Category: Charity

Stranger

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, friendship, inclusivity, justice, spirituality1 Comment

Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
November 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111624.cfm

Beloved, you are faithful in all you do for the brothers and sisters,
especially for strangers;
they have testified to your love before the Church.
Please help them in a way worthy of God to continue their journey.
For they have set out for the sake of the Name
and are accepting nothing from the pagans.
Therefore, we ought to support such persons,
so that we may be co-workers in the truth.
3 John 5:8

Most of us have felt like strangers at some point in our lives. It’s not a nice feeling. You might have attended an event without a date or companion. You might have been the only woman in a group of men, or vice versa. You might have been the only Black person at a White funeral or the other way around. Didn’t we hope to find someone to connect to, someone who would offer us an open door?

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
As we think about Paul’s teaching, and our own experiences, let’s prayerfully consider our attitudes and actions regarding immigrants and refugees. Persons displaced by climate, politics, poverty, lawlessness, and a host of other causes deserve our help, as Paul describes. Let’s ask ourselves how we’re doing with that.

Poem: The Kindness of Strangers – Sally Van Dorn

Here I am with all my flaws
seeking form and shelter.

I blanche at the notion
of violence, but it’s coming

after us, closing in like a
superstition I can’t shake.

If I acquiesce to your harsh
future you must promise me

one thing. Where we go we will
find our youth again. Can you

see it there under the yellow linen
tablecloth? I’m depending on it.

Music: Wayfaring Stranger – published in 1858, author unknown

I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world below
There is no sickness, no toil, no danger
In that bright land to which I go
I'm going there to see my father
And all my loved ones who've gone on
I'm just going over Jordan
I'm just going over home
I know dark clouds will gather 'round me
I know my way is hard and steep
But beauteous fields arise before me
Where God's redeemed, their vigils keep
I'm going there to see my mother
She said she'd meet me when I come
So I'm just going over Jordan
I'm just going over home
I'm just going over Jordan
I'm just going over home

Love

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Conversion, Courage, Cross, Faith, Love, spirituality1 Comment

Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
November 15, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111524.cfm

But now, Lady, I ask you,
not as though I were writing a new commandment
but the one we have had from the beginning:
let us love one another.
For this is love, that we walk according to his commandments;
this is the commandment, as you heard from the beginning,
in which you should walk.
2 John 4:5-6

The Motherhouse chapel is impressive, more like a cathedral than a chapel. I remember being led into it for the first time when, at 18 years old, I came for my initial interview. It took my breath away. You can imagine the intensity of my prayer as I knelt for the first time at the altar rail, realizing that my young, inscrutable choices were about to change my life irrevocably.

I looked up to the Gospel command emblazoned above the apse thinking, “That’s what this is all about. Let me begin.”

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Perhaps, remembering a long-ago choice in your life, you will see how it has unfolded in love over the years. This is a good day to pray those memories and blessings with God.

Poetry: Slowly – Macrina Wiederkehr

Life unfolds
a petal at a time
slowly

The beauty of the process is crippled
when I try to hurry growth.
Life has its inner rhythm
which must be respected.
It cannot be rushed or hurried.

Like daylight stepping out of darkness,
like morning creeping out of night,
life unfolds slowly a petal at a time
like a flower opening to the sun,
slowly.

God’s call unfolds
a Word at a time
slowly.

A disciple is not made in a hurry.
Slowly I become like the One
to whom I am listening.

Life unfolds
a petal at a time
like you and I
becoming followers of Jesus,
discipled into a new way of living
deeply and slowly.

Be patient with life’s unfolding petals.
If you hurry the bud it withers.
If you hurry life it limps.
Each unfolding is a teaching
a movement of grace filled with silent pauses
breathtaking beauty
tears and heartaches.

Life unfolds
a petal at a time
deeply and slowly.

May it come to pass!

Music: The Faith – Leonard Cohen

Forgiveness

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Conversion, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Forgiveness, spirituality1 Comment

Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
November 14, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111424.cfm

Beloved:
I have experienced much joy and encouragement from your love,
because the hearts of the holy ones
have been refreshed by you, brother.
Therefore, although I have the full right in Christ
to order you to do what is proper,
I rather urge you out of love,
being as I am, Paul, an old man,
and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus.
I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus,
whose father I have become in my imprisonment,
who was once useless to you but is now useful to both you and me.
Philemon 1:7-11

Did you ever have to intercede for a friend? Or if you were the friend, did anyone ever have to intercede for you? That’s what is happening in this passage.

Onesimus, the escaped slave of Philemon, had also been accused of petty theft. During his escape, he comes into Paul’s company, is converted, and befriends and assists Paul.

Paul pleads with Philemon to forgive and reconcile with Onesimus as a brother in Christ.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We give thanks for those who have stood by us in times of testing, who knew our hearts better than others did, and who represented us in Christ.

Poetry: “Onesimus” by Tania Runyan

Since I stole your money, Philemon, and even more, myself, the body
that broke earth and stacked stones at daybreak while you slept,

you have every right to lash me till the whites of my intestines show,
brand FUG on my forehead, or throw me to the lions, who love especially

the taste of escaped slaves, our blood sweet with freedom’s fleeting breath.
But Paul, wild-eyed with Christ, has washed down his prison walls

with prayer. He knows you will take me back, not a slave, but a brother
delivering koinonia to your congregation in this present evil age, teaching

how to pray paralytics into motion and how to sleep in peace
when soldiers sharpen swords outside your windows. Paul calls me his son, no—

his very heart. I am no longer your body but will reside in yours,
pump forgiveness and prayer through your veins. I will make you

see Christ in every jangling harlot and rotting, leprous face.
I will make you a slave to God’s bidding.

Music: Return to the Heart – David Lanz

Seed

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Hope, spirituality2 Comments

Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
October 29, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102924.cfm

Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like?
To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that someone planted in the garden.
When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”
Luke 13:18-19

These poetic words of Jesus paint a picture of heaven filled with humility, hope, vitality, possibility, and Divine hospitality. Our hearts are the gardens where God plants this mystical seed! Amazing!

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray to have a holy longing for the heavenly seed God’s offers us. We pray to be loving gardeners of God’s indescribable gifts of faith, hope, and charity.

Poetry: God’s Garden by Dorothy Frances Gurney

The Lord God planted a garden
In the first white days of the world,
And He set there an angel warden
In a garment of light enfurled.

So near to the peace of Heaven,
That the hawk might nest with the wren,
For there in the cool of the even
God walked with the first of men.

And I dream that these garden-closes
With their shade and their sun-flecked sod
And their lilies and bowers of roses,
Were laid by the hand of God.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,–
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

For He broke it for us in a garden
Under the olive-trees
Where the angel of strength was the warden
And the soul of the world found ease.

Music: Gardens in the Sun – Georgia Kelly

Greed

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, justice, Mercy, spirituality4 Comments

Monday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
October 21, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102124.cfm

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus,
“Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”
He replied to him,
“Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”
Then he said to the crowd,
“Take care to guard against all greed,
for though one may be rich,
one’s life does not consist of possessions.”
Luke 12:13-15

We’ve all heard the all too true adage, “You can’t take it with you.” That’s the lesson in Jesus’s parable today. But the story conveys an even broader meaning. It is not only greed for possessions that waylays us, it is the distraction they cause from the true essence of life in God.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask for the courage and grace to focus our lives on God and God’s Creation. Within that focus, we will have a clearer understanding of what we truly need in life and what is simply a diversion.

Poetry: I Dream a World … – Langston Hughes

I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind-
Of such I dream, my world!

Music: Mercedes Benz – Janis Joplin

Joplin’s rock song might move us to realize that, even in unrecognized greediness, we sometimes ask God for the wrong things.

Woe

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Faith, Gospel, inclusivity, Jesus, justice, Love, spirituality1 Comment

Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
October 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101624.cfm

The Lord said:
“Woe to you Pharisees!
You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb,
but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God.
Luke 11:42

Jesus got fed up with those who lived a loveless law. The Pharisees were meticulous in their outward observation of the Law of Moses, but they failed its core test to love their neighbor as themselves as written in Leviticus.

Thought:

The only love of God that has any substance
is the love of God enacted as love of neighbor.

Walter Brueggemann

Music: Love God, Love Your Neighbor – Dale Sechrest

Faith

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Church, Community, Faith, inclusivity, spirituality1 Comment

Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
October 12, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101224.cfm

For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus.
For all of you who were baptized into Christ
have clothed yourselves with Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek,
there is neither slave nor free person,
there is not male and female;
for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:26-28

The faith we share with other Christians makes us one in Christ. If someone has become “the other” for us, the integrity our faith is damaged in some way.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray to truly be clothed in Christ – to so espouse his Gospel that we live in charity and reverence for all Creation.

Thought: from St. Augustine

O Sacrament of Love!
O sign of Unity!
O bond of Charity!
They who would have Life
find here indeed
a Life to live in
and a Life to live by.

Music: We Are One in the Spirit – Peter Scholtes

Mercy

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, healing, Jesus, justice, Mercy, spirituality1 Comment

Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
October 7, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100724.cfm

But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him
was moved with compassion at the sight.
He approached the victim,
poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them.
Then he lifted him up on his own animal,
took him to an inn, and cared for him.
The next day he took out two silver coins
and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction,
‘Take care of him.
If you spend more than what I have given you,
I shall repay you on my way back.’
Which of these three, in your opinion,
was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”
He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.”
Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”
Luke 10:33-37

Mercy sees you, welcomes you, acts for you, abides with you. Wrapped in Mercy, we find the spiritual comfort which allows us healing rest from those who did not see, welcome, act for, or abide with us.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
May we open ourselves to receive such Mercy. May we strenghten ourselves to give it generously.

Poetry: Xenia – Ryan Wilson

“Xenia” is the ancient Greek concept of hospitality,
the generosity shown to those who are far from home.

One day a silent man arrives 
At your door in an outdated suit, 
Threadbare and black, like a lost mourner 
Or a Bible salesman who’s been robbed. 
Penniless, he needs a place to stay. 
And you, magnanimous you, soon find 
This stranger reading in your chair, 
Eating your cereal, drinking your tea, 
Or standing in your clothes at the window 
Awash in afternoon’s alien light. 
You tire of his constant company. 
Your floorboards creak with his shuffling footfalls, 
Haunting dark rooms deep in the night. 
You lie awake in blackness, listening, 
Cursing the charity or pride 
That opened up the door for him 
And wonder how to explain yourself.

He smells like durian and smoke 
But it’s mostly his presence, irksome, fogging 
The mind up like breath on a mirror … 
You practice cruelty in a mirror, 
Then practice sympathetic faces. 
You ghoul. 
Your cunning can’t deceive you. 
You are afraid to call your friends 
For help, knowing what they would say. 
It’s just you two. 
You throw a fit when 
He sneaks water into the whisky bottle, 
Then make amends. 
You have no choice 
Except to learn humility, 
To love this stranger as yourself, 
Who won’t love you, or ever leave.

Music: The Good Samaritan – Dallas Holm

Beaten, weary, left along the way
Dry from thirst ’til word I could not say
Then you came walking by and looked into my eyes
And saw my need and stopped to rescue me

Others came and others went on by
Refused to help or just too tired to try
Alone at last I sat, my head fell slowly back
And words from deep within me reached the sky

‘I’m hungry, please feed me
I’m naked, please clothe me
I’m so alone, won’t someone come to me?’
The sound of my words died
Oh, well, at least I tried
And trying seemed the only thing to do

But no sooner had I stopped and you were there
And then I knew that God had heard my prayer
I should have realized, and not have been surprised
His eye is on the sparrow, so why not me

Beaten, weary, left along the way
Dry from thirst ’til word I could not say
Then you came walking by, and looked into my eyes
And saw my need and stopped to rescue me
Then you came walking by, and looked into my eyes
And saw my need and stopped to rescue me

Charity

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Church, Discipleship, Faith, Love, spirituality1 Comment

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, virgin and Doctor of the Church
October 1, 2024

Today’s Readings: from the Mass for St. Thérèse

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/1001-memorial-therese-child-jesus.cfm

The disciples approached Jesus and said,
“Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven?”
He called a child over, placed it in their midst, and said,
“Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children,
you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Whoever humbles himself like this child
is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 18:1-4

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We celebrate one of the most beautiful souls in the Communion of Saints. Let us learn from her profound wisdom lived with impeccable simplicity.

Charity gave me the key to my vocation.
I understood that the Church
being a body composed of different members,
the most essential, the most noble of all the organs
would not be wanting to her;
I understood that the Church has a heart
and that this heart is burning with love;
that it is love alone that makes the members work,
that if love were to die away
apostles would no longer preach the Gospel,
martyrs would refuse to shed their blood.
I understood that love comprises all vocations,
that love is everything,
that it embraces all times and all places
because it is eternal!

Music: Love Changes Everything – Andrew Lloyd Webber, sung by Michael Ball

Love

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Discipleship, Faith, Hope, Jesus, Love, spirituality1 Comment

Wednesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
September 18, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091824.cfm

At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially;
then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13:12-13

In this often recited and glorious passage from Corinthians, Paul recounts the three theological virtues: faith, hope, and love. He tells us that without love, the rest of the spiritual life is meaningless. And Jesus told us that to love only those who love us is not sufficient.

For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.

Luke 6:32

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Real love is not easy. We pray to grow better at loving as God loves – universally, selflessly, and limitlessly.

Poetry: Love’s As Warm As Tears – C.S. Lewis

Love’s as warm as tears,
Love is tears:
Pressure within the brain,
Tension at the throat,
Deluge, weeks of rain,
Haystacks afloat,
Featureless seas between
Hedges, where once was green.
Love’s as fierce as fire,
Love is fire:
All sorts—infernal heat
Clinkered with greed and pride,
Lyric desire, sharp-sweet,
Laughing, even when denied,
And that empyreal flame
Whence all loves came.
Love’s as fresh as spring,
Love is spring:
Bird-song hung in the air,
Cool smells in a wood,
Whispering ‘Dare! Dare!’
To sap, to blood,
Telling ‘Ease, safety, rest,
Are good; not best.’
Love’s as hard as nails,
Love is nails:
Blunt, thick, hammered through
The medial nerves of One
Who, having made us, knew
The thing He had done,
Seeing (with all that is)
Our cross, and His.

Music: The Greatest of These Is Love – Tina English and Jay Rouse

If I speak with the tongues of men and angels
but have not love, I am just a noise.
And if I have the gift of prophecy,
know all knowledge, have all faith,
understand all mystery, or remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give all I have to feed the poor,
but have not love,
nothing is gained, nothing gained.
Love is patient, love is kind.
Love does not brag, and is not arrogant.
Love is not proud, boastful, rude.

Love does not seek its own.
Love rejoices in the truth.
It keeps no record of wounds.
Love bears all things,believes all things.
Love hopes all things,
endures all things.

These three remain:
faith, hope, and love.
But the greatest of these is love.