Month: August 2023

Parable of the Trees

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, Mercy, spirituality4 Comments

Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
August 23, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082323.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our first reading delivers a powerful message if we can decipher it. The passage, sometimes known as “Jotham’s Fable”, depicts the rise of Jotham’s felonious brother Abimelech as leader of Israel.

Abimelech was a bad guy, and the story of his tenure is so full of treacherous violence that it would be an “X” movie if shown in theaters today. Jotham, the only surviving brother of Abimelech’s fratricide, preaches his fable to warn the people against his murderous brother.

Jotham went to the top of Mount Gerizim and, standing there,
cried out to them in a loud voice:
“Hear me, citizens of Shechem, that God may then hear you!
Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves.

Judges 9:7-8

Let’s take a look at the fable. What significance might it have for us today?

The fable describes humanized trees who seek a strong leader from among the most revered trees in Israel: the olive, the fig, and the grapevine. Each of the three trees is asked to assume leadership because each has proven honest and true in sustaining the people. However each, when asked, refuses because they are committed to the current success of their own chosen work. As a result, a vacuum of leadership is left. This vacuum allows the “bramble”, a self-absorbed, non-productive weed to slip in and grasp control over the people. It doesn’t turn out well.

Walter Bruggemann interprets the parable in this way:

The point of the parable is not obscure. The parable is simply a clever way to assert that if good people with positive political potential default on governing responsibility, then rule will be exercised by less desirable, more dangerous alternatives. The point is clear; nonetheless there is merit in lining out the parable. Not only is it entertaining in its imagery, but the repetition of patterned speech reinforces the danger and the possibility concerning governance. In the case of this narrative, the parable implies that Abimelech came to power because better candidates refused to have their productive lives interrupted by public responsibility.

It takes no great imagination for us to see the contemporaneity of the parable for us. If responsible people eschew public responsibility, the way is open for those who would misuse power in a governing space.

Walter Brueggemann: “Refusing the Bramble” from churchanew.org

It takes both generous courage and insightful self-examination to answer a call to true leadership which is a ministry of God’s merciful love. Every one of us will hear that call in some way in our lives – not necessarily to be President, Queen, or Pope – but as parent, teacher, coach, counselor, minister, board member, supervisor, or simply a true friend … and all the other ways we have the power to influence another’s life.

On the flip side, it takes reflective awareness to choose and support good leaders. In our complex society, we must be intentional not to be caught in the “brambles” of a self-absorbed wannabe who, like Jotham’s combustible weed, cannot nourish the community. Achieving that awareness is not as easy as it might seem. Potential leaders, at any level, can fool us by subtly appealing to our own unexamined “brambles” – those flashpoints which exploit our fears and prejudices rather than leading to a communally successful way through them.

In our Gospel, Jesus tells us what God’s “leadership” is like. God is like the selfless landowner who meets his people’s need with unmeasured generosity. Whether we come early or late to God’s vineyard, we are fully embraced and rewarded. Jesus’s parable suggests that we should be wary of “leaders” who divide communities into “them” and “us” in order to ration God’s Mercy.

Instead, the Gospel-inspired community is amazingly able to embrace each member at the place where they can best be led to wholeness. A sound, selfless leader is essential to building that kind of community whether it be civic or religious.

In reply, the landowner said to one of the complainers,
‘My friend, I am not cheating you.
Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?
Take what is yours and go.
What if I wish to give this last one the same as you?
Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money?
Are you envious because I am generous?’
Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Matthew 20:13-16

Praying with these passages, we might ask for “justice-eyes” and a “mercy-heart” as we navigate our world as both leaders and as those who discern leaders.

Poetry: Nobility by Alice Cary (1820-1871)

True worth is in being, not seeming,-
In doing, each day that goes by,
Some little good, not in the dreaming
Of great things to do by and by.
For whatever men say in their blindness,
And spite of the fancies of youth,
There’s nothing so kingly as kindness,
And nothing so royal as truth.

Music: Song for the Journey – not the greatest music ever written, but still the song captures the message of servant leadership.

In the Name of Mercy

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Faith, Mercy, spirituality47 Comments

August 22, 2023
Foundation Day: Sisters of Mercy Philadelphia/Merion

On August 22, 1861, a small group of hopeful women arrived at the railroad station in North Philadelphia. On that hot afternoon, the first Philadelphia Sisters of Mercy, led by a 27-year-old Irish immigrant Patricia Waldron, disembarked from the train and caught their first amazed glimpse of the busy city.  They carried few worldly possessions. They came with only a dream for Mercy.  It was a dream so alive in them that it still inspires us today, over 160 years later.

Can you see them standing on the cramped platform, the hissing steam trains encircling them in mist?  They must have felt “be-misted” themselves, these mostly Irish country girls engulfed in a noisy teeming city.

Union troops heading south crowded the platform.  Busy Broad Street crackled with news of the burgeoning national strife.  Lincoln himself would visit the city in the coming weeks.

Visiting Old Moyamensing Prison

Where would they begin? And how? Hidden within the seams of this bustling city’s garment lay the poor – the ones for whom they had come.  How to reach them?  How to help them change their lives?

Ranging from sixteen to twenty-seven years old, these brave young women had been charged with establishing a kind of “new nation” themselves – not of politics, but of mercy.  They, like the young stout-hearted soldiers around them, were also a little weak-kneed. They too had their battles to face. They too would see starvation, illness, attack, and death – but they would endure for the sake of the Mercy dream, God’s dream for all those in need.

In 2011, the Philadelphia/Merion Sisters of Mercy celebrated our Sesquicentennial. One of our celebratory events was a thrilling performance at the Kimmel Center commemorating these founding sisters and the decades of ministry built on their commitment.

The performance opened with these imagined comments from Patricia Waldron.

Mother Patricia Waldron
(played by our dear late Sister Mimi Connor, RSM)

Have you ever noticed how our dreams unfold?
They never happen in the way we first imagined.
Instead, they weave – your dreams and mine ---
Among each other in a latticework of grace.
By the way, my name is Anne Waldron.
known in my life as Mother Patricia –
“Reverend Mother” really.
A rather weighty title, don’t you think?
But my own dream of mercy was not weighty.
I was born in Tuam (pronounced “Choom”), County Galway, Ireland.
‘Tis a precious place, a mere 20 miles from the glorious bay to the south,
Where the soft air carries a hint of the sea
And the sweet land holds both a deep promise and a deep scar of famine.
I must seem a long way from you now, after these 150 years 
– almost like a shadow on your memories.
And you must think me a particularly courageous part of your history.
After all, you have named buildings after me, I see!
But tonight, I want you to know me in a new way.

I was only 27 when I came here to this strange city.
I walked these same streets as you, fraught as they are with their dangers and beauties.
Do you know that a century and a half ago
we sisters lived just two miles north of this very spot -
you call it “The Kimmel” I think!
Ah, but the Philadelphia of the 1860s was a far different sight 
from what I saw outside tonight.
I see that a million and a half souls live here now!
Oh my! Just a third that number in the city then.
We thought it an amazing number having come mostly from our small villages.

I was young then – like all of you are or were once –
Young and full of dreams.
We all were – I and these my dear companions.

We were not different because of our courage, 
our spirit of adventure, our dedication, or our generosity—
although these marked our lives
as we grew deeper into God.

No – what made us who we were was this:
We clearly knew and trusted that the dream in us
was God’s dream for a wounded world.
In our deepest hearts,
we were Sisters of Mercy!

As you listen to our stories tonight,
Hold this question in your own hearts:
What dream lived in you when you were young?
What dream lives in you now?

Enduring dreams begin with small first steps.  So, hailing a horse-drawn carriage, Mother Patricia Waldron led her young band to their new lives.  Thus she began the grace-filled saga many of us know so well and of which we are a part today.  Their dream lives in us who love Mercy:

  • in our continued effort to find those who are poor and sick in a world that ignores their suffering
  • in our choice to be compassionate in a world that often chooses violence
  • in our commitment to care in a world of treacherous indifference
cemetery
Today we honor our beloved foremothers
who led the way in faith and commitment.

On that sultry August day in 1861, and on this one in 2023, people have choices to make.  They have vows to keep. Some choices live forever.  In the name of Mercy, what will you choose today?

I think many of you might enjoy a photo review of the Kimmel Celebration. I have only a few photos of the original sisters which I connected with the performer where possible.

Mother Gertrude Dowling
(played by Sister Kathleen Mary Long)

Sister Marie Madeleine Mathey
(played by Sister Suzanne Neisser)

Sister Mary Philomena Hughes

(played by Sister Mary Hentz)

Sister Mary Angela Curtin
(played by Sister Connie Haughton)

Sister Mary Ann Coveney

(played by Sister Diane Guerin)

Sister Francis de Sales Geraghty
(played by Sister Mary Klock)

Sister Mary Rose Davies
(played by Sister Marie Carolyn Levand)

Sister Mary Veronica O’Reilley
(played by Sister Eileen Sizer)

Virtuoso Sister Marie Ann Ellmer plays the magnifcent
Kimmel organ

Maestro Sister Jeanette Goglia
leads a resounding rendition
of her composition “The Circle of Mercy”
sung by 2500 attendees

(Click the white arrowhead to enjoy “The Circle of Mercy” as you peruse these photos.
Happy Foundation Day to all who love and live Mercy!)

Honoring Mary

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Faith, Jesus, Mary, spirituality1 Comment

Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
August 22, 2023
Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/0822-memorial-queenship-mary.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we have an option in our readings. Therefore, I chose the readings for the Queenship of Mary for our reflection today.

The beautiful first reading from Isaiah will no doubt evoke sentiments of Advent as we hear its familiar dulcet tones. (Click the tiny white arrowhead in the grey bar below to hear a lovely interpretation.)

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom
a light has shone.

With today’s feast, we acknowledge that we were delivered from darkness by the brave and humble “Yes” of a young Nazarene woman, Mary, Mother of Jesus.

“Yes” is an infinitely powerful word when spoken in response to God’s Will. Mary’s “Yes” initiated the unfurling of God’s Dominion through the new law of Love:

For a child is born to us, a son is given us;
upon his shoulder dominion rests.
They name him Wonder-Counselor, God-Hero,
Father-Forever, Prince of Peace.
His dominion is vast
and forever peaceful,
From David’s throne, and over his kingdom,
which he confirms and sustains
By judgment and justice,
both now and forever.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this!

As the “initiatrix” of that Reign, Mary has been designated by the Church as “Queen”. In this life, Mary’s role was that of a humble, faithful woman who gave all that she had to foster the ministry of Jesus. No doubt, she never felt herself to be a “queen”. And it is from the witness of that obedient fidelity that we draw the inspiration for our own ordinary lives.

Nevertheless, it is fitting to honor Mary under this regal title. Through it, we recognize and appeal to Mary’s unique and intimate partnership in the continuous unfolding of God’s Reign in our times.

For our own prayer, we might ask Mary to help us assess the vitality of our “Yes” to God as it unfolds for us in each day’s circumstances.

Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner

Poetry: Fiat by Robert Morneau

On seeing Tanner’s Annunciation….

On her bed of doubt,
in wrinkled night garment,
she sat, glancing with fear
at a golden shaft of streaming light,
pondering perhaps, “Was this
but a sequel to a dream?”
The light too brief for disbelief,
yet its silence eased not her trembling.
Somehow she murmured a “yes”
and with that the light’s love and life
pierced her heart
and lodged in her womb.
The room remained the same
-rug still needed smoothing
-jug and paten awaiting using.
Now all was different
in a maiden’s soft but firm fiat.

Music: Hail Mary – Chris Rolinson

Idolatry

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality3 Comments

Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope
Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
August 21, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082123.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our two readings connect to remind us of an essential truth: stay faithful to God’s Word in order to live in peace, justice, and joy.

The passage from Judges recounts the topsy-turvy history of Israel around 800 years before Christ. It was a time when various Judges served as leaders before the eventual establishment of the kingdom under Samuel.

The Twelve Judges of Israel (in technicolor!)

These were tough times for Israel. One after another, hostile forces rose against them. During each threat, someone would emerge as a deliverer and, with their heroic success, endure for a while as the Judge.

The writer equates Israel’s ups and downs with God’s pleasure or displeasure with the people. When the people broke faith, God punished them with political turmoil. When the people were repentant, God provided a deliverer.

Of course, this is an overly simplified interpretation of events. By infusing God with the human qualities of anger and appeasement, the writer explains complex history as a simple quid pro quo: You’re bad, you get zapped. You’re good, you get rewarded.

We know that our God does not vacillate between angry punishment and satisfied recompense. God is always loving, forgiving, and nurturing. So what can this passage teach us about our own faith life and the spiritual culture of our times?

I found a key reflection point in the passage’s initial phrase: The children of Israel offended the LORD by serving the Baals.

The “Baals” are false gods erected by those who manipulate “faith” to advance their self-absorbed agendas. In the time of the Judges, these Baals might have been represented by carved idols, or natural phenomena such as the moon or stars. In the end, this idolatry – like all idolatries – rewarded some hidden promoter with money, power, or influence.

But what are the “Baals” of our culture? What is our modern idolatry?

Britannica Dictionary offers this definition of idolatry: “A person becomes guilty of a more subtle idolatry, however, when, although overt acts of adoration are avoided, he attaches to a creature the confidence, loyalty and devotion that properly belong only to the Creator.”

As we pray with this passage, we might look to our own society with its infectious materialism, nationalism, consumerism, racism, sexism. These and other imposed societal shackles serve to bind some in order to exalt others to idol status. As it is with any communicable disease, some of these systems – acknowledged or not – may be lurking within us.

Worship of these “isms” falsly legitimizes:

  • the usurpation of the poor in a credit-bound economic system
    (e.g. how many times have you been offered “revolving credit” which makes money on ever-increasing interest rates)
  • the armed control of the defenseless
    (e.g. the insurmountable influence of the gun lobby to produce weapons of mass destruction despite the repeated massacres of our children)
  • the supersession of the haves over the have-nots
    (e.g. college placement of moneyed descendants over academically superior disadvantaged applicants)
  • the veiled acquiescence to white-advantage
    (e.g. entrenched indifference to colorless board rooms, executive suites, and other decision-making forums)
  • the subtle second-classism toward and objectification of women
    (e.g. the range of systemic oppressions suffered by women, from Taliban terrors and sex trafficking to indefensible Church exclusions)

Our Gospel clearly states the antidote to such idolatry:

Jesus answered the young man:

There is only One who is good.
If you wish to enter into life,
keep the commandments:
(Love God above all things,
and your neighbor as yourself.)

Jesus tells him further that if he wishes to be perfect, he will:

  • dispossess himself of anything that distracts him from God
  • follow Jesus and the Gospel with all his heart

I never read that Gospel without realizing that, just like that young man, I have a lot of work to do on my own often idolatrous soul.

Poetry: Sell All You Have – Malcolm Guite

To whom, exactly, are you speaking Lord?
I take it you’re not saying this to me,
But just to this rich man, or to some saint
Like Francis, or to some community,
The Benedictines maybe, their restraint
Sustains so much. But I can’t bear this word!
I bought the deal, the whole consumer thing,
Signed up and filled my life with all this stuff,
And now you come, when I’ve got everything,
And tell me everything is not enough!
But that one thing I lack, I cannot get.
Sell everything I have? That’s far too hard
I can’t just sell it all… at least not yet,
To whom exactly, are you speaking Lord?

Music: Simple Living (A Rich Young Man) – Keith & Kristyn Getty, Stuart Townend

All Are Welcome

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Community, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality5 Comments

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 20, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082023.cfm

Christ and the Canaanite Woman – Annibale Carracci

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we read the story of the Canaanite woman whom Jesus first meets with sarcastic banter. The banter however serves to expose some of the alienating prejudices of Jesus’s time which he then dissolves in a sweeping act of mercy and inclusion.

But the woman came and did Jesus homage, saying, “Lord, help me.”
He said in reply,
“It is not right to take the food of the children
and throw it to the dogs.”
She said, “Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters.”
Then Jesus said to her in reply,
“O woman, great is your faith!
Let it be done for you as you wish.”

Matthew 15:25-28

The outcast Canaanite woman prevails on Jesus to broaden his kingdom. His response is to open his heart to another way of bringing mercy to all those longing for it. Jesus’s words and actions signify a new culture of divine justice offered to all people. They alert his reticent disciples to practice the same kind of generous, inclusive mercy in their ministries.

Our Gospel challenges us to confront our own prejudices and any limitations we place on who is welcome in the Kingdom of God. It clearly establishes a single element as the determiner of who belongs to God’s new Reign of Love. That element is FAITH.

Then Jesus said to her in reply,
“O woman, great is your faith! 
Let it be done for you as you wish.” 

Prose for Reflection: Pope Francis continually encourages the Church toward this faith-defined inclusivity.

“Being the church, being the people of God, … means being God’s leaven in this our humanity. It means proclaiming and bearing God’s salvation in this our world, which is often lost and needful of having encouraging answers, answers that give hope, that give new energy along the journey.

May the church be the place of God’s mercy and love where everyone can feel themselves welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live according to the good life of the Gospel. And in order to make others feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged, the church must have open doors so that all might enter. And we must go out of those doors and proclaim the Gospel.”

Music: All Are Welcome – Marty Haugen

Let us build a house
Where love can dwell
And all can safely live
A place where
Saints and children tell
How hearts learn to forgive
Built of hopes and dreams and visions
Rock of faith and vault of grace
Here the love of Christ shall end divisions
All are welcome, all are welcome
All are welcome in this place

Let us build a house where prophets speak
And words are strong and true
Where all God's children dare to seek
To dream God's reign anew
Here the cross shall stand as witness
And a symbol of God's grace
Here as one we claim the faith of Jesus
All are welcome, all are welcome
All are welcome in this place

Let us build a house where love is found
In water, wine and wheat
A banquet hall on holy ground
Where peace and justice meet
Here the love of God, through Jesus
Is revealed in time and space
As we share in Christ the feast that frees us
All are welcome, all are welcome
All are welcome in this place

The Darks and Lights of Scripture

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Scripture, spirituality3 Comments

Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 19, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081923.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we have the last of our readings from the Book of Joshua, writings that tell the story of Israel from the conquest of Canaan to the Babylonian exile. Joshua is a difficult book to read for at least two reasons: it is dull and boring, and it is full of brutality and violence.

Modern scholars tend to agree that the bloody battles described in Joshua never happened and that the Book should be viewed more as legend or myth. So why is it even included in the Bible to which we look for inspiration in building a peaceful and just world? It is hard work to find nuggets of this kind of inspiration in the Book of Joshua! (But there are a few, I must admit. Here is one of my favorites:)

Actually, the Book of Joshua is not alone in the challenges it tosses at its readers.. There are many passages in the Hebrew Scriptures that might cause us to flinch at their tone or violence. They are particularly upsetting when they implicate God as a condoner of such violence.

God’s tone in today’s passage might strike us in this way:

Joshua in turn said to the people,
“You may not be able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God;
he is a jealous God who will not forgive
your transgressions or your sins.
If, after the good he has done for you,
you forsake the LORD and serve strange gods,
he will do evil to you and destroy you.“

Joshua 24:19-20

When I read that passage I say to myself, “Wait a minute, Joshua!!! That’s not the God I know and love. So what can this passage teach me?”

Feminist theologian Carolyn Sharp writes that Joshua has “important potential to draw contemporary communities of faith into reflection on their own subjectivity, the power dynamics that energize and fracture their common life, and their need for robust and ongoing reformation. Joshua remains a disturbing book, and the first step toward ethical appropriation of its truth is to acknowledge that.”

We may choose to skip over disturbing and confusing passages like some found in Joshua. But the Church includes some of them in the liturgical readings because every scripture passage has something to teach us – just like every person has something to teach us.

From some people, we learn what we want to be like in life. And from others we learn exactly the opposite. So it is with scripture. Reading with a critical eye and a converted heart, we can benefit both from the positive and the negative energy in various Bible passages. And, as Christians, we must read all Scripture in the ultimate light of Jesus Christ and his Gospel.

Of course, as we pray with Scripture, we more readily appropriate those passages that touch our spirits with light and joy. We have such a passage in today’s Gospel:

Children were brought to Jesus
that he might lay his hands on them and pray.
The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said,
“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them;
for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”
After he placed his hands on them, he went away.

Matthew 19:13-15

Poetry: God’s Grandeur – Gerard Manley Hopkins

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: Speak, O Lord – Stuart Townend

God’s Mercy Endures Forever

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Mercy, Psalms, Scripture, spirituality5 Comments

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 18, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081823.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 136 – a short course in Bible history – some of which we also read in the first reading from Joshua:

Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel:
In times past your fathers, down to Terah,
father of Abraham and Nahor,
dwelt beyond the River and served other gods.
But I brought your father Abraham from the region beyond the River
and led him through the entire land of Canaan.
I made his descendants numerous, and gave him Isaac.
To Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau.
To Esau I assigned the mountain region of Seir in which to settle,
while Jacob and his children went down to Egypt ……

Joshua 24:2-4

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. 

An exciting Bible story was a welcome change to droll history and geography. Sister Stella Mercedes had the great Bible figures pinned over the blackboard, just above the permanent, perfectly painted border which warned me, (fruitlessly🤣), never to lie:

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.

Walter 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

https://youtube.com/watch?v=cEONqd-uApo%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26fs%3D1%26hl%3Den%26autohide%3D2%26wmode%3Dtransparent

An Extra Today: Our Lady of Knock

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality3 Comments

It was brought to my attention this morning that today is the Feast of Our Lady of Knock.

The Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock, commonly referred to as Knock Shrine, is a Roman Catholic pilgrimage site and national shrine in the village of Knock, County Mayo, Ireland, where locals saw an apparition in 1879 of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint John the Evangelist, angels, and Jesus Christ (the Lamb of God).

Wikipedia

Here’s a lovely hymn for your prayer and enjoyment. And thanks to the leprechaun who reminded me of the Feast today.

God’s Faithfulness

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Faith, spirituality2 Comments

Thursday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 17, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081723.cfm

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 the 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

https://youtube.com/watch?v=PoYC1jRI1cU%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26fs%3D1%26hl%3Den%26autohide%3D2%26wmode%3Dtransparent

Gathered in God’s Name

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality4 Comments

Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 16, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081623.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings confirm the power of call and community.

In this final reading from Deuteronomy, God shows Moses the Promised Land. The description is sweepingly triumphant in tone:

Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo,
the headland of Pisgah which faces Jericho,
and the LORD showed him all the land—
Gilead, and as far as Dan, all Naphtali,
the land of Ephraim and Manasseh,
all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea,
the Negeb, the circuit of the Jordan
with the lowlands at Jericho, city of palms,
and as far as Zoar.

Deuteronomy 34:1-3

There in front of Moses is the entire vision of what his life’s call was all about. Moses’s journey is now complete and his death is memorialized by the Deuteronomist in the uttermost terms:

Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses,
whom the LORD knew face to face.
He had no equal in all the signs and wonders
the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt
against Pharaoh and all his servants and against all his land,
and for the might and the terrifying power
that Moses exhibited in the sight of all Israel.

Deuteronomy 34: 10-12

Joshua now assumes a leadership role among the people who have been formed by God, under Moses’s mentorship, into the community of Israel. Joshua, with the people, will continue to shape Israel into a true “People of God”.

Our Gospel reading today describes how the power of community also shapes Christian life.

In Matthew 18, Jesus teaches his disciples a lesson in a particular element of community: fraternal correction. Fraternal correction is a concept often misinterpreted by its would-be practitioners. Here is a good description of what fraternal correction is and is not:

Fraternal correction is an ancient, Christian understanding of what it means to help each other grow in holiness. It is not a reaction to injury suffered, it is not vengeance, it is not revenge, it is not a reaction because I am hurting. But instead, it happens when I am moved by love for my brother or sister. It happens when I am moved to assist my brother or sister in growth or holiness.

Fr. Matthew Spenser, OSJ, Provincial of the Oblates of St. Joseph

Sisters of Mercy Community – Buffalo Founding Event, 1991

A community gathered in God’s Name depends on its members to exercise leadership, followership, sororal and fraternal correction, and unlimited goodwill for one another. Moses did it. Joshua did too. And Jesus certainly modeled and taught us how to live with and for one another in community.

Today’s readings might inspire us to consider the level of our own commitment to the communities which sustain our life: family, Church, religious community, as well as the civic, global, and universal contexts in which we live. We are leaders in some of these communities. We are followers in others. In all of them, we are members – a graced status that calls us to active and responsive love.

Prayer: Prayer for Community
This prayer comes from the same site as our readings – The USCCB: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 

Embracing Father,
You grace each of us with equal measure in your love.
Let us learn to love our neighbors more deeply,
so that we can create
peaceful and just communities.
Inspire us to use our creative energies
to build the structures we need
to overcome the obstacles
of intolerance and indifference.
May Jesus provide us the example needed
and send the Spirit to warm our hearts for the journey.
Amen

Music: even Sesame Street can offer a little community “theology” 🙂