Embracing the Love of the Father

Megan Cottam reviews The Father: 30 Meditations to Draw You into the Heart of God by Fr. Mark-Mary Ames, CFR.

In the resurrected joy of the Easter season, you may be asking yourself, now what? For good or bad, you’ve completed your Lenten disciplines, walked the road from Jerusalem to Calvary, and now stand with peace and joy before the empty tomb. How can we celebrate fully without simply moving on to the next season? How can we even begin to grasp this gift from God?

In a word, we can abide. Fr Mark-Mary Ames, in his work, The Father: 30 Meditations to Draw You into the Heart of God, invites us to abide in the complete and dynamic goodness of our Father. A Franciscan Friar of the Renewal (CFR) by vocation, his tender storytelling, deep prayerfulness, and strong scriptural connections make this book a practical and powerful retreat experience.

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Using accessible storytelling, from trivial and joyful anecdotes to intense and sorrowful life experiences, Fr Mark-Mary helps his readers take the head knowledge of God’s love and prayerfully move towards receiving and accepting that Truth in their hearts. He insists on the desire of God the Father to delight in his children, care for them and call them to greatness. Using a diversity of community and family life to tell his stories, it is fairly easy to resonate with these narratives as they seek to deepen our collective vision of the Father.

Father Mark-Mary tells us that “the greatest joy of God the Father is to be my father, your father, to be our father” while also challenging us to “cry out to God the Father, call him Father, and allow him to be Father to us” (24). In between the lines of this retreat, he repeatedly cracks the barriers we have created that hold God at a distance in our lives.

The format of the retreat is busy-mom-friendly, with no one day lasting more than a few pages. There is a personal narrative, followed by a scriptural comparison, reflective analysis, and final prayer. There is plenty of space to journal and reflect on your own after each day. The only challenge is convincing yourself not to skip ahead and rush through the experience! I found myself eager to spend these few moments being affirmed in the Father’s love for me, while also reflecting on how I can model that love for my own children on each particular day. As the day progressed, I would often return to the prayers and repeat their affirmations throughout the day.

The sincerity of Fr. Mark-Mary Ames is best captured in his concluding prayer, which ends:

May we not go about this life for even one moment alone or in doubt, but may we always remain rooted in the truth that you are our Father, and you are the best of Fathers. Amen.

The deep pastoral care and passion with which this Franciscan guides his readers is captivating, authentic, and compelling.

Begin your 30-day journey by finding this work at Ascension Press, ordering from Amazon.com, or asking for it at your local Catholic bookseller.

May God bless your journey and reveal to you His true delight in you this Easter season.

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