to Hell, we vaguely know 3 things: it’s a horrible place, there’s no escaping it, and no one wants to go there. But when it comes to answering why God created Hell in the first place, we seem to stumped. Today, Fr. Mark-Mary and Fr. Gregory Pine explain what Hell is and how it fits into God’s plan. Ascension is proud to partner with authentically Catholic institutions and organizations committed to spreading the Gospel. Learn more about the sponsor of this video, Ave Maria University: https://tinyurl.com/yaovotp5 ❓ Have ideas for future videos ❓ Topics you want to hear about ❓ Questions you want answered ❓ Make sure to put #AskAscension in your comment 👍 — MORE FROM ASC...

Fr. Mark-Mary and Fr. Gregory Pine reveal five discernment traps we can fall into, and how to avoid them. The five common vocational discernment traps we tend to fall into are catastrophism, angelism, sensationalism, objectivism, and vocationism (names courtesy of Fr. Gregory). How do we avoid them? By recognizing these things: 1) The Lord loves your vocation more than you do, and is constantly working toward this goal. All we have to do is respond generously to him. 2) Humans were created to know our vocation step-by-step, not all at once. God is working slowly in our lives, and patience is essential in following his plan. 3) God works in ordinary ways, and just because they’re ordina...

Fr. Mark-Mary shares 3 ways to be more intentional this Lent. These tips are also included in his new book, Habits for Holiness: Small Steps for Making Big Spiritual Progress (https://tinyurl.com/y86mol6t) What does it mean to be more intentional? Living intentionally is basically just living on purpose. In other words, it’s living every day according to your specific identity and vocation. We can live intentionally when we discover who we are, where we are headed, and how we are meant to get there. We are all sons and daughters of God, and we are all meant to strive towards eternal life in heaven, but how we get there is different for each person. We are all called to be formed in Chr...

Fr. Mark-Mary explains the biggest tragedy in our world today: lack of prayer. There are a lot of things happening in our society that should be alarming to us as Christians. Most of this is due to the fact that this world is not our calling, and that we are really meant for a life in Heaven. But when we’re looking at the things happening around us, the first thing that we should notice is the simple fact that faithful Christians aren’t praying. Prayer is where all practice of the faith must begin. If we don’t have a relationship with Jesus, and don’t know how to talk and listen to him in prayer, then all the other elements of the faith become lost. Sure, it’s important to pray the rosa...

Fr. Mark-Mary explains that true freedom comes from God—and it can't be taken away from you. We often think of freedom as time or situations that are free from external boundaries, such as having free-time on our day off work, or being free to speak our minds under the Constitution. But what you’ll see from the saints and Christ in scripture, is that freedom is something interior—something that can’t be taken away. As human beings created in the image and likeness of God, we all have free will. At our very core, we have interior freedom, allowing us to use whatever time we have to glorify the Lord. Once we recognize this interior freedom, we will start to settle into our identity as son...

Fr. Mark-Mary and Sr. Mariae Agnus Dei talk about letting love write your story. We all have a story. Each person is completely different from the next, and each has a story that is begging to be led by God. This story is made up of everything we are and everything we will become, and it calls us to the greater vocation of living a life aimed towards Christ. It may be hard to recognize this—especially in the midst of temptation and discouragement—but it’s true for all of us, no matter our background, baggage, or knowledge of Christ. So, what does letting love write our story look like? It doesn’t look that different at first, but over time works us into the greater plan of God, filled ...

Fr. Mark-Mary and Sr. Mariae Agnus Dei talk about how to let love deal with your “stuff”. We all have things we struggle with—it’s just a part of being human. But if we don’t let love into our struggles, they’ll never be healed. When we let love in, we find peace, healing, and hope in our trials. When we run to cover our struggles with anything else, all we’ll find is emptiness. So, how can we let love deal with our stuff? We have to start with faith. If you look at the miracles in the Gospels, every miracle is preceded by faith. God has us at all times, and is never without control. The first step in accepting his love for us is to trust that he is going to take care of us and our stru...