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 146, a lilting song of praise, remembrance, hope, trust, gratitude, and joy.
Praying with this inclusive translation, I let my life story unfold in the Presence of the Beloved, turning each petal over and over in the Light of God’s incomprehensible grace and mercy. No words … just the grateful turning. And I listened…listened to the silence.
Psalm 146
Alleluia
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.
Happy are they who look to God for their help!
For their hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them;
who keeps promises for ever;
who gives justice when we are oppressed,
food when we hunger
freedom when we are entrapped.
The Lord breaks through our blindness
The Lord lifts us up wthe we have been bowed.
and loves our desire for good.
I remember how the Lord cares for us
when we are brokenhearted,
but frustrates the way of the faithless.
I know the Lord shall reign for ever.
Alleluia!
Poetry: “I Happened To Be Standing” by Mary Oliver
I don’t know where prayers go, or what they do. Do cats pray, while they sleep half-asleep in the sun? Does the opossum pray as it crosses the street? The sunflowers? The old black oak growing older every year? I know I can walk through the world, along the shore or under the trees, with my mind filled with things of little importance, in full self-attendance. A condition I can’t really call being alive. Is a prayer a gift, or a petition, or does it matter? The sunflowers blaze, maybe that’s their way. Maybe the cats are sound asleep. Maybe not. While I was thinking this I happened to be standing just outside my door, with my notebook open, which is the way I begin every morning. Then a wren in the privet began to sing. He was positively drenched in enthusiasm, I don’t know why. And yet, why not. I wouldn’t pursuade you from whatever you believe or whatever you don’t. That’s your business. But I thought, of the wren’s singing, what could this be if it isn’t a prayer? So I just listened, my pen in the air.
Music: Praise You – Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir
Lord I come to you today,
With a simple prayer to pray.
In everything I do,
Let my life O Lord praise you.
Praise you, praise you, praise you
Let my life, praise you
Praise you, praise you, praise you
Let my life, O lord praise you
Lord you formed me out of clay,
And for your glory I was made.
Use this vessel as you choose.
Let my life O Lord praise you
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 98, a prayer filled with hints of joyful thanksgiving and exuberant music.
At first reading, the psalm is a surprising companion to our other readings.
In the passage to the Corinthians, Paul doesn’t sound like he’s singing. He cites the struggles a committed disciple will face in order to spread the Gospel:
We cause no one to stumble in anything, in order that no fault may be found with our ministry; on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves as ministers of God, through much endurance –
2 Corinthians 6:3-4
He then offers quite a catalog of endured tests.
Jesus isn’t singing either in our reading from Mark. Instead, he enumerates the list of trials to be endured, if necessary, to live a radical commitment to the Gospel – even including lost eyes and teeth, multiple slaps, indentured clothing and service, and self-effacing generosity.
Feel like singing yet?
But here’s the thing. Praying with these passages allows us to break through their surface to understand their heart, as our Alleluia Verse explains:
A lamp to my feet is your word, a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105
Jesus and Paul remind us that all our experiences, good and bad, are transformed in the light of the Word. That transformation calls us to respond to our lives from a well of radical faith which contradicts the deceits and interpretations of the world.
And if we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us? What decisions and partings will it demand? To answer this question we shall have to go to him, for only he knows the answer. Only Jesus Christ, who bids us follow him, knows the journey’s end. But we do know that it will be a road of boundless mercy. Discipleship means joy.
Deitrich Bonhoeffer
Deep faith allows us to see things, such as the listed trials, from a “new” perspective.
It is when we get to that place of freedom in our spiritual lives that we can truly “sing a new song unto the Lord”!
Poetry: Unconditional by Jennifer Paine Welwood
Willing to experience aloneness, I discover connection everywhere; Turning to face my fear, I meet the warrior who lives within; Opening to my loss, I gain the embrace of the universe; Surrendering into emptiness, I find fullness without end. Each condition I flee from pursues me, Each condition I welcome transforms me And becomes itself transformed Into its radiant jewel-like essence. I bow to the one who has made it so, Who has crafted this Master Game; To play it is purest delight - To honor its form, true devotion.
Music: I Want to Sing a New Song – BJ Putnam and the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 92, the only psalm in the Hebrew Bible assigned to a particular day – Shabbat. Combined with our readings, especially Ezekiel, it invites us to heartfelt prayer.
Shabbat (שַׁבָּת; related to Hebrew verb “cease, rest”) is the seventh day of the Jewish week and is the day of rest and abstention from work as commanded by God. Shabbat involves two interrelated commandments: to remember (zachor) and to observe (shamor).
from jewishvirtuallibrary.org
Psalm 92 captures the spirit we hope for in all our Sundays- peace, reflective gratitude, patient hope, recognized blessing. It is a time to remember God’s goodness to us and to reflect on God’s presence.
But, as you may know, I write these reflections a day ahead. And my Saturday morning was anything but “Shabbatish”! I stayed up too late last night, slept too late this morning, and had to handle an early grocery order. To top it all off, a glass exploded in my housemate’s face as she emptied the dishwasher! (She’s fine, but it was like lightening hit our kitchen.)
It all left me a little distracted!
I tell you this to say that – yes – prayer comes begrudgingly when we don’t make the space for it.
But when we do take a breath and quiet ourselves, it can be amazingly generous.
Over time, the seeds of a consistently prayerful life will bear fruit even under challenging conditions. As Jesus tells us today:
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.
Our #92 psalmist prays that kind of a prayer today. Here’s the way I read it with my heart:
It is good to give thanks to you LORD, to sing praise to your name, Beloved, To proclaim your kindness at daybreak, and even later if I miss its rising! To know your faithfulness even in my distractions.
You let my prayer bear fruit even in the shade of time and its pressures, my faith to be vigorous and sturdy. I sing of your goodness,LORD, You, my Steady Love who is always faithful.
Poetry: The Spirit’s Whispers by Colten Biro, S.J.
If only my words were poised, precise, perfect ballerinas. If only they could pirouette on a point,
Holding a pose, arresting rapt attention, Meaning twirling out past paradox of The Ineffable, convincing the very orbit of the Son to stop and listen, to nothing more significant—than me.
If only my words were quick, sharp, exact, halting in the air for emphasis and recognition. All of which calm, careful, and controlled. All of which holding the attention of the Heavens, interrupting an unceasing song of seraphim and cherubim.
If only my words were anything, but garbled, goofy, grating, and less akin to rodeo clowns than en pointe figurines. But they are bumbling and boisterous, dancing dunces, threading a thin, thimble-like thought that the gait of my racing heart could avoid running into either lines of bull—or truth too true. Which means my words, in effect, avoid bearing my very heart, directly to You.
If only the words, with a gentle extension and a faint flourish, could entwine: my desires—Your Will. my loneliness—Your Presence. my pain—the Resurrection. my disquiet—Your Peace.
Completing a grand jete, coupling cacophonous concepts midair—and mid-heart.
And yet, my words don’t dance or sing at all.
So, I don’t speak. My words don’t waltz, so much as whimper. And my seat here in the pew feels too quiet in the muffled silence of the sanctuary.
Maybe, Lord, You have the words I can perfectly perform, to cry anything but Abba. Which for now, is the only word I pray, while paralyzed in the repeating echoes of my pointless pirouetting.
Music: Vento di Passioni – James Horner
As we pray today, may a flight of prayerful gratitude spring from our spirits!
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 103, a well-known and loved hymn of praise. It is a fitting psalm for today’s feast which unites us with Mary as we pray.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all the benefits of the Lord.
Psalm 103:1
Mary lived much of her life in the actual presence of God, in the person of Jesus her Son. And no doubt, she received this holy proximity as a surpassing gift.
But even more importantly, Mary lived her whole life in total awareness of God – before and after Jesus was present with her.
There is a practice many of us learned as children called “Blessing the Hour”. The prayer goes like this:
Let us remember the holy presence of God Let us adore God’s Divine Majesty.
Sometimes a classmate was assigned to watch the clock and ring a little bell to trigger our prayer. We needed a reminder, every hour, that our whole life is held in the Breath of God.
But Mary always remembered. She lived so completely within God’s promise of mercy that she became the vessel of its accomplishment.
My soul proclaims your greatness, O God,
and my spirit rejoices in you, my Savior.
For you have looked with favor upon your lowly servant,
and from this day forward all generations will call me blessed.
For you, the Almighty, have done great things for me,
and holy is your Name.
Your mercy reaches from age to age for those who fear you.
You have shown strength with your arm;
you have scattered the proud in their conceit;
you have deposed the mighty from their thrones
and raised the lowly to high places.
You have filled the hungry with good things,
while you have sent the rich away empty.
You have come to the aid of Israel your servant,
mindful of your mercy
—the promise you made to our ancestors―
to Sarah and Abraham and their decendants forever.
So today, like Mary, let us remember the holy Presence of God in our every moment –
the Lord who is kind and merciful.
and pardons all our iniquities,
and heals all our ills
and redeems our life from destruction,
and crowns us with kindness and compassion
Psalm 103:2-3,8
Poetry: John O’Donohue, ‘The Annunciation’, in Conamara Blues
Cast from afar before the stones were born And rain had rinsed the darkness for colour, The words have waited for the hunger in her To become the silence where they could form. The day’s last light frames her by the window, A young woman with distance in her gaze, She could never imagine the surprise That is hovering over her life now. The sentence awakens like a raven, Fluttering and dark, opening her heart To nest the voice that first whispered the earth From dream into wind, stone, sky and ocean. She offers to mother the shadow’s child; Her untouched life becoming wild inside.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Isaiah for our Responsorial Psalm:
God indeed is my savior; I am confident and unafraid. My strength and my courage is the LORD, who has been my savior. With joy you will draw water at the fountain of salvation.
Isaiah 12:2-3
This fountain of salvation is the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
I woke up before dawn today. Not really wanting to formally begin my day, I lingered on the pillows for my early morning prayer. Having always loved this feast, I began placing all my suffering loved ones into Jesus’s heart – one by one, asking for their strength and healing.
The list was long, because there are all kinds of suffering, and I love a lot of people – even ones I don’t know personally! Finally I said to Jesus, “You know, life is HARD!”
And in my spirit, I heard this answer, “I know. I lived it for the love of every one of you.”
To me, this is the meaning of the Sacred Heart of Jesus – that merciful companionship which Infinity assumed for us in the person of Jesus Christ.
That fountain of love and mercy continues to nourish our lives in the Eucharistic community of faith practicing the works of mercy. We are the threads which bind one other to God’s heart.
Paul knew this. That’s why he prayed this beautiful prayer for his beloved Ephesian community. Our second reading offers an example of Paul’s magnificent benedictions and doxologies. As he prays for the Ephesians, so he prays for us. These prayers are exalted, yet simple. They thrill the soul who prays them. They place us, in awe and thanksgiving, fully in the divinely generous, Sweet Heart of Christ.
Let’s pray for our beloveds today and for the world:
For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Music: Two songs today:
Threads – by David Leonard
We beseech the Sacred Heart today that all who suffer any kind of fragmentation may find tenderness, wholeness, and comfort in him. (To hear the song, click on “Watch on YouTube” in the black clock below.)
This one is old school, but it still works for me:
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 85 and its enchanting metaphors for heavenly bliss:
glory dwells with us
kindness and truth meet
justice and peace kiss.
truth springs out of the earth,
justice looks over heaven’s edge
Our souls long for such an environment, don’t they?
In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul says that the way to find it is to remove the veil from our hearts:
… whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. All of us, gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:16-18
Edited in Prisma app with Tears
Our prayer with Psalm 85 today might echo that of Rev. Christine Robinson, Minister Emerita of the First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
O God, you have given us a beautiful earth— Grant us the wisdom to use it well. Lead us to an inner life in which we can rejoice. Speak peace to us, that we may live in peace. May your mercy and truth meet together Righteousness and peace kiss each other, Surrounding us with your light. Help us know true prosperity, And be gentle with your Earth. Guide our feet in the ways of peace.
Poetry: Lift Not the Painted Veil – Percy Bysshe Shelley
The advice in this poem by Shelley is a rather gloomy antithesis of Paul’s advice to the Corinthians (kind of like looking at the negative instead of the photograph, for those of us who remember the non-digital dream 😉) Still, the poem’s images offer much to think about if we choose not to “lift the veil”.
Lift not the painted veil which those who live
Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,
And it but mimic all we would believe
With colours idly spread,-behind, lurk Fear
And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave
Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear.
I knew one who had lifted it-he sought,
For his lost heart was tender, things to love,
But found them not, alas! nor was there aught
The world contains, the which he could approve.
Through the unheeding many he did move,
A splendour among shadows, a bright blot
Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove
For truth, and like the Preacher found it not.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 25 which is our Alleluia Verse.
Psalm 25, in total, is a psalm of lament. But today’s single phrase is a golden thread in an otherwise somber weave. It is a simple act of faith and dependence on God. It is the yielding of one’s life into God’s unfolding promise.
Praying with this psalm today, I am nostalgic. On June 9th, 58 years ago, I graduated from high school.
I guess for some, high school graduation isn’t a remarkable or memorable event. But for me, and the two other young women in this photo, it was a time of earth-shaking choices and profound commitments. It was a moment in our personal stories that would shape our lives forever – we had decided to become Sisters of Mercy.
Every life has one – or likely a few – such moments. They are the hinges on which our life story revolves. Praying gratefully with them helps us to recognize God’s enduring Presence in our lives and to rejuvenate our faith.
When you get as old as I am, the accumulation of gratitude is overwhelming and the trust in God’s continued abiding is assuring.
Robert Frost seems to have been having such a prayer when he wrote his beloved poem. Maybe it will help your prayer today or at some other date of holy reminiscence in your life.
Poetry: The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Music: The Magnificat Medley – John Michael Talbot
I chose this song today for two reasons.
It is the verse in our Responsorial Psalm:
Holy is the Lord our God.
Psalm 99:7
2. The Magnificat was such a moment in Mary’s life.
Today, let’s pray with 119 in the light of Paul’s words to the Corinthians:
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, … was not “yes” and “no,” but always “YES”. God’s promises … find their “Yes” in him.
2 Corinthians 1:19-20
Here’s what those slightly cryptic but profoundly meaningful phrases mean to me.
No doubt, sometime in your life you have heard someone powerful say “No” to you. Or perhaps life itself has said it with some insurmountable limitations.
It is in those moments that we truly understand what “Yes” means because it has eluded us!
That meaning takes various forms depending on our circumstances. “Yes” can mean freedom, love, mercy, forgiveness, renewal, possibility, hope, fulfillment.
And “Yes” is always a beginning … a mystery that longs to be unfurled, unpeeled – like this beautiful red onion ( that I bought yesterday for a salad that turned into a reflection!)
Psalm 119 “unpeels” the layers of our relationship with God. Here’s how I hear it in my prayer:
O Lovely God, You are wonderful. You are my Light. You amaze me by the “Yes” of your Love. You fire my spirit to love You in return.
Lavish Mercy, turn to me because I love You. Steady me in my shadows. Draw my “yes” into the Light of your beautiful Face.
based on Psalm 119:129-135
Poem: love is a place – e.e.cummings
love is a place
& through this place of
love move
(with brightness of peace)
all places
yes is a world
& in this world of
yes live
(skillfully curled)
all worlds
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 34, filled with lovely images assuring us of God’s abiding mercy. This mercy moves the psalmist to promise perpetual praise – that means “no matter what”!
I will bless the LORD at all times; praise shall be ever in my mouth. Let my soul glory in the LORD; the lowly will hear me and be glad.
Psalm 34:2-3
By telling about God’s loving intervention in our lives, the psalmist invites everyone to join in praise:
Glorify the LORD with me, let us together extol God’s name. I sought the LORD who answered me and delivered me from all my fears.
Psalm 34:4-5
I’m not so sure it’s an easy thing to rejoice in another’s blessing when we ourselves are feeling overlooked by God. But that’s the whole point of the psalm. It is WE who feel overlooked, not God who is overlooking.
It is as if we have turned our back to a brilliant sun and complained how cloudy it is. The psalmist says, “Stop that … turn your self around.”
Look to God that you may be radiant with joy, and your faces may not blush with shame. When the suffering one called out, the LORD heard, and from all distress was saved.
Psalm 34:6-7
Notice that they were not saved from suffering but from distress. Such salvation rests in the confidence that, even in suffering, we are never alone; that when we take refuge in God, palpable blessing ensues.
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who reverence God, and delivers them. Taste and see how good the LORD is; blessed the one who takes refuge in God’s embrace.
Psalm 34:8-9
Surely Psalm 34 calls us to live in the spirit of the Beatitudes which we can savor in today’s Gospel.
Poetry: Safe Harbor by Robert B. Shaw
Music: Two songs suggested themselves today. Here are both🤗 Enjoy!
Multiplied by needtobreathe (notice the radiant diamonds)
Psalm 34 – Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir
I sought the Lord
And He answered me
And delivered me
From every fear
Those who look on Him
Are radiant
They'll never be ashamed
They'll never be ashamed
This poor man cried
And the Lord heard me
And saved me from
My enemies
The Son of God
Surrounds His saints
He will deliver them
He will deliver them
Magnify the Lord with me
Come exalt His name together
Glorify the Lord with me
Come exalt His name forever
Oh taste and see
That the Lord is good
Oh blessed is he
Who hides in Him
Oh fear the Lord
Oh all you saints
He'll give you everything
He'll give you everything
Magnify the Lord with me
Come exalt His name together
Glorify the Lord with me
Come exalt His name forever
Magnify the Lord with me
Come exalt His name together
Glorify the Lord with me
Come exalt His name forever
Let us bless the Lord
Every day and night
Never ending praise
May our incense rise
Let us bless the Lord
Every day and night
Never ending praise
May our incense rise
Let us bless the Lord
Every day and night
Never ending praise
May our incense rise
Every day and night
Never ending praise
May our incense rise
Magnify the Lord with me
Come exalt His name together
Glorify the Lord with me
Come exalt His name forever
Magnify the Lord with me
Come exalt His name together
Glorify the Lord with me
Come exalt His name forever
Oh taste and see
That the Lord is good
He'll give you everything
He'll give you everything
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.
We just called it “Corpus Christi” when I was young. Many of us, of a “certain age”, will remember the extravagant processions through our childhood neighborhoods, the garmented priest carrying the elevated monstrance.
Bishop Kevin Rhoades leads the procession as it leaves St. Thomas church in Elkhart Indiana Sunday June 18, 2017. Today’s Catholic Photo/Joe Raymond)
Little children and adults accompanied the journeying Christ who blessed our neighbors, families, businesses and playgrounds.
Although, for some, such devotional practices have changed since that time, I was still deeply moved when, during the depth of the current pandemic, Pope Francis stood alone to raise the monstrance in blessing over a starkly empty St. Peter’s Square.
Certainly, all our neighborhoods today could use such a blessing. And, it is we – the People of God and living Body of Christ – who must carry Christ’s Presence to our neighborhoods, workplaces, schools and commonplaces.
Our Responsorial Psalm today offers us this question:
How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good God has done for me?
Psalm 116:12
Maybe this is one way to hear that question on this Feast:
How will I carry Christ into my world today?
Poetry: Love’s Choice by Malcolm Guite
This bread is light, dissolving, almost air,
A little visitation on my tongue,
A wafer-thin sensation, hardly there.
This taste of wine is brief in flavour, flung
A moment to the palate’s roof and fled,
Even its aftertaste a memory.
Yet this is how He comes.
Through wine and bread
Love chooses to be emptied into me.
He does not come in unimagined light
Too bright to be denied, too absolute
For consciousness, too strong for sight,
Leaving the seer blind, the poet mute;
Chooses instead to seep into each sense,
To dye himself into experience.
