We exist in the infinite embrace of God’s mercy. In mercy, we all were created. In mercy, we all live. In mercy, we all have the hope of eternal life.
The lavish mercy of God pours over us in every sunrise and sunset, in every noon and midnight. With every breath, we draw on mercy. With every thought, we capture its spirit and turn it to our hope. The gift of such divine power in us calls us to lavish mercy with our own lives, to be agents of mercy in all things.
This journal is offered as an act of thanksgiving and celebration for that lavish mercy. It is a gathering of reflections and prayers which sift through our ordinary experience to seek the breath-giving grace of God awaiting us there.
My name is Renee Yann. I am a Sister of Mercy. I love to chase God through the bright blessing of words. I love to discover words in the dark blessing of silence. It is a joy to share with you the humble fruit of those mutual blessings.
Our entire theological tradition is expressed in terms of Mercy, which I define as the willingness to enter into the chaos of others. James F. Keenan, S.J.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 105:2-7, a hymn to God’s omnipotent fidelity. The same hymn, with minor variations, appears in the First Book of Chronicles where it is attributed to David after the Ark of the Covenant, which had been lost during battle, was brought home to the tabernacle.
Psalm 105 is also a companion piece to Psalm 106, the first recounting God’s wondrous mercies; the second lamenting Israel’s ungrateful response.
Our passage today is really a call to remember God’s goodness to us and to our communities.
Look to the LORD who is Strength; seek to serve God constantly. Remember the wondrous deeds God has wrought, the signs, and the judgments God has spoken.
The second line here is very important. If we do remember, we will “seek to serve”, to respond by being at one (obedient) to God’s hope for us.
As we pray today, we might want to take a walk down memory lane with God, noticing all the blessings of our lives. We might pay particular attention to the things we once resisted which eventually proved to be disguised benedictions.
Our psalm response today reminds us that God is in everything, even those dark places where God waits to lead us through. We pray for the spiritual insight to look for God in all things.
Poetry:The light shouts in your tree-top, and the face – Rainer Maria Rilke
The light shouts in your tree-top, and the face
of all things becomes radiant and vain;
only at dusk do they find you again.
The twilight hour, the tenderness of space,
lays on a thousand heads a thousand hands,
and strangeness grows devout where they have lain.
With this gentlest of gestures you would hold
the world, thus only and not otherwise.
You lean from out its skies to capture earth,
and feel it underneath your mantle’s folds.
You have so mild a way of being.
They
who name you loudly when they come to pray
forget your nearness. From your hands that tower
above us, mountainously, lo, there soars,
to give the law whereby our senses live,
dark-browed, your wordless power.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 115. The first verse, not included in today’s passage, is perhaps the most familiar:
Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name give glory because of your mercy and faithfulness.
This verse sets the tone for the whole psalm by establishing that it is only in humility that we will experience God’s faithful mercy.
The psalm sections offered today show how hard it is to keep humble attention on God in a world full of idols. While the psalmist mocked these idolatrous gods and their worshippers, his descriptions indicate the significant space they occupy in his own imagination.
There are lots of distracting “gods” in our world too. As a matter of fact, it is sometimes difficult to find the real God because our culture cloaks God in its own distorting devices.
For example, we encounter ideologies which promote a “god” who:
loves America more than other nations
loves white people more than black and brown people
loves war as long as we are the victors
loves my prosperity over other people’s justice
tolerates, or even blesses, violence for the sake of superiority
isolates, stereotypes, and discriminates over who deserves blessings
Some of these idolatries work to convince us that we are more important to God if we are white, rich, male, heterosexual, healthy, armed, not too old, and American – because these deifications paint their “god” with those strokes.
The more we match up with this “god” – the molten image of a greedy, elitist, militaristic culture – the more we tend to take glory to ourselves. And the more others might legitimately question, “Where is their God?”.
This becomes all the more disorienting when influencers who benefit from such misguided idolatry and fundamentalism use them to promote themselves and their personal and political agendas.
Psalm 115 says, “Stop that!”.
Our Gospel shows us what God is really like — Jesus, who:
sought out those suffering
loved the poor and abandoned
was moved with pity for others’ pain
taught, proclaimed and healed in the name of God’s Mercy
Living in the light of this merciful God both humbles and exalts us so that we may wholeheartedly proclaim by our lives:
Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name give glory because of your mercy and faithfulness.
Non nobis, Domine, non nobis ; sed nomini tuo da gloriam, super misericordia tua et veritate tua.
Poetry: Non Nobis Domine! – Rudyard Kipling (Written for “The Pageant of Parliament,” 1934)
NON nobis Domine!—
Not unto us, O Lord!
The Praise or Glory be
Of any deed or word;
For in Thy Judgment lies
To crown or bring to nought
All knowledge or device
That Man has reached or wrought.
And we confess our blame—
How all too high we hold
That noise which men call Fame,
That dross which men call Gold.
For these we undergo
Our hot and godless days,
But in our hearts we know
Not unto us the Praise.
O Power by Whom we live—
Creator, Judge, and Friend,
Upholdingly forgive
Nor fail us at the end:
But grant us well to see
In all our piteous ways—
Non nobis Domine!—
Not unto us the Praise
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we again pray with Psalm 145 – different verses. The great tenderness in today’s other readings is reflected in the choice of these particular psalm lines.
Our first reading is God’s tender love song to Israel spoken through the prophet Hosea. Our Gospel recounts several acts of tenderness as Jesus ministers to the suffering people he meets.
Psalm 145 reminds us that if we look back over our lives, and even farther back over our ancestors’ lives, we too will discover God’s continual love and mercy to us.
Generation after generation praises your works and proclaims your might. They speak of the splendor of your glorious majesty and tell of your wondrous works.
Many ancestral blessings have been passed on to us – in skills, attitudes, physical strengths – but most importantly, in faith. We probably believe because someone before us taught us how.
There is no greater gift we can give to our children, and to all our beloveds, than to encourage their faith. Let’s take that to heart today as we pray. And let’s thank God for our own story and heritage of faith we have been given.
Poetry: Faith is the Pierless Bridge by Emily Dickinson, who appeared as more a dismissive critic of faith than a proponent. Yet, like many of us who bother to talk about a particular topic, she proved it to be more important to her than she professed.
Faith — is the Pierless Bridge
Supporting what We see
Unto the Scene that We do not —
Too slender for the eye
It bears the Soul as bold
As it were rocked in Steel
With Arms of Steel at either side —
It joins — behind the Veil
To what, could We presume
The Bridge would cease to be
To Our far, vacillating Feet
A first Necessity.
From 2017: Today, in Mercy, we ask God to bless our country and all its people – to give us the grace to live in justice, peace and mutuality; to give us the insight to elect decent leaders who will forge these values; to give us the courage to model these values among nations; to teach us to use our freedom humbly, responsibly and mercifully.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 145, a hymn psalm which is the last numerically to mention David in its origin.
The psalm is one of equilibrium and gratitude where the one praying is at peace within God’s generous fidelity. By observing nature’s magnificent permanence, the psalmist both praises God and assures himself that things will be alright in the world.
Let all your works give you thanks, O LORD, and let your faithful ones bless you. Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might.
Reading the psalm today, I thought of Robert Browning’s famous verses from his poetic drama Pippa Passes:
The year's at the spring
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearled;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn:
God's in his heaven—
All's right with the world!
— from Act I: Morning
The verse, though it has endured, was considered naïve when published, due to an undercurrent of civil unrest in England and the rest of Europe. Times were not as peachy as the poem pretended.
With only a superficial glance, one might tend to feel similarly about Psalm 145. Times were tough for the Israelites, as many of the Psalms make clear. These lamenting psalms often ask for deliverance, and all kinds of retribution on enemies.
Psalm 145, and some other hymns, do not. They convey a sense of contentment with the status quo. We might ask ourselves, “Did the same people compose both these kinds of songs? Did this literature, in fact, arise out of the same national experience?
I think these are perfect questions as we, in the United States, continue to celebrate Fourth of July weekend. As we pray for our country, and for the world of which we are part, contrapuntal feelings surely enter our prayer.
a deep love of country countered with as deep a concern for its civic health and morality
an appreciation for our foremothers and fathers balanced with an awareness of their failures and limitations
a pride in our history tinged with shame and regret for its sins
a desire to honor civil servants and leaders tested by a realistic concern about their values and agenda
a profound gratitude for our national blessings pained by the realization that not all Americans share equitably in them
As is often the case, praying the psalm offers some guidance for our questions. Our third verse in today’s responsorial selection recognizes where God’s faithful generosity wants to be focused. Despite any personal equanimity, there are those who are falling. There are among us those who are bowed down:
The LORD is faithful in all his words and holy in all his works. The LORD lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.
A nation – an earthly community – which sees and attends to those who are so burdened will be blessed by God with the same justice and balance that renders “all right in the heavens”.
Music: The Eyes of All Wait Upon Thee – Syracuse University Singers
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 85, a testament to hope for the future. Couldn’t we all use a dose of the right now?
Glancing through Twitter last night, I came across a tweet asking for prayers because the writer had “begun to lose hope in the future”. I thought of and prayed for that person this morning when I read Psalm 85, a song of unmitigated hope and trust.
Despite the destruction of the Temple and their exile into Babylonian captivity, the Israelites remained convinced that God had promised them a future of blessedness.
I will hear what God proclaims; the LORD–for he proclaims peace to his people. Near indeed is his salvation to those who fear him, glory dwelling in our land.
Trusting in God’s fidelity, they are freed to imagine and wait for that future’s slow and mysterious fulfillment. Note the future tense of the verbs in these verses:
Mercy and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven.
Early 16th C. depiction of the Four Daughters of God: Mercy, Truth, Justice, and Peace (Angel in the middle)
The Israelites trusted God’s desire and will for their good. They so strongly believed in a blessed future that they were able to access it even in the midst of a disappointing present.
By faith, we too enter the timelessness of God’s love, finding – even in life’s challenges – the path to joy and peace. The “shalls” in the above verse are achieved through our belief in, and action for them. This is the power of the covenant between God and us.
Our faithful lives invite:
God’s kiss of justice and peace
God’s springing forth in truth
God’s gaze of justice and mercy over Creation
God and we walk beside one another on the way to a sacred future where the journey is also the destination.
The LORD himself will give his benefits; our land shall yield its increase. Justice shall walk before him, and salvation, along the way of his steps.
May we be given the grace to believe that we already live within the wholeness of God. May our life be a hopeful and joyful witness to that wholeness.
Poetry: Grace – Wendell Berry
Even though written as an autumn poem, these verses fit today’s reflection. Wendell Berry’s thoughts grace evoke a sense of hope and patience.
The woods is shining this morning.
Red, gold and green, the leaves
lie on the ground, or fall,
or hang full of light in the air still.
Perfect in its rise and in its fall, it takes
the place it has been coming to forever.
It has not hastened here, or lagged.
See how surely it has sought itself,
its roots passing lordly through the earth.
See how without confusion it is
all that it is, and how flawless
its grace is. Running or walking, the way
is the same. Be still. Be still.
“He moves your bones, and the way is clear.”
Music: Mercy Like Rain, written by Rory Cooney, sung here by Alma deRojas
Let me taste your mercy like rain on my face;here in my life, show me your peace.Let us see with our own eyes your day breaking bright.Come, O Morning; come, O Light!What God has spoken I will declare:Peace to the people of God everywhere.God's saving presence is close at hand:glory as near as our land!Here faithful love and truth will embrace;here peace and justice will come face to face.God's truth shall water the earth like a spring,while justice will bend down and sing.God will keep the promise indeed;our land will yield the food that we need.Justice shall walk before you that day,clearing a path, preparing your way.Let me taste your mercy like rain on my face;here in my life, show me your peace.Let us see with our own eyes your day breaking bright.Come, O Morning; come, O Light!
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 117 which is the shortest of all the Psalms. But 117, also called the Laudate Dominum, still packs a huge spiritual punch.
The psalm is called a “doxology” which simply means it is a short prayer of praise, the type we often add at the end of longer prayers. We are very familiar with the following doxology:
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen
Psalm 117 follows the same pattern in that it has two complementary parts.
The first invites us to praise God: Praise the LORD, all you nations; glorify God, all you peoples!
The second tells us why God deserves our praise: For steadfast is God’s kindness for us, and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.
Notable about Psalm 117 is the fact that this Old Testament invitation to praise goes out “to ALL nations”. Scholars interpret this as pointing to the fulfillment, in Jesus, of God’s promise that Abraham would be the father in faith of many nations. Psalm 117 is a treasured and often repeated prayer throughout the Judea-Christian traditions.
Practicing this pattern of prayer can enrich our personal prayer life as well. I like to pray like this as soon as I wake each morning. Glancing out my window, I might say,
“I praise You in the sunrise, my Beautiful Creator. Thank you for the gift of my life.”
Beginning the day with our own “doxology” gives us a head start on living joyfully and gratefully in the Presence of God for our next circuit of the sun.
Poetry: Morning Poem – Mary Oliver
Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange
sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again
and fasten themselves to the high branches—
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands
of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails
for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it
the thorn
that is heavier than lead—
if it's all you can do
to keep on trudging—
there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted—
each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,
whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray
Music: Laudate Dominum – Mozart, sung by Barbara Hendricks
Previous Prayer on Today’s Readings June 30, 2016: Today, in Mercy, we pray in praise of God’s laws which hold the sun and moon in place, and make night and day turn softly into each other. We pray to love God’s law in our own hearts, respecting life in all its stages and expressions. May we see our own life as a marvelous manifestation of God’s divine balance, and may we so honor its risings and settings.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 19. The entire psalm opens with a familiar hymn to the Beauty of God’s Creation. and closes with a meditation on the beauty of God’s Law. Today’s verses focus on the psalm’s second half, lauding God’s flawless law.
In both cadence and meaning, Psalm 19 is a song of balance. It dances back and forth between the immutable elegance of God’s Law and the perfection it offers to those who pursue it.
The concept of “law” might not immediately engender spiritual enthusiasm in our hearts. In our modern culture, the word “law” has become removed from the biblical sense of “justice”.
In modern parlance, “law” is a set proclamations we may or may not agree with. The validity of this “law” depends on the morality of those who make it.
But law and justice in scripture are meant to be reflections of God’s perfection . They are the means to attaining right-balance in our lives, and in all Creation, according the God’s desire for us.
In fact, living a true biblical dimension of law and justice may require us, at times, to live outside a cultural sense of these words. This happens when we protest “unjust laws” – a phrase whose seeming contradiction shows us just how difficult living justly might be.
How do we stay sharply and accurately aware of those contradictions so that we may discern a life of true Godly justice and right-balance in a culture that has become confused and calloused?
Psalm 19 is a good guide. Trusting its advice, we will find the virtues that lead to joy and peace.
Any “law” which does not lead to these blessings needs to be examined in the light of this beautiful psalm.
Poetry: God’s Grandeur– In Gerard Manley Hopkins’s exquisite poem, we see the magnificence of nature juxtaposed with human fragility.
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
Music: More Precious Than Gold – Acappella
They are more precious than gold Sweeter than the honey They are more precious than gold And the honey comb
The laws of the Lord are perfect Reviving the soul, reviving the soul Reviving the soul
They are more precious than gold Sweeter than the honey They are more precious than gold And the honey comb
They make wise the simple They give joy to the heart Light to the eyes Enduring forever Righteous altogether They bring great reward
The laws of the Lord are perfect Reviving the soul, reviving the soul Reviving the soul
May the words of my mouth And the meditation of my heart Be pleasing in your sight O Lord my rock My rock and my redeemer O Lord, my rock and my redeemer
The laws of the Lord are perfect Reviving the soul, reviving the soul Reviving the soul They are more precious than gold Sweeter than the honey They are more precious than gold And the honey comb
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 50 which is set up like a court proceeding in which God is both prosecutor and judge of the Israelite community.
Hear, my people, and I will speak; Israel, I will testify against you; God, your God, am I.
Today’s section, one of two orations, explains God’s dissatisfaction with the display of sacrifices empty of any real commitment to God’s service. In other words, God tells the people that all their fiery and bloody rituals are fake and useless to him.
One might picture the high priests standing dumbfounded at this announcement.
What! I worked hard on this sacrifice… made sure it was perfect. All the bells and whistles! And You’re still not satisfied??? What do You want from me then?
It reminds me of a married couple. One cooks a beautiful meal for the other but the love between them has faded. As they eat, there is no caring conversation and no joy in each other. They finish perfunctorily in a fog of empty words. They retreat to their separate distractions, waiting to repeat the charade the next day.
In Psalm 50, God says he doesn’t want to be loved like that. So what does God want then?
Our reading from Amos today offers the thread of an answer which is woven through the rest of Psalm 50:
But if you would offer me burnt offerings, then let justice surge like water, and goodness like an unfailing stream.
God wants our sincere love expressed in goodness and actions for justice.
Just like that beautiful dinner, rituals have meaning only as celebrations of faithful and demonstrated love. Sounds like 1 Corinthians 13, doesn’t it?
The parallels to our own lives are obvious and don’t need my elucidation. Let’s just think about how God might answer us if we ask in prayer, “What is it that You really want from me?”.
Poetry: Rabindranath Tagore, from Gitanjali
I am only waiting for Love
to give myself up at last into his hands.
That is why it is so late
and why I have been guilty of such omissions.
They come with their laws and their codes to bind me fast;
but I evade them ever,
for I am only waiting for Love
to give myself up at last into his hands.
People blame me and call me heedless;
I doubt not they are right in their blame.
The market day is over
and work is all done for the busy.
Those who came to call me in vain
have gone back in anger.
I am only waiting for Love
to give myself up at last into his hands.
A Brief Prayer on Today’s Gospel from 2016 Today, in Mercy, we pray for all those tossed on a stormy sea, like Christ’s disciples. For all who are alone, in darkness or full of fear. There is no storm through which God cannot come to us. May we always trust that God is taking us to a new grace beyond the storm.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 5, the first one of several to mention “the Name of God” as a theme. The psalm, a morning prayer to be “accompanied by a flute”, is a mix of lament and exaltation – like many of our own morning prayers, no doubt.
At dawn I bring my plea expectantly before you. For you, O God, delight not in wickedness; the evil one does not remain with you; the arrogant may not stand in your sight.
Now, first off in the morning, we’re probably not going to talk to God about wickedness, evil, and arrogance unless we went to bed pretty upset the night before. The psalmist apparently has “slept on” his troubles without complete resolution.
We had a dear, wise Directress of Postulants who, on many an evening, patiently listened to our various vocational waverings. We were young. Just like the disciples in Matthew’s boat, we really weren’t as sure of our calls as we would like to have been. Sister Inez’s repeated advice soothed a lot of our growing pains, “Just give it to God and get a good night’s sleep. Things will be clearer in the morning.” And they always were.
As the psalmist prays this morning prayer, things clear as well. After a brief diatribe, the prayer realizes:
But I,through the abundance of your mercy, will enter into your house. I will bow down toward your holy sanctuary in awe of your greatness.
Psalm 5 beautifully complements today’s Gospel. Jesus is in the storm-tossed boat peacefully “sleeping on it”. The disciples, on the other hand, cannot just “give” their terror over to God. When they wake Jesus, terrified, he gently reprimands them, “O ye of little faith”.
Jesus wants them and us, to realizes what the psalmist realizes in verse 12:
All who trust in God will be glad and forever shout for joy. God protects them and their lives are a melody to God’s beloved Name
Poetry: A Hole in a Flute ~ Hafiz
I am a hole in a flute
that the Christ's breath moves through;
listen to this music.
I am the concert
from the mouth of every creature
singing with the myriad chorus.
I am a hole in a flute
that the Christ's breath moves through;
listen to this music.
Music: The Edge of Night by a group called “Siyotanka” which is actually the Lakota name for this type of flute.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, on this special feast, we pray with Psalm 34.
David sings. Sheep listens.
This psalm has the most delightful introduction:
Of David, when he feigned madness before the King, who drove him out and he went away.
The Psalm refers to a time when young David was fleeing from Saul who was jealous of David’s impending takeover as king. David seeks harbor with King Achish, but later realizes that was a mistake. Fearing the King, David pretends for be insane in order to be dismissed as harmless.
Serious as the situation is, picturing it makes me smile. Have you ever wanted to get away from someone who had hijacked you into a one-sided conversation? You might pretend you had an appointment, or medical necessity, or anything just to get away.
Liberation of Saint Peter from Prison by Pieter de Hooch
Peter, in our first reading, doesn’t need pretense to escape the wrathful imprisonment of King Herod. All he needs is the angel which God has sent him.
Thus, Psalm 34 is a most appropriate choice for the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. It is the first psalm in which an angel is mentioned and here, as in Acts, she is a rescuer.
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear the LORD, and delivers them. Taste and see how good the LORD is; blessed the one who takes refuge in God.
I’ll be honest, I neglect my angels. I believe in them. I trust them. But basically I forget about them unless I’m scared out of my mind about something. In those situations, I call out loudly to them to make sure their “encampment” around me is still intact!
I think it would be a lot better to get to know our angels, and let them get to know us. Inviting them to accompany us in prayer might be a good way to start. And, of course, remember that prayer so many of our parents taught us. We never grow too “mature” to whisper it at night. Maybe even Peter said something like it in that dark prison long ago.
Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God’s love commits me here, Ever this night be at my side to light, to guard, to rule, to guide. Amen
St. Peter And The Angel - Denise Levertov
Delivered out of raw continual pain,
smell of darkness, groans of those others
to whom he was chained--
unchained, and led
past the sleepers,
door after door silently opening--
out!
And along a long street's
majestic emptiness under the moon:
one hand on the angel's shoulder, one
feeling the air before him,
eyes open but fixed...
And not till he saw the angel had left him,
alone and free to resume
the ecstatic, dangerous, wearisome roads of
what he had still to do,
not till then did he recognize
this was no dream. More frightening
than arrest, than being chained to his warders:
he could hear his own footsteps suddenly.
Had the angel's feet
made any sound? He could not recall.
No one had missed him, no one was in pursuit.
He himself must be
the key, now, to the next door,
the next terrors of freedom and joy.
Music: Gloria in Excelcis Deo – J.S. Bach (I thought one of the angels’ greatest hits, first recorded over the hills of Bethlehem, might be appropriate today)
