Category: Charity

Rain

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Discipleship, Faith, Forgiveness, healing, inclusivity, justice, Mercy, spirituality4 Comments

Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
June 18, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061824.cfm

Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of our Creator God,
Who makes the sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
Matthew 5:44-45

It must have been so hard to hear and accept Jesus’s words in his Sermon on the Mount. These listening disciples had been raised on the Deuteronomic principle “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. What could ever make them turn that principle inside out to do just the opposite of what they had always thought? What would make us turn from this kind of “justice”? After all, it’s even-steven, isn’t it?

In Jesus Christ, there is no even-steven. The Mercy of God is given to all of us without limits. It rains from the heart of God over all Creation. Jesus showed us that there is no place in Mercy for quid pro quo justice. If a disciple wants to love like Jesus, this precept is foundational.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Perhaps we are someplace where we can watch the rain today. If not we can remember how rain falls without distinction over everything within its embrace. So too does God’s Mercy fall on us moving us to be its agents in our world.

Enjoy the Peaceful Rain

Poetry: from The Merchant of Venice – William Shakespeare

The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'T is mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
But mercy is above this sceptred sway;
It is enthronèd in the hearts of kings,
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.

Music: Norwegian Rain – David Lanz

Reconciled

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Creation, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, justice, spirituality4 Comments

Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church
June 13, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061324.cfm

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Matthew 5: 23-24

Jesus teaches a profound lesson in today’s Gospel. We cannot be in balance with God if we are out of balance with our neighbor.

In the “court” of God’s justice, that balance resides not in judgment or vengeance. It resides in a love beyond “liking” — in reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, patience, hospitality, reverence, and service toward one another.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We realize that we can’t like everybody. We can’t feel good toward everybody. We can’t approve of everybody. But we can choose to be Christlike to everybody.

May we grow in that grace, inspired by the awareness that we are One in God with all Creation.

Poetry: One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII – Pablo Neruda

I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

Music: Amor Dei – Stephen Peppos

Neighbor

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, spirituality2 Comments

Thursday of the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time
June 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060624.cfm

One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him,
“Which is the first of all the commandments?”
Jesus replied, “The first is this:
Hear, O Israel!
The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
The second is this:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Mark 12:28-31

In this Gospel passage, Jesus really puts the spiritual life in a nutshell: Love God and love neighbor.

It’s pretty self-evident that to achieve holiness one must love God. But loving the neighbor is a far different story. Depending on our views in life, we might have a hard time with the annoying, Democrat/Republican, irresponsible, refugee, gay, unemployed, or subsidiary-dependent neighbor. Who is our neighbor, really? Or more to the point, who isn’t?

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s work to understand and embrace all persons, indeed all Creation, as neighbor. Doing so, what is required of us in response?

Thought: from Fred Rogers

“All we’re ever asked to do in this life is to treat our neighbor
—especially our neighbor who is in need—
exactly as we would hope to be treated ourselves. 
That’s our ultimate responsibility.”

Prayer: from Walter Brueggemann

On our own, we conclude:
there is not enough to go around

we are going to run short
of money
of love
of grades
of publications
of sex
of beer
of members
of years
of life

we should seize the day
seize our goods
seize our neighbours goods
because there is not enough to go around

and in the midst of our perceived deficit
you come
you come giving bread in the wilderness
you come giving children at the 11th hour
you come giving homes to exiles
you come giving futures to the shut down
you come giving easter joy to the dead
you come – fleshed in Jesus.

and we watch while
the blind receive their sight
the lame walk
the lepers are cleansed
the deaf hear
the dead are raised
the poor dance and sing

we watch
and we take food we did not grow and
life we did not invent and
future that is gift and gift and gift and
families and neighbours who sustain us
when we did not deserve it.

It dawns on us – late rather than soon-
that you “give food in due season
you open your hand
and satisfy the desire of every living thing.”

By your giving, break our cycles of imagined scarcity
override our presumed deficits
quiet our anxieties of lack
transform our perceptual field to see
the abundance………mercy upon mercy
blessing upon blessing.

Sink your generosity deep into our lives
that your muchness may expose our false lack
that endlessly receiving we may endlessly give
so that the world may be made Easter new,
without greedy lack, but only wonder,
without coercive need but only love,
without destructive greed but only praise
without aggression and invasiveness….
all things Easter new…..
all around us, toward us and
by us

all things Easter new.

Finish your creation, in wonder, love and praise. Amen.”

Music: Good Neighbor – Evan Craft

We may not look the same
Ya might talk different too
Got a long long list of differences
Between me and you
Different colors different stories
Even different politics
But He’s calling us now
To lay it all down
Get back to the heart of it
And be a good, good, good
Good, good neighbor
Learn to love each other with
The love of the Savior
Make room at the table
And share the hope that we got
And be a good, good
Good neighbor
And show the world we got a good God
I’ve read the good book
Every word in black and red
But is my faith alive if I live my life
And I don’t do what it says
Love your God with all your heart and soul
Love your neighbor as yourself
And be Jesus to a broken world
That’s crying out for help
And be a good, good, good
Good, good neighbor
Learn to love each other with
The love of the Savior
Make room at the table
And share the hope that we got
And be a good, good
Good neighbor
And show the world we got a good God
Yeah, we got a good God, oh
There’s room for everybody
In the family of God
There’s room for everybody
In the family of God
Make room at the table share
The hope that we got
‘Cause there’s room for everybody in
The family of God
The family of God
And be a good, good, good
Good, good neighbor
Learn to love each other with
The love of the Savior
Make room at the table
And share the hope that we got
And be a good, good
Good neighbor
And show the world we got a good God
And show the world we got a good God
And show the world we got a good God
There’s room for everybody
In the family of God
There’s room for everybody
In the family of God

Buddies

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Church, Community, Discipleship, Faith, spirituality6 Comments

Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter
May 11, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051124.cfm

A Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria,
an eloquent speaker, arrived in Ephesus.
He was an authority on the Scriptures.
He had been instructed in the Way of the Lord and,
with ardent spirit, spoke and taught accurately about Jesus,
although he knew only the baptism of John.
He began to speak boldly in the synagogue;
but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him,
they took him aside
and explained to him the Way of God more accurately.
And when he wanted to cross to Achaia,
the brothers encouraged him
and wrote to the disciples there to welcome him.
After his arrival he gave great assistance
to those who had come to believe through grace.
Acts 18:24-27

In this passage, we meet early Christians who loved and supported one another as they spread the faith. Priscilla and Aquila were a power couple for the early Church. Eloquent Apollos arrives on the scene not perfectly synched with the evolving Gospel. Priscilla and Aquila tenderly redirect him, welcoming him to teach the community.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We get a great picture of the importance of having good buddies for the mission. As we look at our own lives in service, how precious are our faith companions as we deepen our life in Christ! How grateful we can be for the gentle corrections, encouragement and support we have received in community! Let us pray for our whole Church that we will understand what it means to truly “buddy” one another in Christ.

Poetry: Alone – Maya Angelou

Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don’t believe I’m wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Music: Companions on the Journey – Carey Landry

We are companions on the journey,
Breaking bread and sharing life;
And in the love we bear is the hope we share
for we believe in the love of our God,
We believe in the love of our God.

No longer strangers to each other,
No longer strangers in God’s House;
We are fed and we are nourished
by the strength of those who care,
By the strength of those who care.

We have been gifted each other,
And we are called by the Word of the Lord:
To act with justice, to love tenderly
And to walk humbly with our God,
To walk humbly with our God.

We will seek and we shall find;
We will knock and the door will be opened;
We will ask and it shall be given
For we believe in the love of our God,
We believe in the love of our God.

We are made for the glory of our God,
For service in the name of Jesus,
To walk side by side with hope in our Hearts,
For we believe in the love of our God,
We believe in the love of our God.

Love

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Eternal Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Love, spirituality4 Comments

Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 5, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050524.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples:
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you
and your joy might be complete.
John 15:9-11

What would it be like if we loved as the Creator loves – eternal life flowing out from Trinitarian Love to sustain all of us for always?

Jesus says that this is how the Father loves, and how Jesus loves all of us. He says that we abide in this Love when we indeed love God above all and our Neighbor as ourselves.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Honestly, can there be a more ubiquitous word than “Love”, and yet we find so little of its true practice in our increasingly self-absorbed and violent culture!

If, when we “love”, it does not strengthen sacred life in another or in the world, then we have not truly loved. We may have desired, admired, adulated, or ingratiated, but we have not loved as God loves.

Let’s pray to be open and responsive to the gift of God’s Love flowing into our hearts.

Prose: from Embodied Love in John of the Cross – Richard P. Hardy, Ph.D.

For John of the Cross, being wholly converted into divine love means actually living God's own life:
The soul lives the life of God.
And the will, which previously loved in a base and deadly way with only its natural affection, is now changed into the life of divine love, for it loves in a lofty way with divine affection, moved by the strength of the Holy Spirit in which it now lives the life of love. By means of this union God's will and the soul's will are now one.
Finally all the movements, operations, and inclinations the soul had previously from the principle and strength of its natural life are now in this union dead to what they formerly were, changed into divine movements, and alive to God.

Music: Amazing Love – Peggy Duquesnel

Deed

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Eternal Life, Faith, Forgiveness, Gospel, holiness, spirituality2 Comments

Fifth Sunday of Easter
April 28, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042824.cfm

Children, let us love not in word or speech
but in deed and truth.
Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth
and reassure our hearts before him
in whatever our hearts condemn,
for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything.
Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us,
we have confidence in God
and receive from him whatever we ask,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

1 John 3:18-22

John makes it so clear and simple, doesn’t he? It’s what we do that matters, not what we say. Jesus said the same thing once when he pointed out a tree to his disciples and said, “By their fruits, you will know them..”

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s take a good look at our lives, and the lives of those we allow to influence us. Are we like trees bearing good fruit – good deeds of charity, peace, forgiveness, mercy, honesty, respect, encouragement, hope, and fidelity?

If our deeds reflect the opposite of these virtues, John says they condemn us. He calls us to Gospel faithfulness in what we do as well as what we say.

Poetry:

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world.

William Shakespeare

Music: Good Tree – Hillbilly Thomists (I thought these guys were fascinating! See more about them on their website: https://www.hillbillythomists.com/about)

You can’t gather grapes from a bramble bush
Or pick a fig from thorns
What I’d like to be
Oh, to be a good tree

Some fall in the rocks, on the beaten path
Some sink into great soil
From a tiny seed
Oh, to a good tree

Like a cedar high
And mustard wide
Where all the birds of the air can hide
Find rest inside

Oh, a good tree
The beetle bites
The black rot strikes
From the inside
Have your enemies

Oh, if you’re a good tree
High and dry
Some branches die
From time to time
A prune’s required
If you wanna be
Oh, a good tree

Even when I’m old
I still will be
Still full of sap, still green
That’s what I want to be
Oh, to be a good tree

By Your word
The dark is light
The tree of death becomes the tree of life
So let it be
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree

One

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Eastertide, Faith, inclusivity, Jesus, Love, spirituality2 Comments

Second Sunday of Easter 
Sunday of Divine Mercy
April 7, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040724.cfm

The community of believers was of one heart and mind,
and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they had everything in common.
With great power the apostles bore witness
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great favor was accorded them all.

Acts 4: 32-33

In this passage from Acts, community is noted as an essential aspect of life in Christ. We were not created to be alone. We are created to find God in the love of our sisters and brothers. That merciful and generous love, imitative of Jesus, makes us one with Him in the Trinity, that primordial Community of Generative Love.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We pray to understand that our capacity for community deepens in relationship to our generous and merciful love for each person. As we widen our circle of mercy and caring mutuality, the face of God becomes clearer in our lives.

Poetry: When Someone Deeply Listens to You – John Fox

When someone deeply listens to you
it is like holding out a dented cup
you’ve had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
you are loved.
When someone deeply listens to you
the room where you stay
starts a new life
and the place where you wrote
your first poem
begins to glow in your mind’s eye.
It is as if gold has been discovered.
When someone deeply listens to you
your barefeet are on the earth
and a beloved land that seemed distant
is now at home within you.

Music: In Christ There Is No East or West – Choir and Congregation, St. Martin in the Fields, London

Loved

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Lent, spirituality2 Comments

Fourth Sunday of Lent 
March 10, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031024-YearB.cfm

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.

John 3:16-17

For some of us, it’s hard to believe in a God we do not see. This passage from John suggests that God understands how hard it is. So that believers might not “perish” in their natural doubts, God made Divinity visible in Jesus Christ. The reason? Infinite Love for and desire to be one with us.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s rest in the confidence and gratitude this passage ignites in our hearts. God loves us — loves you — enough to become like you so that you might become like God.

Poetry: Infinite Love – Julian of Norwich, who was an English anchoress of the Middle Ages. Her writings, now known as Revelations of Divine Love, are the earliest surviving English language works by a woman. They are also the only surviving English language works by an anchoress. ( An anchoress is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society to be able to lead an intensely prayer-orientated, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life.)

Infinite Love

Because of the great,
infinite love which God has for all humankind,
he makes no distinction in love 
between the blessed soul of Christ
and the lowliest of the souls that are to be saved . . . .
We should highly rejoice that God dwells in our soul
and still more highly should we rejoice 
that our soul dwells in God.
Our soul is made to be God’s dwelling place,
and the dwelling place of our soul
is God who was never made.

Music: God So Loved the World – Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Wholehearted

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Faith, Gospel, Lent, Love, spirituality5 Comments

Friday of the Third Week of Lent
March 8, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030824.cfm

The Lord our God is Lord alone!
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.

The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than these.

Mark 12: 29-31

Is there even such a thing as a half-hearted love? When we truly love, we love completely. Otherwise, let’s call half-hearted love what it really is

  • convenience: I “love” because it fits my purposes
  • fear: I “love” because I am afraid of isolation and loneliness
  • pretense: I “love” because I don’t trust that I am loved in return
  • habit: I “love” because it’s the way I’ve always done things
  • keeping up appearances: I “love” because I don’t want anyone to know that I don’t really love

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s pray to love God for God’s purposes with a love that is fearless, trustful, passionate, and committed.

Jesus teaches that such wholehearted love of God is demonstrated by merciful love of neighbor. It’s an easy test — or is it?

Quote: from Rumi

A thousand half-loves must be forsaken 
to take one whole heart home.

Music: Wholehearted – by Newsong (lyrics below)

Trying to live in two worlds at one time
Holdin’ on to all the things that I call mine
Sayin’ one thing, but really livin’ two
It’s not just hard, it’s impossible to do

Lord, I want You to know
That this double life is through
And everything, all of me
I’m giving to You

And with my whole heart
I’m gonna love You
And with my whole life
I’m gonna live it for You
Take my heart, every secret part
I’m wholehearted in love with You

Talk about peace and talk about real joy
I’m talking about things I’ve never talked about before
Two roads to go, but only one road for me
I’ve seen both sides and I’m as sure as I can be

But, Lord, I want You to know
That this double life is through
And everything, all of me
I’m giving to You

And with my whole heart
I’m gonna love You
And with my whole life
I’m gonna live it for You
Take my heart, every secret part
I’m wholehearted in love with You

I’m not divided in my heart anymore
(‘Cause I know it’s You)
I said, it’s You and only You that I’m living for
(Only with my whole heart)

And with my whole heart
(Gonna love You)
With my whole heart
I’m gonna love You
And with my whole life
You know, I’m gonna live all it for You
Take my heart, every secret part
I’m wholehearted in love with You

With my whole heart
You know, I’m gonna love You
And with my whole life
I’m gonna live it all for You
Jesus, take my heart, every secret part
I’m wholehearted in love

Wholehearted in love
I’m in love with You, Lord…
You know, I’m gonna live it all for You, Jesus
Take my heart, take my soul
Wholehearted in love…

Forgive

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Faith, Forgiveness, Gospel, Jesus, Lent, spiritualityLeave a comment

Tuesday of the Third Week of Lent
March 5, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030524.cfm

Peter approached Jesus and asked him,
“Lord, if my brother sins against me,
how often must I forgive him?
As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered,
“I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.

Matthew 18: 21-22

Today’s parable reminds us that often our desire to be forgiven does not match our desire to forgive others. Of course, we understand our personal circumstances and see clearly how they deserve leniency. Can’t you hear yourself saying:

  • “I didn’t mean it!”
  • “I just forgot.”
  • “Give me another chance!”
  • “I won’t let it happen again.”

Many times people do hurtful things because of their own fears. Mercy calls us to receive and forgive those fears and limitations with the same generous grace as God receives us. And our merciful openness must extend endlessly .. “77 times”. That kind of sincere forgiveness takes a lot of grace. Let’s pray for it today.

Poetry: Forgiveness – George MacDonald

God gives his child upon his slate a sum –
To find eternity in hours and years;
With both sides covered, back the child doth come,
His dim eyes swollen with shed and unshed tears;
God smiles, wipes clean the upper side and nether,
And says, ‘Now, dear, we’ll do the sum together!’

Music: Where Forgiveness Is – Sidewalk Prophets