Category: Creation

Memorial of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, ordinary time, Poetry, PsalmsLeave a comment

Monday, June 21, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 33 in which the human family remembers and gives thanks for God’s creative omnipotence.

Following upon our reading from Genesis, our psalm moves past Eden to the practical world of the psalmist. It is a world where centuries have passed and human beings have progressively made a mark on Creation – for good or for ill.

God has watched the progression, blessing or redeeming it in Mercy:

The One who fashioned together their hearts
is the One who knows all their works.

Psalm 33:15

The psalmist reminds us that all Creation generates within God’s power. To cooperate with that infinite grace, we must wait, listen, trust, and deepen in holy understanding:

Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and shield.
For in God our hearts rejoice;
in God’s holy name we trust.
May your mercy, LORD, be upon us;
as we put our hope in you.

Psalm 33:20-22

We are not the actors. We are simply the instruments of God’s gracious unfolding in the symmetry of Creation – both in the cosmos and in the delicate blossom of our own hearts.

How is God growing in the world today within my life?

Poetry:The light shouts in your tree-top, and the face – Rilke

The light shouts in your tree-top, and the face
of all things becomes radiant and vain;
only at dusk do they find you again.
The twilight hour, the tenderness of space,
lays on a thousand heads a thousand hands,
and strangeness grows devout where they have lain.
With this gentlest of gestures you would hold
the world, thus only and not otherwise.
You lean from out its skies to capture earth,
and feel it underneath your mantle’s folds.
You have so mild a way of being.
……………………………………………They
who name you loudly when they come to pray
forget your nearness. From your hands that tower
above us, mountainously, lo, there soars,
to give the law whereby our senses live,
dark-browed, your wordless power.

Our gifted Mercy artist, Sister Judy Ward, has created greeting cards using some of my designs. This “Sunrise Tree” is one of them. If you would like to purchase any of Sister Judy’s beautiful work, you can connect with her here. She’s nice to talk with on the phone.

Music: Awaking Moment – Joe Bongiorno

Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Creation, Faith, ordinary time, PsalmsLeave a comment

Thursday, June 17, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 111 which enumerates and celebrates the joys of relationship with God. The psalm is offered within the “faithful assembly”, that covenanted community who long to be faithful to their ever-faithful God.

One way to strengthen that commitment in ourselves is to reflect on God’s splendor, generously flowing into our lives:

  • in the amazing mystery of our own lives
  • in the blessing of those we love and who love us
  • in the unbounded beauty of nature 
  • in the wonderful gifts of human creativity that convince us of God’s Presence within us
  • the gift of sharing faith in community, however small or large, which fortifies our spirits in life’s challenging tides

Poetry: Christine Robinson – Psalm 111

Hallelujah!
I will give thanks to God with my whole heart--
in silence and in company.
God’s deeds are great—
   I will study them.
God is compassionate and gracious
   I will remember
God speaks in the heart—
   I will listen
God’s hands work faithfulness and justice
   I will follow
Awe of God is the beginning of wisdo
   I will praise God forever.

Music: Mozart – Vesperae de Dominica – Confitebor Tibi Domini (Psalm 111)

Confitebor tibi Domine,
In toto corde meo;
In consilio justorum,
Et congregatione.
Magna opera Domini,
Exquisita in omnes voluntates ejus.
Confessio et magnificentia opus ejus;
Et justitia ejus manetIn saeculum saeculi.
Memoriam fecit mirabilium suorum,
Misericors et miserator Dominus.
Escam dedit timentibus se.
Memor erit in saeculum
Testamenti sui.
Virtutem operum suorum
Annuntiabit populo suo.
Ut det illis
Hereditatem gentium;
Opera manuum ejus
Veritas et judicium.
Fidelia omnia mandata ejus,
Confirmata in saeculum saeculi,
Facta in veritate et aequitate.
Redemptionem misit Dominus
Populo suo;
Mandavit in aeternum testamentum suum.
Sanctum et terribile nomen ejus:
Initium sapientiae timor Domini;
Intellectus bonus omnibus
Facientibus eum.
Laudatio ejus manet
In saeculum saeculi.
Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio, et nunc, et semper.
Et in saecula saeculorum. Amen

I acknowledge you, o Lord,
With my whole heart;
In the council of the just
And in the congregation.
Great are the works of the Lord,
Chosen by all His desires.
I acknowledge as well the magnificence of His deeds;
And His justice endures
From generation to generation.
He has made memorials of His miracles,
A merciful and compassionate Lord.
He gives food to those that fear Him.
He will remember forever
His covenant.
The power of His works
Will be announced to His people.
So that He may give them
The inheritance of the nations;
The works of His hands
Are truth and justice.
All His commandments are faithful,
Confirmed from generation to generation,
Made in truth and fairness.
The Lord has sent salvation
To His people;
He has given His convenant for eternity.
Holy and awesone is His name;
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
All who practice it Have a good understanding.
His praise endures
From generation to generation.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, 
as it was in the beginning, is now, and forever, 
and for generations of generations. Amen

Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Faith, ordinary time, Poetry, Prayer, Psalms2 Comments

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 146, a lilting song of praise, remembrance, hope, trust, gratitude, and joy.

Praying with this inclusive translation, I let my life story unfold in the Presence of the Beloved, turning each petal over and over in the Light of God’s incomprehensible grace and mercy. No words … just the grateful turning. And I listened…listened to the silence.

Psalm 146

Alleluia
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.

Happy are they who look to God for their help! 
For their hope is in the Lord their God,
who made heaven and earth, the seas, and all that is in them;
who keeps promises for ever;

who gives justice when we are oppressed,
food when we hunger
freedom when we are entrapped.

The Lord breaks through our blindness
The Lord lifts us up wthe we have been bowed.
and loves our desire for good.

I remember how the Lord cares for us
when we are brokenhearted,
but frustrates the way of the faithless. 
I know the Lord shall reign for ever.
Alleluia!

Poetry: “I Happened To Be Standing” by Mary Oliver

I don’t know where prayers go,
or what they do.
Do cats pray, while they sleep
half-asleep in the sun?
Does the opossum pray as it
crosses the street?
The sunflowers? The old black oak
growing older every year?
I know I can walk through the world,
along the shore or under the trees,
with my mind filled with things
of little importance, in full
self-attendance.  A condition I can’t really
call being alive.
Is a prayer a gift, or a petition,
or does it matter?
The sunflowers blaze, maybe that’s their way.
Maybe the cats are sound asleep.  Maybe not.
While I was thinking this I happened to be standing
just outside my door, with my notebook open,
which is the way I begin every morning.
Then a wren in the privet began to sing.
He was positively drenched in enthusiasm,
I don’t know why.  And yet, why not.
I wouldn’t pursuade you from whatever you believe
or whatever you don’t.  That’s your business.
But I thought, of the wren’s singing, what could this be
if it isn’t a prayer?
So I just listened, my pen in the air.

Music: Praise You – Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

Lord I come to you today,
With a simple prayer to pray.
In everything I do,
Let my life O Lord praise you.

Praise you, praise you, praise you
Let my life, praise you
Praise you, praise you, praise you
Let my life, O lord praise you

Lord you formed me out of clay,
And for your glory I was made.
Use this vessel as you choose.
Let my life O Lord praise you

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Creation, Faith, Holy Spirit, Poetry, Prayer3 Comments

May 30, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, one of the most profound mysteries of our faith. 

The first reading shows us that human beings have been trying to understand this Mystery ever since the time of Moses! 

The readings from both Romans and Matthew describe the power of God’s triune love in those who believe. But none of the readings really explain the Holy Trinity.

And that’s the whole point. “Mystery” cannot be explained. We fumble around with human words in an attempt to capture a reality beyond words, beyond analysis – but not beyond faith. Mystery can only be encountered in humble and undemanding faith.

Today, as Christians, we profess our belief in a God Who is incomprehensible Infinite Love creating, redeeming and sanctifying all Creation. 

This Infinite Love is so pure and complete that, within its Unity, it both embraces and frees the three Persons of the Trinity.

Pope Francis has said, “The Christian community, though with all its human limitations, can become a reflection of the communion of the Trinity, of its goodness and beauty.”  

Our prayer today is to grow in our capacity to love in imitation of the Trinity. May we, as individuals and as a Church, increase in that merciful inclusivity and wholeness which reflect the triune love of God, at once embracing and freeing all that we love.

Poetry: TO LIVE WITH THE SPIRIT – Jessica Powers


To live with the Spirit of God is to be a listener.
It is to keep the vigil of mystery,
earthless and still.
One leans to catch the stirring of the Spirit,
strange as the wind’s will.

The soul that walks where the wind of the Spirit blows
turns like a wandering weather-vane toward love.
It may lament like Job or Jeremiah,
echo the wounded hart, the mateless dove.
It may rejoice in spaciousness of meadow
that emulates the freedom of the sky.

Always it walks in waylessness, unknowing;
it has cast down forever from its hand
the compass of the whither and the why.

To live with the Spirit of God is to be a lover.
It is becoming love, and like to Him
toward Whom we strain with metaphors of creatures:
fire-sweep and water-rush and the wind’s whim.
The soul is all activity, all silence;
and though it surges Godward to its goal,
it holds, as moving earth holds sleeping noonday,
the peace that is the listening of the soul.

Music: Always – Aeoliah

Always by Aeoliah 

Saturday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, ordinary time, Poetry, Prayer, PsalmsLeave a comment

Saturday May 29, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 19, full of beautiful words for us to pluck and relish. 

The sublime British writer and theologian C.S. Lewis says this about Psalm 19 and how the ancient Israelite may have appreciated it:

“Law” … must have shone with an extraordinary radiance. Sweeter than honey; or if that metaphor does not suit us who have not such a sweet tooth as all ancient peoples (partly because we have plenty of sugar), let us say like mountain water, like fresh air after a dungeon, like sanity after a nightmare. But, once again, the best image is in a Psalm, the 19th. I take this to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world. Most readers will remember its structure; six verses about Nature, five about the Law, and four of personal prayer.

C.S. Lewis, Reflection on the Psalms

As we pray today with the verses about God’s Law, we may consider each word as a facet of the Holy Spirit’s gifts given at Pentecost and at our Confirmation:

The precepts of the Lord are:

perfect
refreshing
trustworthy
wise
right
joy giving
clear
enlightening
pure
enduring 
true
just
precious
sweet

Meditating on the virtues, wouldn’t we like to fill our days with their peace, beauty, and wisdom?

The writer of Sirach surely wanted to, whose simple and profound prayer is the perfect complement to our psalm.

I thank the LORD and I praise him;
    I bless the name of the LORD.
When I was young and innocent,
    I sought wisdom openly in my prayer
I prayed for her before the temple,
    and I will seek her until the end,
    and she flourished as a grape soon ripe.
My heart delighted in her,
My feet kept to the level path
    because from earliest youth I was familiar with her.

Sirach 51: 12-15

Praying with these readings
may lead us to be awed
by the Spirit’s power in our lives
and open us to
its transformative presence.

Poetry: Psalm 19: XXIX Caeli enarrant – Malcolm Guite

In that still place where earth and heaven meet
Under mysterious starlight, raise your head
and gaze up at their glory: ‘the complete

Consort dancing’ as one poet said
Of his own words. But these are all God’s words

A shining poem, waiting to be read

Afresh in every heart. Now look towards
The bright’ning east, and see the splendid sun
Rise and rejoice, the icon of his Lord’s

True Light. Be joyful with him, watch him run
His course, receive the treasure of his light
Pouring like honeyed gold till day is done.

As sweet and strong as all God’s laws, as right
As all his judgements and as clean and pure,
All given for your growth, and your delight!

Music: Psalm 19 – The Law is Perfect

Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Eastertide, Eternal Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, Poetry, Prayer, PsalmsLeave a comment

May 21, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 103 which, set between our two readings, reminds us that the Ascension has occurred and that:

The Lord has established a throne in heaven.

Therefore, we are in a New Creation and thus invoke one of the most beautiful Creation psalms. 

Psalm 103 invites us to stand at the edge of First Creation as it breathes in the spirit of God. With the angels and all the intricate works of the Lord, we inhale Divinity. We quicken with the “ruach” of God, (Hebrew for “breath”.)

What we read in our translations of the Bible as “spirit”, “wind” or “breath” are translated from one Hebrew word, ruach. Walter Brueggemann says; “The Bible struggles to find adequate vocabulary to speak about and name this unutterable, irresistible, undomesticated force that surges into history to liberate, heal, remake, and transform. We are left with this code term, ruach, to speak about what we know but cannot say.” Ruach is the wind that parted the waters and created dry land, it is the very breath that God breathed into humans in our creation, it was this spirit that parted the seas and allowed the people to escape from slavery in Egypt, it is the same spirit that Jesus claims and empowers the early church in Acts. This ruach is active throughout our sacred stories.

from Caroline Furnace Retreat Center
Caroline Furnace Retreat Center Webpage

As we approach the feast of the great Inspiration of the Spirit, let us bless and praise our God for outpouring every form of infinite life upon us. May our humble prayer make room in us for ever deeper grace.

With all Creation, let us prepare our hearts to welcome the illuminating fire of the Spirit’s gifts and fruits to be renewed in us this Pentecost:

Bless the Lord, you angels,
you mighty ones who do the bidding of God,
and hearken to the voice of the word of the Lord.
 
Bless the Lord, all you hosts,
you ministers who do the will of God.

Bless the Lord, all you works of the Lord, 
in all places of the dominion of the Lord;
bless the Lord, O my soul.

Psalm 103: 20-22

Poetry: Breathe on me, Breath of God – Edwin Hatch (1835-1889)

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Until my heart is pure,
Until with Thee I will one will,
To do and to endure.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Blend all my soul with Thine,
Until this earthly part of me
Glows with Thy fire divine.

Breathe on me, breath of God,
So shall I never die,
But live with Thee the perfect life
Of Thine eternity.

Music: Breath of God – Caroline Cobb

Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Eastertide, Faith, Holy Spirit, Love, Poetry, Prayer, Psalms1 Comment

May 12, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 148, one of the “Laudate Psalms”.

The Laudate Psalms are the psalms numbered 148, 149, and 150, traditionally sung all together as one psalm in the canonical hours, most particularly the hour of Lauds, also called “Morning Prayer”, which derives its name from these psalms.

from Wikipedia

I’ve always loved the morning with its radiant possibility spilling over the horizon. Morning comes like a rainbow pantone, speaking not only to the weather outside but within our own spirits.

Praise the name of the LORD,
    for this name alone is exalted;
The Lord’s majesty is above earth and heaven.

Psalm 148: 13

Waking each morning, I wait for the day to speak to me. It finds itself in the sun or clouds, the warmth or cold. And then it finds me in whatever weather my heart might rest.

Prayer begins after that discovery, inviting the transforming and comforting power of God into whatever the day offers. Essentially, it is always a prayer of thanksgiving that I am alive and given another day to, by the power of God’s grace, know and be Love in the world:

Praise the LORD from the heavens;
    praise God in the heights.
Praise God, all you angels;
    praise God, all you hosts.

Psalm 138: 1-2

As we wait for the Holy Spirit on the great feast of Pentecost, let us trust Jesus’s Gospel words in today’s Gospel. Let us find each morning, and each day, full of promise!

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when the Spirit comes, the Spirit of truth,
you will be guided to all truth.

John 16:12-13

Poetry: Morning Poem – Mary Oliver

Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches–
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it

the thorn
that is heavier than lead–
if it’s all you can do
to keep on trudging–

there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted–

each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.

Music- Morning Has Broken – Cat Stevens

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Eastertide, Faith, Jesus, Poetry, PsalmsLeave a comment

April 28, 2021

Today’s Readings

I came into the world as Light,
so that everyone who believes in Me
might not remain in darkness.

Today’s Gospel – John 12:46

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, just this: The Full Pink Moon

O God, be merciful to us and bless us,
show us the Light of your countenance and come to us.

Full Pink Moon – poem by Renee Yann, RSM

Music: Moonlight Sonata – Beethoven 

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Community, Creation, Discipleship, Eastertide, Faith, PsalmsLeave a comment

April 27, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 87 which is both a celebration of and a longing for God’s Presence as symbolized for the psalmist in Jerusalem, Zion, the Temple.

His foundation upon the holy mountains
    the LORD loves:
The gates of Zion,
    more than any dwelling of Jacob.
Glorious things are said of you,
    O city of God!

Psalm 87: 1-3

For the psalmist, who is in exile, Zion was the visible expression of God’s exclusive relationship with Israel – the longed-for Kingdom.

In our reading from Acts, the concept of God’s Kingdom takes a larger shape. Jewish Christians, scattered in persecution, began to share the Good News with Gentiles. Barnabas blesses this sharing. He and Paul spend a year in Antioch teaching these new Christians who will not have the same devotion to “Zion”.

So where is “the Kingdom” now?

Our Gospel shows us Jesus, walking in the Temple portico one winter morning. He stands amidst the very symbols extolled in Psalm 87. He points his listeners, who are still resistant, toward the only true “kingdom”, one he has described before:

Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Luke 17: 20-21

We know from the Beatitudes that the “kingdom of God” belongs to the poor and the persecuted:

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven…..
……Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Perhaps there is a touch of biblical irony in the fact that our poor and persecuted psalmist, exiled from beautiful Zion, already possessed the “kingdom” within! But, without the benefit of Jesus’s teaching, it seems he didn’t realize it.

Do we realize it? 

Prose: from Hans Küng

(For my spiritual reading recently , I returned to an old favorite Hans Küng, a revered Catholic priest and Vatican II theologian who died earlier this month. Word of his death took me back to my 1960s heady theology days.🙏😇)

Here are two relevant quotes to our thoughts on “the Kingdom” today:

The meaning of the church does not reside in what it is but in what it is moving towards. It is the reign of God which the church hopes for, bears witness to and proclaims.

Hans Küng: The Church

The kingdom of God is creation healed.

Hans Küng: On Being a Christian

Music: The Holy City, Jerusalem sung by Jessye Norman

Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Faith, Forgiveness, joy, Poetry, Prayer, PsalmsLeave a comment

April 21, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 66, the exuberant prayer of those who recognize the beauty of God in their lives. They can see Love’s sacred thread, even when it is woven in subtle tones through the fabric of their lives.

I want to be one of those people, don’t you?

But sometimes, life might not look so beautiful. Surely it didn’t for some of the persecuted  Christians in today’s first reading. And yet they remained faithful and found joy.

Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word. …
Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing…
There was great joy in that city.

Acts 8:4-8

Joy is not dependent on circumstances. It is a foundational disposition of those convinced of God’s loving and faithful presence in our lives and in all Creation. It is a gift that accompanies faith, nurtures hope, and impels charity.

It is what our soul looks like when it shouts “Wow!” to God.

Say to God: “How awesome your deeds!
Before your great strength all contradiction cringes.
All the earth falls in worship before you;
they sing of you, sing of your name!”

Psalm 66: 3-4

We can’t just WILL ourselves into this kind of joy. But we can ask for it, pray for it, plead for it.  Such a prayer will turn and open our hearts toward our generous God Who longs to bless us with joy.

Poetry: Joy and Woe – William Blake

Joy and woe are woven fine,
A clothing for the soul divine,
Under every grief and pine,
Runs a joy with silken twine.
It is right it should be so,
We were made for joy and woe,
And when this we rightly know,
Through the world we safely go.

Music: Ode to Joy – Ludwig van Beethoven