Month: August 2021

Understanding the Assumption: Maturing in Faith and Worship

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spiritualityLeave a comment

(My long-term followers will recognize this reflection. It’s my go-to for the Assumption because it covers many avenues for prayer.)

Many of us grew up in households where we were surrounded by a strong devotional faith. I am happy to be one of those people. These simple, sacramental practices awakened and engaged my young faith and offered me a visible means to respond to its stirrings. These practices also gave my parents and grandparents the tools to teach me to love and trust God, Mary, the saints, and my Guardian Angel.

I remember with gratitude the many parameters of that deep devotion which accompanied our fundamental practice of a sacramental and liturgical life.

  • Our home had a crucifix in every room to remind us of God’s Presence
  • Over the main door was the statue of the Infant of Prague and the first Christmas card we had received depicting the Three Kings to bless us on our journeys.
  • All year, Dad’s fedora sported a tiny piece of straw tucked into its plaid band. He had plucked it from the parish Christmas crèche, near to St. Joseph who was his patron.
  • During a really violent thunderstorm, we might get a sprinkling from Mom’s holy water flask kept for especially taxing situations.

And, maybe because we live not too far from the east coast, we had one special summer practice. We went into the ocean on the Feast of the Assumption, believing that, through the water, Mary offered us special healing and graces on that day.

I can still picture young kids helping their elderly grandparents into the shallow surf. I remember mothers and fathers marking their children’s brows with a briny Sign of the Cross. There was a humble, human reverence and trust in these actions that blesses me still.

While that August 15th ritual, like similar devotions, might seem superstitious and even hokey to some today, the memory of it remains with me as a testament to the simple faith and deep love of God’s people for our Blessed Mother.

It was just such devotion and faith, expressed over centuries by the faithful, that moved Pius XII to declare the dogma of the Assumption:

“We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
(MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS 44)

On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus(The Most Bountiful God). The world at that time was still healing from the horrors of World War II. The Pope himself, no doubt, was wounded beyond description by what he had witnessed. One can hear his deep pain as he begins his letter by saying:

“Now, just like the present age, our pontificate is weighed down by ever so many cares, anxieties, and troubles, by reason of very severe calamities that have taken place and by reason of the fact that many have strayed away from truth and virtue. Nevertheless, we are greatly consoled to see that, while the Catholic faith is being professed publicly and vigorously, piety toward the Virgin Mother of God is flourishing and daily growing more fervent, and that almost everywhere on earth it is showing indications of a better and holier life.”

This belief is complementary to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception defined by Pope Pius IX in 1854. These two articles of faith embrace the totality of Mary’s life which was uniquely blessed among all humans. Mary gives us, in our humanity, both a model of and a supportive invitation to holiness.

Marie T. Farrell, RSM presents a scholarly and insightful essay on the Assumption here. Her work gives us a rich understanding of the theological layers within this teaching.

Click here for Sr. Marie’s article
The article is the third one down, on page 13.

Sister Marie closes her essay with these words:
Mary assumed into heaven and Spiritualised in her whole personhood is a prophetic symbol of hope for us all. In his Resurrection-Ascension, Jesus has shown the way to eternal life. In the mystery of Assumption, the Church sees Mary as the first disciple of many to be graced with a future already opened by Christ, one that defies comprehension for ‘…no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him…(1 Cor 2: 9)

Musical Reflection with Song below: Prayer of Pure Love ~ Letty Hammock and Sue K. Riley

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Faith, ordinary time, Prayer, Psalms, spiritualityLeave a comment

Saturday, August 14, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 16, a prayer for God’s protection and blessing on the path of life. It is the prayer of one whose heart is committed to God, and recognizes God as the Source of All Life.

Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
    I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you.”
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
    you it is who hold fast my lot.

Psalm 16: 1-2

In our first reading, as Israel takes possession of the Promised Land, Joshua gathers the people in a recommitment reflective of Moses’ call to the people at Sinai. Joshua says that there is no either/or. Today is the day to choose and commit to the One God of your life:

Fear the LORD and serve him completely and sincerely.
Cast out the gods your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt,
and serve the LORD.
If it does not please you to serve the LORD,
decide today whom you will serve,
the gods your fathers served beyond the River
or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling.
As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD

Joshua 24: 14-15

Like those ancient Israelites, we need faith and courage not to fall back on our false gods — half-heartedness, hard-heartedness, heartlessness. This beautiful offering of Psalm 16 by the Dameans is a prayer for protection and grace for our commitment.

Music: And to give Joshua stage time, here is another song

As for Me and My House – Pat Barrett, Chris Tomlin

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Prayer, Psalms, spirituality2 Comments

Friday, August 13, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 136 – a short course in Bible history.

Didn’t you love Bible History when you were in school? I remember my little 1950’s McLoughlin Notes and my old Benzinger Bible History book.

After learning that copper was Chile’s chief export, an exciting Bible story was a welcome change. Sister  Stella Mercedes had the great Bible figures pinned over the blackboard, just above the permanent, perfectly painted border which warned me (fruitlessly🤣)

Oh, what a tangled net we weave, when first we practice to deceive.

Psalm 136 could serve as an index for those wonderful Old Testament stories. As Walter Brueggemann notes:

In Psalm 136, the whole history is again recited, punctuated this time with the repeated refrain, “for his steadfast love endures forever.” All of Israel’s history, indeed all of world history, is an arena that exhibits God’s abiding fidelity.

Brueggemann: From Whom No Secrets Are Hid

With this encouragement, today we might reflect on what our own catalogue of God’s fidelity might look like.

  • How has God’s mercy and love endured in my life?
  • How has God loved, protected, and delivered me?
  • How has God deepened in me the call to responsive love?

Poetry: We might like to pray with Rev. Christine Robinson’s prayer “Mercy Forever”:

Give thanks to God, who is good—
Whose mercy endures forever.
    Whose love expands with the expanding universe--
    whose mercy endures forever.
Whose breath gives life to matter--
whose mercy endures forever.
    Who animates life with spirit--
    whose mercy endures forever.
Who plants a fierce unrest in our hearts--
whose mercy endures forever.
    Who bends the universe towards justice--
    whose mercy endures forever.
Who holds the whole world, and our hearts--
whose mercy endures forever.
    Give thanks to God, who is good—
    whose mercy endures forever.

Music: How Deep, How Simple – Kathryn Kaye

Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, dying, Faith, ordinary time, Prayer, spiritualityLeave a comment

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 114, eight short but extremely powerful verses. They summarize the entire faith journey of Israel, a People born in the Exodus and coming to full promise as they pass over the Jordan.

Crossing the Jordan by James Tissot

Our first reading describes that Jordan passage which mirrors the miraculous passage through the Red Sea. Joshua becomes the new Moses leading the people, finally, into the Promised Land

As early as the 6th century, Psalm 114 was included in funeral and burial liturgies in order to emphasize the triumphant and joyful character of our final passage into heaven.

It’s hard for us to think of death that way. On a purely human level, death feels sad – like an end or a loss. But our faith says differently. 

Even throughout life, in all our smaller losses, frustrations and failures, our faith encourages us to see things differently. Faith calls us to see each “exodus” , each “crossing”, as the beginning of a journey to a new promise. It calls us to remember that the seas and rivers will part – that God always makes a way.

Faith calls us to receive
life’s contradictions and impasses
as opportunities to learn a different way.

In Psalm 114, the poet-psalmist uses natural metaphors to remind us of God’s transformative presence in our lives. The Red Sea disappears. The Jordan River opens a path. Mountains skip and hills leap out of our way.

Why was it, sea, that you fled?
Jordan, that you turned back?
Mountains, that you skipped like rams?
You hills, like lambs?

Psalm 114: 5-6

When we face turbulent seas, overwhelming passages, exoduses from the comfortable places, may we find courage in remembering God’s faithfulness as Psalm 114 encourages us to do.

Poetry: The Valley of Vision – Taken from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett.

Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory. 
Let me learn by paradox that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be high,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul, 
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from deepest wells, 
and the deeper the wells the brighter Thy stars shine;
let me find Thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty,
Thy glory in my valley.

Music: God Will Make a Way – Don Moen

Memorial of Saint Clare

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Church, Community, Faith, Prayer, Psalms, spiritualityLeave a comment

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 66 – a psalm which, according to scripture scholar Roland Murphy, mixes two genres:

  1. A thanksgiving song of the community:

Shout joyfully to God, all the earth;
    sing praise to the glory of God’s name;
    proclaim God’s glorious praise.
Say to God: “How tremendous are your deeds!”

Psalm 66: 1-3
  1. A thanksgiving song of an individual:

Hear now, all you who fear God, while I declare 
    what God has done for me.
When I appealed to God  in words,
    praise was on the tip of my tongue.

Psalm 66: 16-17

Psalm 66 reminds us that we come to know,
love and serve God
both as individuals
and within the community of faith.
Our union with God is deepened at both fountains.

Today, we celebrate the feast of Clare of Assisi who praised God through a life of service shaped by a radical understanding of holy poverty.

We become what we love 
and who we love shapes what we become. 
If we love things, we become a thing. 
If we love nothing, we become nothing. 
Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, 
rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, 
an image disclosed through transformation. 
This means we are to become vessels of God’s 
compassionate love for others.

Clare of Assisi

Poetry/Prayer: As we pray to live lives of love and compassion, may St. Clare’s blessing encourage us.

Go forth in peace, 
for you have followed the good road. 
Go forth without fear, 
for the One who created you 
has made you holy, 
has always protected you, 
and loves you as a mother. 
Blessed be you, my God, for having created me.

Music: Let the Love that Dwells in Your Heart – Poor Clare’s of Arundel

Feast of Saint Lawrence

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Discipleship, ordinary time, Poetry, Psalms, spiritualityLeave a comment

Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 112, particularly chosen for the Feast of St. Lawrence

Blessed the one who fears the LORD,
    who greatly delights in God’s commands.
That one’s posterity shall be mighty upon the earth;
    the upright generation shall be blessed.
Well for the one who is gracious and lends,
    who conducts all affairs with justice;
That person shall never be moved;
    the just one shall be in everlasting remembrance.

After the martyrdom of Pope Sixtus II in 258 AD, the prefect of Rome demanded that Lawrence turn over the riches of the Church. St. Ambrose is the earliest source for the narrative that Lawrence asked for three days to gather the wealth. He worked swiftly to distribute as much Church property to the indigent as possible, so as to prevent its being seized by the prefect. On the third day, at the head of a small delegation, he presented himself to the prefect, and when ordered to deliver the treasures of the Church he presented the indigent, the crippled, the blind, and the suffering, and declared that these were the true treasures of the Church. One account records him declaring to the prefect, “The Church is truly rich, far richer than your emperor.” This act of defiance led directly to his martyrdom.

Wikipedia

There are many lessons for us in the life of St. Lawrence. The most striking for me is his gift for seeing the most vulnerable people as the Church’s greatest treasures.

Praying Psalm 112 today, we might ask God to deepen that gift of sublime generosity which imitates God’s own Mercy to us:

Lavishly they give to the poor, 
    Their generosity shall endure forever;
    Their name shall be exalted in glory.

Poetry: Khalil Gibran- On Giving

You give but little when you give of your possessions.
It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. 
For what are your possessions but things you keep 
and guard for fear you may need them tomorrow?

And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring 
to the over-prudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand 
as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?

And what is fear of need but need itself? 
Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, 
the thirst that is unquenchable?

There are those who give little of the much which they have–
and they give it for recognition and their hidden desire 
makes their gifts unwholesome.

And there are those who have little and give it all.
These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, 
and their coffer is never empty.

There are those who give with joy, and that joy is their reward.
And there are those who give with pain, and that pain is their baptism.
And there are those who give and know not pain in giving, 
nor do they seek joy, nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
They give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its fragrance into space.

Through the hands of such as these God speaks, 
and from behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
It is well to give when asked, 
but it is better to give unasked, through understanding;

And to the open-handed 
the search for one who shall receive is joy greater than giving.
And is there aught you would withhold?
All you have shall some day be given;
Therefore give now, that the season of giving 
may be yours and not your inheritors’.

You often say, “I would give, but only to the deserving.”
The trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
Surely he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights, 
is worthy of all else from you.

And he who has deserved to drink from the ocean of life 
deserves to fill his cup from your little stream.
And what desert greater shall there be, 
than that which lies in the courage and the confidence, 
nay the charity, of receiving?

And who are you that the poor should rend their bosom and unveil their pride, 
that you may see their worth naked and their pride unabashed?
See first that you yourself deserve to be a giver, and an instrument of giving.

For in truth it is life that gives unto life 
while you, who deem yourself a giver, are but a witness.

And you receivers… and you are all receivers… 
assume no weight of gratitude, 
lest you lay a yoke upon yourself and upon him who gives.
Rather rise together with the giver on his gifts as on wings;
For to be overmindful of your debt, is to doubt his generosity 
who has the freehearted earth for mother, and God for father.

Music: God Loves a Cheerful Giver – Steve Green has fun with the kids. I hope you do too!🤗

Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, joy, Love, Psalms, spiritualityLeave a comment

Monday, August 9, 2021

Today’s Readings
The Dance

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 147, an invitation to praise God. It is one of the last five psalms in the Book of Psalms and, like the others in this group, begins and ends in Hebrew with the word “Hallelujah” (“Praise God”).

The psalm’s first line tells us that it is good for the soul to offer praise. A heart that sings praise is positive, joyful, and free. It has the right attitude toward life based on its sound relationship with its Creator.

Hallelujah!
How good to sing praise to our God;
how pleasant to give fitting praise.

Psalm 147: 1

Praying with this thought this morning, I think of my five-year old grandnephew, a child full of joy and life. Through a family move, his mother (my niece) recently acquired my very old 45 rpm rock & roll records plus their vintage player. And most of you know you can’t beat that music for lively joy!

Last night, his Mom flipped on Chuck Berry singing “Rock and Roll Music”. She sent me a delightful video of little Ollie skipping all over the living room exclaiming, “I can’t stop dancing!”

Click here for a trip back to your Bandstand days!

When we open our spirit
to hear God’s music
humming throughout Creation,
we feel the same way.

And, like our first reading from Deuteronomy, Psalm 147 offers us ample reasons to praise. It directs our attention to what matters in our lives.

God:

  • strengthens us
  • blesses us
  • grants us peace
  • sustains us
  • gives us a fruitful earth
  • teaches us
  • loves us faithfully

If we can focus our hearts on these gifts as we begin our day, we will rise in joy and praise. And no matter what heaviness might seep into our day, our spirits will be able to say, “I can’t stop dancing!”

Poetry: I Praise The Dance – George Goetsch

I praise the dance,
for it frees people from the heaviness of matter
and binds the isolated to community.
I praise the dance, which demands everything:
health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul.
Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people,
who are in constant danger of becoming all brain,
will, or feeling.
Dancing demands a whole person,
one who is firmly anchored in the center of life,
who is not obsessed by lust for people and things
and the demon of isolation in one’s own ego
Dancing demands a freed person,
one who vibrates with the equipoise of all one’s powers.
I praise the dance.
O Creature, learn to dance,
else the angels in heaven will not know
what to do with you.

Music: Dancing with God – words of Mechthild of Magdeburg conveyed in music by Briege O’Hare, OSC in her album Woman’s Song of God

Mechthild of Magdeburg (1207 – 1282), a Beguine, was a Christian medieval mystic, whose book Das fließende Licht der Gottheit (The Flowing Light of Divinity) is a compendium of visions, prayers, dialogues and mystical accounts.

Here’s a lovely little tidbit on Mechthild. I love the last sentences.

Lyrics:

I cannot dance, O Lord, unless you lead me
And if you want me to leap for joy,
Then you must be the first to dance and sing
And I will follow you, in your echo I will ring.
Then, only then,
Then, only then,
Then, only then, will I leap for joy!

I Cannot sing, O Lord, unless you lead me
And you want me to sing for joy,
Then You must be the first to sing out your song
And I will follow You and sing right along.Then, only then,
Then, only then,
Then, only then, I will sing for joy!

Lead me, Lord, in joyful dancing
I will follow in your dance of life.
Then all my living will be true to You,
My Loving God.

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, inclusivity, Jesus, spiritualityLeave a comment

Sunday, August 8, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings capture the essence of life in God through Christ.

The first reading from Kings tells how Elijah, after eating the food God had provided him, was able to endure the long journey to God’s mountain. There, the sweetest whisper carried to Elijah the voice of God!

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus makes clear that no one makes that journey into the heart of God unless God calls us. But Jesus says that the invitation is given to all who believe. He says that, just as with Elijah, the Father gives us food – Jesus himself – the bread of life.

The second reading from Ephesians says that we have already “been sealed for the day of redemption through the Holy Spirit.” Paul says that, given this amazing gift, we have only one job:

So be imitators of God, as beloved children,
and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.

We are so accustomed to hearing these astounding passages that we may miss how astounding they really are. But Macrina Wiederkehr says:

When Jesus’ words begin to sound naive
to our 21st century minds,
let us look through the words,
in between the words,
underneath for a deeper truth.

Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the great Jesuit mystical theologian, upon reading these passages, saw the mystery of the Body of Christ. He saw our call to be the heart of Christ in the world. He saw Christ’s promise to become one with us in Eucharist. He saw that, through this Infinite Love played out in our ordinary lives, God continues to redeem Creation.

In each soul,
God loves and partly saves
the whole world which that soul sums up
in an incommunicable and particular way.

The Divine Milieu

Poetry: Love after Love by Derek Walcott

The time will come when with elation
you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome
and say, sit here, eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self

Give wine, give bread.
Give back your heart to itself,
to the stranger who has loved you all your life
whom you ignored for another
who knows you by heart

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Music: Quintessence – Spencer Brewer

May this lovely instrumental piece help take us to a deeply prayerful place as we contemplate God’s gift in Jesus.

Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, Love, Poetry, Psalms, spiritualityLeave a comment

Saturday, August 7, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 18 which is a detailed poetic account of David’s jubilation at his victory as reported in 2 Samuel 22:

David sang to the Lord the words of this song
when the Lord delivered him
from the hand of all his enemies
and from the hand of Saul. 

2 Samuel 22:1

I’m not a fan of modern “action movies”. When I see their trailers on TV, I feel overwhelmed by their “Bang! Bang!”, “Blow ‘em Up” special effects. And I felt a little bit like that when I read all of Psalm 18. 

The scenes described in both Samuel and Psalms are tumultuous! David has had one heck of a time trying to be king!

But reflecting on his deliverance from those times causes David to exclaim, “I love You, Lord, my God.”

As you read Psalm 18, notice that a significant word is missing: BECAUSE.

David never says that he loves God BECAUSE of all the magnificent things God has done for him.


David simply loves God.
And loving God,
David see all experience
as held in God’s hand.

Love, for God or for God’s creatures, isn’t a barometer. It doesn’t rise or fall according to life’s pressures.

Love is a magnet. It is a pulling into the life of the other which gives balance to my own being. Without that balance, it isn’t love.

We see this beautiful balance in David’s relationship with God:

He knows God through deep and constant relationship

I love you, Lord, my strength

He stays faithful throughout his trials.

… my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!

He gives glory to God, not himself.

Praised be the Lord, I exclaim
Extolled be God, my savior!

He asks God’s continued blessing on those for whom he is responsible.

You have shown kindness to me and my posterity forever.

Poetry: A Rondeau for Leonard Cohen – Malcolm Guite wrote this poem thinking of Leonard Cohen as a modern day David. Leonard Cohen (September 21, 1934 – November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death and romantic relationships. He is the composer of the very popular song “Hallelujah”.

Like David’s psalm you named our pain,
And left us. But the songs remain
To search our wounds and bring us balm,
Till every song becomes a psalm,
And your restraint is our refrain;

Between the stained-glass and the stain,
The dark heart and the open vein,
Between the heart-storm and the harm,
Like David’s psalm.I see you by the windowpane,
Alive within your own domain,
The light is strong, the seas are calm,
You chant again the telling charm,
That names, and naming, heals our pain,
Like David’s psalm.

Music: If It Be Your Will – Leonard Cohen

Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality1 Comment

Friday, August 6, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration, that moment when the Godly glory of Jesus shone in all its splendor before a few very blessed disciples.

On that blessed day, Peter, James and John went with Jesus to a “very high mountain”. Many scholars identify the site as Mt. Tabor, where the Franciscan Church of the Transfiguration is today.

Some theologians suggest that these three disciples were afforded this magnificent gift so that their faith would be sufficiently strengthened to endure the coming sufferings.

“Transfiguration” is a word without a true synonym. It is a unique experience for a being to be completely infused with the glory of God. When this happened to Jesus, something equally unique happened to Peter, James and John as well. They too became new beings, never the same after that glorious and -yes- shocking moment.

Once they descended that mountain, everything changed. In a sense, they too had been “transfigured”. They had seen Jesus clearly in the beauty of his Godliness, and they would now see everything else in that Light.

Sometimes in our lives, God gives us “mini-transfigurations”. Something we had seen only in ordinary terms suddenly becomes an insight into the sacred. It may be a person, a situation, a natural phenomenon. We see through the external trappings and find the glorious Face of God.

Jesus invites us to experience this kind of soul-change by loving God in the poor, sick, uneducated, displaced, suffering, stigmatized people of this world. He asks us to be with them, in word and deed, and to allow God’s light in them to change our hearts and souls.

Poetry: Transfigured – Malcolm Guite

For that one moment, ‘in and out of time’,
On that one mountain where all moments meet,
The daily veil that covers the sublime
In darkling glass fell dazzled at his feet.
There were no angels full of eyes and wings
Just living glory full of truth and grace.
The Love that dances at the heart of things
Shone out upon us from a human face
And to that light the light in us leaped up,
We felt it quicken somewhere deep within,
A sudden blaze of long-extinguished hope
Trembled and tingled through the tender skin.
Nor can this blackened sky, this darkened scar
Eclipse that glimpse of how things really are.

Music: Transfiguration/We Behold the Splendor of God – Carey Landry (Lyrics below)


[Chorus]

We behold the splendor of God shining on the face of Jesus.
We behold the splendor of God shining on the face of the Son.

[Verse1]

And oh, how his beauty transforms us, the wonder of presence abiding.
Transparent hearts give reflection of Tabor’s light within, of Tabor’s light within.

[Verse 2]

Jesus, Lord of Glory, Jesus, Beloved Son, oh, how good to be with you;
how good to share your light; how good to share your light