Category: Charity

Snowball Man

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Discipleship, Service, spiritualityLeave a comment
Summer Haze – Andrè Aguado

Friends invited me out to a swanky dinner one night. Every menu item was presented in an elegant and appetizing manner. One offering particularly struck me. To clear the palate, the upscale restaurant offered “shaved ice infused with delicate essence“.

Immediately, my mind returned to a hot summer street in 1950 or so. The relative cool of evening had begun to fall over the broiled city. Families sat out on their steps or lawn chairs to catch whatever breeze might pass through the tight city streets. From the distance, a bicycle bell announced the impending arrival of the “Snowball Man”. He pedaled through the neighborhoods on a crudely cobbled cart, his newly purchased ice block tracing the watermarks of his passage.

Both nickel and dime portions were offered, with complimentary choices of flavoring from the half-dozen bottles which framed the precious ice block. There was no refrigeration. Of necessity, he journeyed quickly and a dawdling kid would be passed over for the next certain one in line.

The Snowball Man carried a transitory treasure which, in time, melted quickly into only memory. Yet it is in that memory where his jingling existence is preserved in a sweet array of colorful flavors.

That night, sixty years later, in a noisy, overpriced restaurant, the memory reminded me that so much of life is fleeting and fragile. Like the vendor’s ice block, our chance to offer sweet refreshment to the world will quickly melt away. Catherine McAuley, the first Sister of Mercy, expressed it this way: “Do all you can for God’s people for time is short.”

Today, when many around you are thirsty and parched, how will you share and flavor the precious refreshment within you?

Music: Time in a Bottle – Jim Croce

As you listen to this beautiful song, think about going through time with God and God’s People.

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 3:1-14

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Glimpses of Glory

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, friendship, Mercy, spirituality1 Comment

May 18, 2025

Spiegel Im spiegel (Mirron in the Mirror)

Like many of our immigrant ancestors, my early family was rather poor. They and their neighbors labored to put food on the table and to keep the house warm. I remember one neighbor in particular from my very early childhood. Widowed young and unskilled, she struggled to raise three children in a two-room house. My mother saw her devastation. Financially strapped herself, Mom would “hire” Rae about four times a year to help her house clean – – this rather than embarrass her with a direct handout.

Rae quietly and gratefully acknowledged my mother’s secret strategy. We would be rewarded with a pot of Rae’s famous “Pepper Pot Soup”. This was a poor person’s soup, made from scraps the butcher might otherwise discard. But, through her generous mutuality, Rae transformed it into a gourmet meal. She grew the spices for cooking in a little plot behind her house. I savored their scent which has never been quite repeated in my life.

I haven’t tasted Rae’s soup in nearly seventy years, but I can still savor the divine dimension of my mother’s generosity and of Rae’s gratitude. These women left me a glimpse of glory – an insight into how God sees, loves, and responds – both to our unspoken needs and our deliberate generosities.

  • 1 pound honeycomb beef tripe
  • 5 slices bacon, diced
  • 3 medium leeks, chopped
  • 2 medium green bell peppers, diced
  • 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
  • ½ cup chopped onion
  • ½ cup chopped celery
  • 2 quarts beef stock
  • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • ½ teaspoon dried marjoram
  • ½ teaspoon ground cloves (Optional)
  • ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
  • ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
  • 1 large bay leaf
  • 2 large carrots, diced
  • 1 large potato, peeled and diced
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Music: A Little a This and That – Pete Seeger (Lyrics below)

My grandma, she can make a soup,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
She can feed the whole sloop group,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
Stone soup! You know the story.
Stone soup! Who needs the glory?
But with grandma cooking, no need to worry.
Just a little a’ this ‘n’ that.

Grandma likes to make a garden grow,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
But she likes to have the ground just so,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
Not too loose and not too firm.
In the spring, the ground’s all got to be turned.
In the fall, lots of compost, to feed the worms,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.

Grandma knows we can build a future,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
And a few arguments never ever hurt ya,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
True, this world’s in a helluva fix,
And some say oil and water don’t mix.
But they don’t know a salad-maker’s tricks,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.

The world to come may be like a song,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
To make ev’rybody want to sing along,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.
A little dissonance ain’t no sin,
A little skylarking to give us all a grin.
Who knows but God’s got a plan for the people to win,
With a little a’ this ‘n’ that.

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: 1 Kings 17:8-16

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Holy Thursday’s Cup

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Discipleship, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality2 Comments

April 17, 2025

Ubi Caritas – Taize Community

Life is change. Like a deep and vast ocean, life moves in waves and currents, never still even at its depths. It is the rhythmic flow of God, drawing all creation back and forth in its power. Yet, at the same time, life is constant. Its source is the eternal well of God which has neither beginning nor end.

These are the waters in which we swim. Whether theologian or kindergartner, each one of us lives this mystery every day of our lives. At times we move with great agility, dolphins dancing in the stream of grace. At other times, our stroke falters. We fall like shelled mollusks to the ocean floor, heavy with our imagined limitations.

This is what happened to twelve men on an April night in old Jerusalem. They had been swimming in the miracle of God’s Incarnation. They had even asked, just weeks before, to sit in eternal glory with Jesus. They wanted their current happiness never to change. They did not really absorb the challenge of Jesus’ counter-question: “Can you drink the cup that I will drink?”

But on this April night, this Holy Thursday, that promised cup was handed to them. The clear waters would turn to wine and the wine would turn to blood. The flow of days would sink now to the depths of their hearts. Could they abandon themselves to its tumultuous current? Could they trust so completely as to be buoyed by God alone? Could they accept the cost of such infinite freedom?

Every change in our lives offers us the same cup. The change may be as profound as death or as simple as a clock ticking. The invitation within each circumstance is the same: will you allow this moment to free you into God’s Heart?

Music: Adoro Te Devote – Gregorian Chant Academy

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: Matthew 26:17-30

Scripture

Horizons

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Courage, Creation, Faith, healing, Seasons, spirituality2 Comments

March 17, 2025

Forest Dreams – Tim Janis

Spring is on the horizon! The long winter watch is almost over. But before we shake off its dark velvet wraps for good, it might be well to think about what winter teaches us.

The stretch of time between November and April is all about waiting. Bulbs wait under the frozen earth. Bears hibernate in the cold mountains. Birds migrate, their old nests empty until the spring. All creation seems to enter a time of patience and unrealized expectation. But it is not a time of desolation. It is a time of hope for things yet unseen.

Human beings also experience “winter” – not simply the seasonal one – but “winters of the spirit”. We all go through times when our nests have been emptied; times when all the beautiful flowering aspects of our lives seem dormant; times when our vigor and strength seem to hide in the cave of depression or sadness.

These “winters” take many forms. We may find ourselves sick of a job we had always loved. We may find a long, committed relationship wavering. We may find the burdens of age or economics overwhelming us. We may be the unwilling bearers of responsibilities we had not bargained for.

But if we listen, under the deep silence of any winter, the wind rustles. It carries the hint of a new season. It carries the hope of the renewing cycle of our lives. In that silence, we may be able to hear our heartbeat more clearly. We may come to a clearer understanding of what is most important in our lives. In the stillness, we may be forced to know and understand ourselves more deeply.

Others may reach out to us in their “winters”. They may be ill, experiencing confusion, or overwhelmed by the demands of their lives. They are asking for reassurance that some form of spring is coming. They yearn to feel the warmth and hope of renewed life. Our compassion for their needs will grow if we can remember our own winters. Surely, there has been a time when someone lifted the ice and blew warm breath over our fears, grief, or isolation. Someone held hope out to us to grab hold.

I think of a powerful image from the works of St. Teresa of Avila. She imagines God as a warm healer leaning over our frozen world, setting free the beauty of our spirits. This is what she says:

And God is always there,
if you feel wounded.
God kneels over this earth
like a divine medic,
and God’s love
thaws the holy in us.

Teresa of Avila

When we are compassionate and offer one another hope and light, we free what is sacred and do a holy work. Every time you touch another person’s life, you have the chance to change winter into spring. You have a chance to be like God.

Music: I Will Carry You – Sean Clive

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: Song of Solomon 2:11-13

Click for Scripture

Loving a Whole God

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Creation, Faith, Love, Prayer, spiritualityLeave a comment

February 14, 2025

As we may think about love this Valentine’s Day, I offer one of my poems on a different aspect of love.

Rusalka, Op. 114: “Song to the Moon” · Antonín Dvořák
One bitter day in February
I sat inside a sunlit room,
made warm love to You in prayer,
and she passed outside my window,
the unhoused woman, dressed 
uncarefully against the wind,
steadied on a cane, 
though she was young.

She seemed searching for
a comfort, unavailable and undefined.
The wound of that impossibility
fell over her the way it falls
on every tender thing that cries
but is not gathered to a caring breast.
Suddenly she was a single
anguished seed of You,
fallen into all created things.

Re-entering prayer,
I wear the thought of her
like old earth wears fresh rain.
I’ve misconstrued You,
Holy One, to whom
I open my heart
like a yearning field,
Holy One, already ripe within
her barest, leanest yearning.

Music: Teach Me to Love- Steve Green (Good song, but sorry for the non-inclusive language)

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: Luke 8:43-48

Click for Scripture

A Good Flannel Shirt

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, spirituality3 Comments

December 8, 2024

Photo by Chu Chup Hinh on Pexels.com
Winter Moon

Click the white arrowhead to the left above for some relaxing music while you read.
You may repeat click if you wish.

My mother, ever chilly even on warmer days, adored the word “flannel”. She loved to wrap her family in flannel – layettes, blankets, scarves and – above all – a good flannel shirt.  Dad, who worked outside often in harsh weather, had quite a flannel wardrobe in elegant muted plaids. On a wicked winter morning, seeing him off in such protective regalia gave Mom a measure of solace against her worry.   

Years later, when I ministered with people who had been left homeless, I remembered those shirts. Even as early as October, winter can make a brief, unexpected statement in our town. Someone living on the street can be caught off guard as an unannounced cold front sweeps in during the night. I began to carry an extra coat and some flannel shirts in the trunk of my car, distributing them to persons in need. Perhaps the shirts were scant shelter against a really cold bite – but they were, at least, something. 

In life, there are many ways to be caught isolated, cold and alone.  Despite all appearances, a person can be homeless in her heart.  Most often, that little “something” is all that person needs before she is able to mobilize her own resources against a harsh season. This kind of “flannel shirt” can come in many forms when “winter” hits unexpectedly – an encouraging word, prepared meal, offered errand, a listening ear. You can always keep that kind of warmth ready, just in case you meet someone for whom the heart fires have died.

I had never thought that Mercy could be made of flannel.  But, upon reflection, I think it just might be.

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: Luke 10:25-37 – The Good Samaritan

Click to read passage.

Thanksgiving

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Faith, Gospel, inclusivity, Jesus, Mercy, spirituality8 Comments

Thursday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time-Thanksgiving
November 28, 2024

Readings for Thanksgiving Day:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112824-thanksgiving.cfm

And now, bless the God of all,
    who has done wondrous things on earth;
Who fosters people’s growth from their mother’s womb,
    and fashions them according to his will!
May he grant you joy of heart
    and may peace abide among you;
May God’s goodness toward us endure
    to deliver us in our days.
Sirach 50:22-24

Poetry: Thanksgiving Presence – Renee Yann, RSM

Music: Now Thank We All Our God

Faithfulness

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Mercy, Service, spirituality, sufferingLeave a comment

Wednesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
November 27, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112724.cfm

Remain faithful until death,
and I will give you the crown of life.

Revelation 2:10

.In Luke 21, Jesus exhorts his disciples to remain faithful. Then he describes how fraught with difficulties that faithfulness will be: denouncement, imprisonment, false judgment, disavowal by family and friends, hatred, and even death. What is so terrifying about the Gospel that it evokes these responses in its enemies? What is so powerful about the Gospel that it will sustain its believers even through such trials?

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
I ask myself, “Have I ever really suffered anything for the sake of the Gospel”? What would that suffering look like? Would it not be setting aside my selfishness for the sake of the neighbor – even the unloved neighbor? If we dare to do that, we will surely suffer.

Prose: from Walter Bruggemann in “God’s Neighborly Economy”

“Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29)

The Bible is unflinching and unambiguous in its identification of the neighbor: widow, orphan, immigrant, the poor, lepers, the blind, deaf, lame … all those without viable resources or reliable advocacy.

Music: Take All the Lost Home – Joe Wise

Sweet

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Creation, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Love, Psalms, spirituality1 Comment

Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr
November 22, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112224.cfm

How sweet to my taste is your promise!
In the way of your decrees I rejoice,
as much as in all riches.
Yes, your decrees are my delight;
 they are my counselors.
The law of your mouth is to me more precious
than thousands of gold and silver pieces.
How sweet to my palate are your promises,
sweeter than honey to my mouth!
Your decrees are my inheritance forever;
the joy of my heart they are.
I gasp with open mouth
in my yearning for your commands.
from Psalm 119

Today, I choose to pray with our Responsorial Psalm 119, a beautiful love song to God. The psalm lists everything for which we might love God.

Picture a beloved asking you, “What do you love about me? Can you make a list?” Picture God doing the same thing. Psalm 119 is one person’s list of how they love the sweetness of God. What would your list look like?

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We take time in prayer to share “love talk” with God. How does the Divine Sweetness touch us, change us? How do we return that sweetness to God by our touch upon God’s Creation?

Poetry: Song Silence By Madeleva Wolff, CSC

Yes, I shall take this quiet house and keep it
With kindled hearth and candle-lighted board,
In singing silence garnish it and sweep it
                For Christ, my Lord.
 
My heart is filled with little songs to sing Him—
I dream them into words with careful art—
But this I think a better gift to bring Him,
                Nearer his heart.
 
The foxes have their holes, the wise, the clever;
The birds have each a safe and secret nest;
But He, my lover, walks the world with never
A place to rest.
 
I found Him once upon a straw bed lying;
(Once on His mother’s heart He laid His head)
He had a bramble pillow for His dying,
                A stone when dead.
 
I think to leave off singing for this reason,
Taking instead my Lord God’s house to keep,
Where He may find a home in every season
                To wake, to sleep.
 
Do you not think that in this holy sweetness
Of silence shared with God a whole life long
Both he and I shall find divine completeness
                Of perfect song?

Music: Cor Dulce – Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), sung by Benedictines of Mary

Sweet heart, most loving heart;
our love wounded,
our love languishing;
be merciful to me. 

Heart of Jesus, sweeter than honey;
heart purer than the sun;
Holy word of God,
fullness of God’s wealth.

Thy haven for a shipwrecked world;
secure portion for the faithful,
defender and refuge of our minds;
rest for our faithful hearts.

Cor dulce, Cor amabile,
Amore nostri saucium,
Amore nostri languidum,
Fac sis mihi placabile. 

Cor Jesu melle dulcius,
Cor sole puro purius,
Verbi Dei sacrarium,
Opum Dei compendium. 

Tu portus orbi naufrago,
Secura pars fidelibus,
Reis asylum mentibus,
Piis recessus cordibus.

Short

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Conversion, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, spiritualityLeave a comment

Tuesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
November 19, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111924.cfm

Now a man there named Zacchaeus,
who was a chief tax collector and also a wealthy man, 
was seeking to see who Jesus was;
but he could not see him because of the crowd,
for he was short in stature. 
So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree in order to see Jesus,
who was about to pass that way.
When he reached the place, Jesus looked up and said, 
“Zacchaeus, come down quickly,
for today I must stay at your house.” 
And he came down quickly and received him with joy. 
Luke 19:2-6

Every scripture passage has a lesson for us. And even though I’m tall, not short, there is a lesson here for me. For you too!

We want to grow in our ability to find God in every circumstance of our lives. But, at times, we may be short on the faith, hope, or charity to do so. We may be short on living the works of mercy. Not to sound hip-hop, but we may be short on “Gratitude for the Beatitude”!

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask Jesus to discover us in whatever metaphorical tree we might be hiding, to come under our roof, and to live at the center of our lives.

Poetry: The Stature of Zacchaeus – Amos Russel Wells (1862-1933)

Zacchaeus struggled with the crowd;
A little man was he.
"Vermin!" he muttered half aloud,
"I'll make them honor me.
Ah, when the taxes next are due,
I'll tower as is meet;
This beggarly, ill-mannered crew
Shall cower at my feet."
Zacchaeus climbed the sycomore
(He was a little man),
And as he looked the rabble o'er
He chuckled at the plan.
"I get the thing I want," he said,
"And that is to be tall.
They think me short but by a head
I rise above them all."
"Zacchaeus, come! I dine with you,"
The famous Rabbi cried.
Zacchaeus tumbled into view
A giant in his pride.
He strutted mightily before
That silly, gaping throng;
You'd think him six feet high or more,
To see him stride along.
Zacchaeus listened to the Lord,
And as he listened, feared;
How was his life a thing abhorred
When that pure Life appeared!
Down to a dwarf he shrank away
In sorrow and in shame.
He owned his sins that very day,
And bore the heavy blame.
But as he rose before the crowd,
(A little man, alack!)
Confessed his guilt and cried aloud
And gave his plunder back,
I think he stood a giant then
As angels truly scan,
And no one ever thought again
He was a little man.

Music: Zacchaeus – Miriam Therese Winter, Medical Mission Sisters