Month: October 2026

One Job!

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Discipleship, Faith, healing, inclusivity, Jesus, Love, Mercy, spirituality3 Comments

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

October 25, 2026

You’ve seen the classic irony that warns us about success:

Often, the image is accompanied by the phrase, “You had one job.” – like this guy did!

It’s funny, isn’t it – until you realize that it’s describing you at – what? – maybe at fifty points in your past life!

Remember that IKEA bureau whose pull handles ended up inside the drawer? And I bet you’ll never forget that meticulously planned picnic served sans plasticware.

The readings for this Thirtieth Sunday echo these situations. The wise ancient who penned Exodus implies: “You have one job –  to love your neighbor. So, “Plan Ahead”!

Exodus offers practical advice that can be applied exactly as it is given. We should not oppress the alien, or wrong widows and orphans. We should not extort a person who is poor, or permanently deprive anyone of a needed cloak as collateral.

But the passage suggests much more than accountability for any single selfishness. It demands that we reverse all failure to love – especially toward the least lovable and most needy. That avowed reversal is the basis of our relationship with God Who is Love itself.

As we approach the US mid-term elections, these biblical passages shout a critical message. We exercise our faith in the political environment of our times. The choices we make around government, policy, and leadership declare our commitment to our neighbor, the ultimate command of our faith.

“The moment we choose to love, we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love, we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.” (bell hooks)

Three images might strike us from the Exodus reading:

The Alien: How do we respond to that which feels alien to us? Fear? Stonewalling? Stereotyping? Or do we welcome difference, learn from it, encourage it? Do our choices reverence or dehumanize the other?

The Widow or Orphan: How do we respond to people who are isolated, or ‘orphaned’? When we find others suffering loss, shunning, exclusion, or need, how do we act toward them? Do we do our part to promote a universal common good?

The Cloak: When we have the advantage in a situation, how do we use it? For our own or for the common good? Do we demand the “cloak” in security for ourselves, or do we offer its warmth to others in need? Do we support political policy that seeks such equity?

In God’s voice, Exodus reminds us that we are in this world to live as neighbors, who journey to God’s heart only together. The author preaches in the tone of his times with the frightening threat of divine execution if we fail.

But there is a more vicious kind of death that comes from failure to be a neighbor. It is an isolation that leaves us in the company of our own selfishness. And that is hell on earth – a hell that can consume both individuals and nations.

In our Gospel today, Jesus warns us that we have one job – to be neighbors. And our neighborhood is the world. There, we will encounter many people rendered physically, emotionally, economically, or spiritually helpless by a hostile power. Success depends on our willingness to love them like God – with all our heart, soul, and mind.

“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Music: Who Is My Neighbor – from Heavenly Love Songs

October’s Invitation

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Hope, joy, spiritualityLeave a comment

Just An Ordinary Day in October
October 21, 2026

October is a generous month. It coaxes us from summer into cooler, more purposeful days. It is a bridge from leisure to readiness, from carefree warmth to focused intention. As the days unfold, our perspective changes. Gone are the mindless errands in short sleeves and flip-flops. We grab a sweater—just in case. Later, a jacket.

This beautiful month has always offered me a meditation on aging. As the trees begin to shout their life cycle in a roar of color, an awareness rises that we too mature into an infinity we can only imagine and trust. 

My grandnephew offered me an image for all this one day as we watched a murmuration of starlings just outside our window.

He had turned a small pair of binoculars to the wrong end, rendering the starlings farther than they actually were. “The birds are too tiny and too far away”! But when we flipped the binoculars, he gained a new and delighted perspective!

I think October is like that pair of binoculars. If we look at time from the inverse side, we see “summer” disappearing,  life diminishing, memories dissolving. But when we allow the present moment to magnify our wonder and gratitude for life, we see possibility, gratitude, and hope.

At first, Nate struggled to focus his binoculars. It was the first time he had tried. A gentle nudge of my hands helped him discover the right view. October is a good month to give ourselves that same kind of nudging. Yes, it is almost winter, with all the definitive realities that winter may bring.

But it is also time for the most glorious display of color, migration, and light imaginable! Praying with October’s magnificence brings us closer to the Creator whose annual gift invites us to live – like the trees, with flamboyant joy and trust; like the birds – with inexhaustible confidence in our ultimate destination.

Music: Tchaikovsky – The Seasons: October (“Autumn Song”) – played by Vladimir Tropp

Suggested Scripture: Psalm 90

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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?

Love Within, Without, and Eternal

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, holiness, Love1 Comment

October 15, 2026
Memorial of Saint Teresa of Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the great Saint Teresa of Ávila. Teresa was a Spanish noblewoman who became a Carmelite nun, mystic, religious reformer, author, theologian, and first female Doctor of the Church.

Teresa taught that God is within us. Our spiritual journey is one of awareness, not distance. In her masterpiece, The Interior Castle, she wrote: 

“Remember that within you a
is a palace of immense magnificence, 
and he who built it is the King himself.”

The more aligned we are with God’s interior presence, the more we are impelled to share God’s love. Teresa believed that we could do this in the simplest of ways:

“The Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, 
or even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.”
—The Interior Castle

It seems fitting that on this particular feast day, our reading invites us to offer prayerful praise through the magnificent Ephesians Hymn. These verses comprise a foundational New Testament canticle that beautifully frames the glory of God’s redemptive plan.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.

Ephesians 1:3-6

As we pray this glorious passage, we give thanks that, like Paul, Teresa taught us to recognize, love, and praise God’s dynamic presence within us, and revealed in the unfolding of our lives. Let your heart and spirit thrill to that thought as you ponder this exquisite scripture passage today.

Music: Ephesians Hymn – Suzanne Toolan, RSM

Suggested Reading:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.
In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,
in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace
that he granted us in the beloved.

In Christ we have redemption by his Blood,
the forgiveness of transgressions,
in accord with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.
In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us
the mystery of his will in accord with his favor
that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times,
to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.

Ephesians 1:1-10

T-Shirt Revelation

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Cross, Faith, Jesus, Prayer, spirituality, suffering5 Comments

October 7, 2026
Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary

When one of my beloved nieces visited this summer, she wore a T-shirt that both delighted and surprised me.

Why was I surprised? Well, for one thing, I hadn’t expected Mary to appear to me on a T-shirt! A grotto in Lourdes? A hill in Fatima? A chapel in Ireland? OK! But not a T-shirt!

Secondly, all my baptized-Catholic, Millennial niblings have drifted to Methodism or other Christian sects where I had assumed Mary occupied a quieter space than she does in the Catholic imagination.

Pondering this as I prayed this morning, I first dealt with my regret that the Catholic Church has been unable to captivate these young folks. So many reasons suggested themselves, all of them rooted in an institutional failure to establish relationships at critical points in their spiritual lives. But with mixed emotions, I felt ultimately grateful that each had sought another faith home, even if in a different tradition. Faith is sometimes inherited in surprising ways.

Continuing my prayer, I reached for the Rosary that rests beside my armchair. When Dad died decades ago, I took it from his special drawer in our old dining room credenza. The mahogany beads, worn and glistening with the balm of his fingers, embody the reasons my Catholic faith remains committed despite some of the same institutional failures.

I treasure what was passed on to me by generations of Irish-Catholic ancestors, and the memory of how their resolute faith sustained them through the tests of life and history. Much of that sustenance came through praying the rosary in times of testing, learning from Mary and Jesus a fully grace-filled response to life.

There is nothing we will meet in life without a mirror in the rosary. Though divine and saintly, Jesus and Mary lived fully human lives just like ours. They faced the same joys and trials, though dressed in the differing dimensions of their era. The rosary is a place where our humanity meets theirs, drawing the inspiration for faithful perseverance and spiritual deepening.

In the rosary, we encounter birth, death, fear, loss, wonder, suffering, hope, and love. Aren’t these the mysteries of our lives, just as they were for Mary? She didn’t escape them with some holy magic that made them disappear. She lived through them with a steadfast faith, trusting that God engages us in just such mysteries.

Coincidentally, that T-shirt-wearing niece happened to be born on October 7th, feast of the Holy Rosary. Happenstance? I think not. More likely, the invitation to pray for her  – and all my precious nibs – that, indeed, Mary may always be their Homegirl!

Music: Tota Pulchra Es, Maria – a 4th-century chant sung here by Andrea Lena

V. Tota pulchra es, Maria.
R. Tota pulchra es, Maria. 		V. Thou art all fair, O Mary.
R. Thou art all fair, O Mary. 
V. Et macula originalis non est in te.
R. Et macula originalis non est in te. 		V. And the original stain is not in thee.
R. And the original stain is not in thee. 
V. Tu gloria Ierusalem.
R. Tu laetitia Israel. 		V. Thou art the glory of Jerusalem.
R. Thou, the joy of Israel. 
V. Tu honorificentia populi nostri.
R. Tu advocata peccatorum. 		V. Thou art the honor of our people.
R. Thou art the advocate of sinners. 
V. O Maria.
R. O Maria. 		V. O Mary.
R. O Mary. 
V. Virgo prudentissima.
R. Mater clementissima. 		V. Virgin most prudent.
R. Mother most tender. 
V. Ora pro nobis.
R. Intercede pro nobis ad Dominum Iesum Christum. 		V. Pray for us,
R. Intercede for us with Jesus Christ our Lord . 
V. In conceptione tua, Immaculata fuisti.
R. Ora pro nobis Patrem cuius Filium peperisti. 		V. In thy conception, Holy Virgin, thou wast immaculate.
R. Pray for us to the Father, Whose Son thou didst bring forth. 
V. Domina, protege orationem meam.
R. Et clamor meus ad te veniat. 		V. O Lady! aid my prayer,
R. And let my cry come unto thee. 

Suggested Reading: Luke 1: 26-38

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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?