Category: Courage

February Stars

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Hope, Seasons, spirituality2 Comments

February 2, 2024

Starry, Starry Night – Don McLean

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The frosty blue nights of February fill our evening and morning windows.  We look through that deep sapphire richness to discover the diamond stars.  We imagine worlds, possibilities, and miracles presently beyond us.

Since Thanksgiving, we have been celebrating a season of hope:

  • the hope of Hannukah, when we remember the lamp burning miraculously and the courage to renew faith
  • the hope of Christmas, when we remember a small, vulnerable life that changed the world with the phrase, “Love one another.”
  • The hope of a New Year, when we remember past gifts that nourish us for future trust

But what about those times when hope flickers?

As we gaze through our windows at the crystal winter skies, our TV may be broadcasting the news behind us, challenging our hopes with the contradictions of war, violence, and disaster.  We may wonder where the great saviors and prophets are in our time.  Our numbed spirits may perceive only darkness and no starlight.

If so, stay still in the darkness.  Be quiet and wait.  Let one face, one smile, one kindness, one hand outstretched to you rise in your memory like steady Polaris. The world’s transformation to grace always begins within a single, shining human heart.  May your heart be that star for others.  May others like you fill your own skies with unquenchable light.

Poetry: Hope – Lisel Mueller

It hovers in dark corners
before the lights are turned on,
it shakes sleep from its eyes
and drops from mushroom gills,
it explodes in the starry heads
of dandelions turned sages,
it sticks to the wings of green angels
that sail from the tops of maples.

It sprouts in each occluded eye
of the many-eyed potato,
it lives in each earthworm segment
surviving cruelty,
it is the motion that runs
from the eyes to the tail of a dog,
it is the mouth that inflates the lungs
of the child that has just been born.

It is the singular gift
we cannot destroy in ourselves,
the argument that refutes death,
the genius that invents the future,
all we know of God.

It is the serum which makes us swear
not to betray one another;
it is in this poem, trying to speak.

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 Reading:

Click for Scripture

Crystal Clear

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Eternal Life, Faith, Service, spiritualityLeave a comment

January 26, 2025

White Cliffs of Dover – Walter Kent

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One January morning, I stood with my sisters in our community cemetery.  As our religious community ages, it is a ritual we practice all too often, as we honor the legacies of women with whom we have spent most of our lives.  But that Saturday was unique. Let me tell you why.

That day, we celebrated our first military funeral for one of our sisters. It was a solemn and thrilling sight. The cold February sky sparkled like blue crystal. Sun reflected off the time-polished tombstones, creating an honor guard of light.  As we processed to the graveside beside her flag-draped casket, three sailors awaited us at attentive salute.

Sister Bernard Mary, a farm girl from Trenton NJ, became a Navy nurse in World War II.  After her service to our country, she entered the Sisters of Mercy and served in our healthcare ministries for over fifty years. She cared for the sick and poor with unrivaled perfection and compassion.  Her entire life was marked by a profound sense of duty – a duty suffused with love.  

As she was laid to rest, the clear notes of “Taps” rang out to the heavens, inviting her compassionate soul to “go to sleep”.  Like all the others gathered there, I drew so many lessons from her dedicated life.  One is this:  understand your duty and execute it with sincerity and love.  If you do, no matter what life throws at you — be it economic, physical, or psychological downturn –your clear spirit will endure and will ring out like singular bugle notes in the crisp morning air.

Sister Bernard Mary lived for ninety-one long years. Still, I left her grave remembering these stirring words of the first Sister of Mercy, Catherine McAuley: “Do all you can for God’s people, for time is short.”

Music: Taps

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: Proverbs 22:1-4

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Hospitality – Our Human Anti-freeze

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, inclusivity, Seasons, spirituality1 Comment

January 19, 2025

January by Vladimir Sterzer

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How do the great trees die and come to life again?  It’s a question we can ponder every winter as the bare, black branches fill with ice.  Their stark emptiness seems to be a place from which there is no return.  But we know otherwise.  In the encroaching cold of every December, our experience whispers that there will be another April.  Still, in the frigid dark, it is sometimes hard to believe.

Like nature, each one of us has our seasons.  

  • Our lives contain the seasons of our youth and aging.  
  • Our daily experiences turn in both the ebb and tide of life.  
  • Each of us has blossomed with spring’s new life:  beginning a new job, relationship, adventure.  
  • Each of us has cultivated what we love over warm summers of dedication and growth – our faith, families, friends, ministries, andcareers.  
  • Each of us has reaped the autumn returns of our efforts, walking away from a red and golden field carrying a well-earned harvest – graduations, anniversaries, promotions, retirements. 
  • Certainly, each of us has known our own winters, when cold has threatened and dark has isolated – and yet, like the trees – we have survived.

As we move into the depths of “Winter 2025”, it seems an opportune time to review the lessons of the season – especially the chapters on deep roots, inner quiet, and a hidden spiritual warmth that defies freezing.  

In the winters of our lives, we are invited to learn what truly sustains us.  We are called to delve into the power of endurance, forgiveness, honesty, loyalty, and faithfulness.  These are the winter virtues that sustain life deep under the surface of any paralyzing storm.  These are the salts that keep life’s highways passable, allowing us to stay connected to all that keeps us vibrant.

On any given day of the year, we can experience “winter”.  Think of the times you have received (or given) the “cold shoulder”.  Remember the times your explanations have been given an icy reception?   Haven’t there been conversations where you were frozen out?  Can’t you still see the frosty stare you got from someone who thought you were beneath them?  We have all known some sub-zero responses when we were looking for a warm word.  We have all received some chilly greetings when we needed not to feel like a stranger. 

Hospitality is the perfect antidote to all these methods of freezing one another out.  It is the human anti-freeze that reminds us that we need one another’s warmth to survive the treacheries of life.  If there is someone you have exiled to the Arctic, think about reaching out in hospitality, forgiveness or honesty.  This winter, let go of the glacial grudges, silences, and harbored hurts that sometimes freeze our souls and kill our hope of returning to life.  Listen to the voice of the dark December night.  It tells us how to move toward spring.

Music: Winter Sonata – David Lanz

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: Colossians 3:12-17

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The Red Fox

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality1 Comment

January 15, 2025

Photo by Alex Andrews on Pexels.com
We Are the World – Michael Jackson

The red fox lay dead in the road a little east of the mall entrance. It was a beautiful animal come to an inglorious end. 

When an animal is killed trying to cross a road, it demonstrates a lesson learned in college biology – “geographic isolation”.   Geographic isolation occurs when human-made structures, such as roads or canals, artificially separate animals of the same family.  Over the course of decades, the animals on one side of the road assume different characteristics from the same type of animals on the other side of the road.  Eventually, they may begin to behave toward each other as if they were two different species. In other words, their isolation begins to fool them into thinking they are different – even enemies.

There are all kinds of geographies in the world – not just the traditional ones that delineate nations. And there are all kinds of isolations that we can build into our multiple internal and external maps.

That little red fox might cause us to consider the breadth of our landscapes, our mindscapes, our soulscapes.  How restricted are we in our ability to travel to and be comfortable in all different kinds of worlds.   As we look at the circle of our friends, experiences, ideas, multi-cultural exposure – is the circle expansive or very limited and controlled?  Have we allowed ourselves to live in a compressed world with fake boundaries? At the end of our one precious life, will we be sorry for all the growth opportunities we missed because our “geography” was so protected and myopic?

History boasts a few borderless explorers who have led the rest of us out of our comfort zones and into the challenges of discovery. These leaders had a sense of a universal geography.  They saw borders only as the farthest points to which we can stretch – imagination, love, hope and courage. Their standard approach to life’s newness was an inclusive hospitality.  They had a constant attitude that questioned isolation and was suspect of territorialism. They were the believers who knew there was more beyond the horizon – beyond the limits of a flat world or a self-centered universe.

Martin Luther King was such a man.  The artificial boundaries created by race and economic status were invisible to him.  He challenged people who built their “privilege” on these unfounded borders.  He opened the eyes and hearts of millions who had taken this moral “geographic isolation” for granted.  He began the building of bridges that, if we complete them, will ultimately heal our world and our spirits.

Martin Luther King knew that we are all one people.  He refused to allow the separations of prejudice and stereotyping to define the borders of his life.  May his inspiration spur the rest of us to move outside our life-limiting ideas and step into a world of unity, mutuality, respect, and hope.

This year, we will celebrate MLK Day on January 20th. But today, as we mark his actual birthday, let’s take a sincere look at how much our prejudices control our choices.  Let’s find someone or something that will help us continue to grow in openness and understanding.

Music: We Shall Overcome – Morehouse College

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: John 17:20-23

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New Year’s Eve

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Christmastide, Courage, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality6 Comments

December 31, 2024

Memory – Andrew Lloyd Webber

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We stand now on the far western shore of the Year of Our Lord, 2024.  It is well near evening.  Our memories are silhouetted against the deep magenta sky as they sail beyond the shimmering horizon.  We have lived, laughed, lost and loved in ways never to be repeated, yet never to be forgotten.  The great turning of time goes relentlessly on, but we have written our story in its indelible trail.

The stroke of midnight on December 31st – magic, mysterious, holy. 

With fireworks and reveling, popular culture will invite us to the brash celebration of our presence within this point in history.  But, at the altar of our hearts, we recognize this long evening of reminiscence as a time of quiet thanksgiving and petition.  It is a time of awe and trust in the power of our Almighty God.

Like flint struck against the steadfast soul of God, we have been given the spark of life.  We are God’s fire at this moment in time’s long unwinding.  Tonight, we turn our spirits to those beside us, behind us, before us, and we pray in thanksgiving and hope for them.

Together, we sink into the dark infinity of our Creator who sustains all life beyond our worries, fears and limitations.  With innumerable universes, God balances us in the palm of Mercy.  As the midnight shadows fall, God closes Divine fingertips over us in grace and protection.

In the split moment between two years, we too become infinite – fire in God’s darkness, spark redeemed beyond time. In 2025, we will forget this transcendent moment.  The bright light of daily living will blind us to that piece of divinity shining in our souls.  But tonight, let us remember.  As midnight passes by, may our spirits kneel within us to the Awesome Mystery who holds us, as one, eternally within Itself.

Music: Auld Lang Syne

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 Reading: Psalm 90: 10-17

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Gifts of Darkness

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, FaithLeave a comment

December 22, 2024

Winter Moon – Dulin

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For me, there is always something magical about dark winter mornings.  I think the feeling might be left over from childhood.  Stretching on tiptoes then, I would peek over the window sill into that rich darkness to see if it had snowed.  Had the silent night left a white playground awaiting me in the first glimmer of the morning?  

The magic too may be a residue of many Christmas mornings when I would peer into the darkness for a glimpse of a vanishing Santa, hoping to surprise him before his undiscovered retreat.  Even today on a winter morning, before I brew my tea, I look out into the darkness for the promise and surprise of the new day.  Something of childlike hope stays in all our grown-up hearts.

But sometimes, darkness can be scary.  It can cause us to lose our way.  It can cover the familiar with a grey veil of unfamiliarity. But darkness can also reveal what we might otherwise overlook.  The magnificence of the stars can only be realized in the dark. The gentle revelation of moonlight on the water is a gift only of the night.

My father died suddenly when I was still a young woman.  His death was devastating to me and my family and I wondered why God had seemed to forget us.  The deep mourning lasted for months, but I remember one night in the midst of it that changed everything.  

It was a clear, almost purple evening.  I had walked to the window, my soul still filled with the silent tears of a long bereavement.  I stared out into the darkness and saw the first brilliant evening star singularly poised in the velvet blackness.  In that moment, I knew that under all our pain, the love and justice of God still anchored the world.  I knew that in time more stars would break through and eventually the first rays of sun.  I knew that the darkness contained much more than I could ever see or understand and that my father was safe in its embrace. I understood that the deep light of faith is often wrapped in the shawl of night.

This is a time of year when we remember the gifts that have come to us out of the darkness.  Advent is a time when we await the Divine Word Who “when the night was midway through its course, and the whole world was still, leapt down from heaven to earth.” (Wisdom 18:1) .

During this time of faith and magical memories, may each one of us find our light in the darkness. May that light fill any night inside us with promise, hope, forgiveness, and thanksgiving.  May it lead us to the confidence that under all our experience, God anchors our world in love.

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:

Click for Scripture

Judgment

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, spiritualityLeave a comment

Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
November 30, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/113024.cfm

The judgments of the Lord are true,
and all of them are just.

The law of the LORD is perfect,
    refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
    giving wisdom to the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
    rejoicing the heart;
The command of the LORD is clear,
    enlightening the eye.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
    enduring forever;
The ordinances of the LORD are true,
    all of them just.
They are more precious than gold,
    than a heap of purest gold;
Sweeter also than syrup
    or honey from the comb.
~from Psalm 19

Our Gospel tells the almost unbelievable story of hardy fishermen dropping their nets, family, and livelihood to follow an itinerant preacher. What could possibly make them do that?

There was a magnetism in Jesus that completely captured the first followers. His words, his judgments, his entire being reflected the Way, the Truth, and the Life. His call unleashed a force in theirs that they hadn’t known was there.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
On this eve of Advent, we ask ourselves, “Why do I follow (or fail to follow) Jesus? Are my judgments aligned with the Truth who Jesus is? What great attraction is drawing my heart to the next depth of holiness?

Poem: The Call – George Herbert (1593-1633)

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
Such a Life, as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a Light as shows a feast:
Such a Feast, as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joyes in love.

Music: After 300 yers, George Herbert’s poem was put to music by Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Reap

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Prayer, spirituality3 Comments

Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
November 26, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112624.cfm

I, John, looked and there was a white cloud,
and sitting on the cloud one who looked like a son of man,
with a gold crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
Another angel came out of the temple,
crying out in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud,
“Use your sickle and reap the harvest,
for the time to reap has come,
because the earth’s harvest is fully ripe.”
So the one who was sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth,
and the earth was harvested.
Revelation 14:14-16

The Book of Revelation paints another image for us of the end times. We wonder about it, don’t we? The image of God reaping the harvest of which we are a part! Wow!

What will it really be like at the end of the world? Will it come in my lifetime? Will we see our beloveds again? Will we celebrate together the Second Coming of Christ? John wondered the same things we do, and today’s reading describes how he imagined the Parousia.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We spend time in prayer, not so much imagining the unimaginable, but in asking ourselves if we are ready to receive the fullness of Christ for all eternity.

Poetry: For the Interim Time – John O’Donohue

When near the end of day, life has drained
Out of light, and it is too soon
For the mind of night to have darkened things,

No place looks like itself, loss of outline
Makes everything look strangely in-between,
Unsure of what has been, or what might come.

In this wan light, even trees seem groundless.
In a while it will be night, but nothing
Here seems to believe the relief of darkness.

You are in this time of the interim
Where everything seems withheld.

The path you took to get here has washed out;
The way forward is still concealed from you.

“The old is not old enough to have died away;
The new is still too young to be born.”

You cannot lay claim to anything;
In this place of dusk,
Your eyes are blurred;
And there is no mirror.

Everyone else has lost sight of your heart
And you can see nowhere to put your trust;
You know you have to make your own way through.

As far as you can, hold your confidence.
Do not allow confusion to squander
This call which is loosening
Your roots in false ground,
That you might come free
From all you have outgrown.

What is being transfigured here is your mind,
And it is difficult and slow to become new.
The more faithfully you can endure here,
The more refined your heart will become
For your arrival in the new dawn.

Music: The Ride of the Valkyries – Richard Wagner

Sometimes when prayer is beyond words, music may capture our feelings and speak them to God for us. I love to play this piece when praying these end-time passages.

Blossom

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, holiness, spiritualityLeave a comment

Wednesday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
November 20, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112024.cfm

While people were listening to Jesus speak,
he proceeded to tell a parable because he was near Jerusalem
and they thought that the Kingdom of God
would appear there immediately.
So he said,
“A nobleman went off to a distant country
to obtain the kingship for himself and then to return.
He called ten of his servants and gave them ten gold coins
and told them, ‘Engage in trade with these until I return.’
Luke 19:11-13

This is a tough parable to get real devotional about. It’s the story of a nasty guy who wants to be king. When his campaign is repulsed, he takes it out on his servant whom he deems unproductive.

But think about where Jesus told the story. He is at the threshold of Jerusalem where, through his Passion and Death, he will reign over the universe. But Jesus will do this by the inverse of what we would expect. He will be rejected by this world to open us to the deeper essence of its heart.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Jesus wants his followers to be productive in spreading the Gospel. He wants us to blossom in faith and service to God’s Name. We pray for the courage to exercise those gifts in faith, hope, and charity.

Prose: Prayer of Walter Brueggemann

You are the giver of all good things. 
All good things are sent from heaven above, 
rain and sun, day and night, 
justice and righteousness, 
bread to the eater and seed to the sower, 
peace to the old, energy to the young, 
joy to the babes. 

We are takers, who take from you, day by day, 
daily bread, taking all we need as you supply, 
taking in gratitude and wonder and joy. 

And then taking more, 
taking more than we need, 
taking more than you give us, 
taking from our sisters and brothers, 
taking from the poor and the weak, 
taking because we are frightened, and so greedy, 
taking because we are anxious, and so fearful, 
taking because we are driven, and so uncaring. 

Give us peace beyond our fear, and so end our greed. 
Turn our taking into giving, since we are in your giving image: 
Make us giving like you, 
giving in joy, not taking, 
giving as he gave himself up for us all, 
giving, never taking. 
Amen.

Music: God Turn Me Into a Flower

What would it take to truly “blossom” for God, to be the Love that Jesus hopes for us, to take the coin of grace and enrich it by our service of the Gospel?

As you listen to this rather mysterious song, you might consider those questions.

Tribulation

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, dying, Eternal Life, Faith, spiritualityLeave a comment

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 17, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111724.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples:
“In those days after that tribulation
the sun will be darkened,
and the moon will not give its light,
and the stars will be falling from the sky,
and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

“And then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in the clouds’
with great power and glory,
and then he will send out the angels
and gather his elect from the four winds,
from the end of the earth to the end of the sky.
Mark 13:24-27

We’re coming to that time of year that I don’t really like too much. The eschatological readings used to close out the liturgical year are filled with astounding, awesome, and sometimes frightening images.

But I guess that’s the whole point. If you haven’t gotten the message throughout the entire year, this is a last-ditch effort to scare it into you!

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We offer the prayer of today’s Responsorial Psalm, confident that when the end time comes, we will be among those who rejoice.

Poetry: You are my inheritance, O Lord! - Psalm 16

Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.

You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.

Music: In Paradisum – interpreted by Michael Hoppé

In paradisum deducant te angeli; 
in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, 
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem. 
Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, 
et cum Lazaro quondam paupere 
æternam habeas requiem.
May the angels lead you into paradise; 
may the martyrs receive you at your arrival 
and lead you to the holy city Jerusalem. 
May choirs of angels receive you 
and with Lazarus, once was poor, 
may you have eternal rest.