November 3, 2025

The world changes.
The evening shadows
gather and surprise us,
like dinner guests arrived too early.

The meal is not ready;
the wine not fully decanted;
the candles yet unlit;
our warm spirits not yet gathered
to receive our visitors,
carried by the chilly dark.

It is this way with life as well.
Seasons of sadness, loss,
longing and incompleteness
intrude themselves into our light.
We are not ready
for their frosty secrets.

Yet they too carry
the Great Spirit’s warm caress,
though harder to discern.

So challenging to find the way
to a peace hidden in darkness.
So effortless to keep the path
in a summer afternoon’s full light!

Yet we must not shun
these blessed November evenings.
They squeeze the most amazing brilliance
through the vespering clouds.

Be still in their encroaching darkness.
It is but a moment until,
like a pinprick on velvet,
the Evening Star appears
tumbling a universe of diamonds
into the night.

~ Renee Yann, RSM

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Music: Adagio – Tomas Albinoni

For Your Reflection

• What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
• Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
• What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:11

God has made everything beautiful in its time,
and has also set eternity in the human heart;
yet no one can fathom what God has done
from beginning to end.