Category: Creation

When a Beloved Tree Falls

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Creation, dying, Faith, Love, Mercy, spirituality11 Comments

July 6, 2024

Last week, a great tree was felled at the edge of our Motherhouse lawn. Having stood for decades near the Guardian Angel, it had shaded many generations on their way to Mercy: students, staff, visitors, and the Sisters themselves on their many ins and outs to this common home.

The whole community which gathers here daily felt a pang at the hewing, knowing that we had shared the very breath of this tree for so long. Its leafy embrace offered us a place to cool in the present, a way to remember the beauty of the past, and a security about the future. Seeing it disassembled by necessity gave a bittersweet pain. But there was a peace in knowing that our tree had come to completion with honor and dignity.

We drew so much from the presence of that tree, but perhaps we can draw even more from its absence. The lines of Gregory Norbet’s hymn “Hosea” come to mind:

Trees do bend, though straight and tall.
So must we to others’ call
Long have I waited for your coming home to me,
And living deeply our new life.

Our tree, even in its retreat, still speaks to us – a truth becoming profoundly evident these days as we mourn the passing of our sister and friend Marie Ann Ellmer. She stood straight and tall among us, but another call came precipitously in the early morning last week.

When a beloved dies, one with whom we drew the same breath and hope, part of us dies. Whether a great tree or a magnanimous soul, they take something with them of the life we shared. When we mourn them, it is that which is taken that we pine for. But as we fold their lives under Love’s eternal blanket, it is that which they have left us that gives joyful peace.

That glorious tree and dear Marie Ann seem to be one now in the solemn aura that follows death. Both, in rare beauty, brought others to the precious gift of Mercy. Both remain treasured in its Everlasting Power. And both have given back to Creation the blessed graces that made them shine among us.

Worry

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, spirituality9 Comments

Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
June 22, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://wordpress.com/post/lavishmercy.com/35531

Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying
add a single moment to your life-span?
Matthew 6:26-27

What is “worrying” really? For me, it’s about trying to control things that are completely out of my control. Worrying is a futile practice in which I continue to engage despite all logic! What about you?

With his words today, Jesus wants to spare us from worrying. One of the simple examples he uses are the birds. Birds don’t worry. That doesn’t mean they give everything up and loaf in the trees expecting God to wait on them!

Birds are industrious – building nests, feeding and training offspring, migrating long distances when its time. In other words, birds do what they can, The rest is in God’s hands. That’s the lesson today!

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We want to learn from nature what peace, acceptance and hope look like. Jesus tells us that there is a lot to learn there.
If you can, try to pray outside today. No books, no earbuds, no buddies to converse with. Just be quiet and learn.

Scripture: Matthew 6:28-30

Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

Music: Consider the Lilies of the Field – The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square

Reverence

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Discipleship, Faith, Forgiveness, Gospel, holiness, Jesus, Mercy, spirituality1 Comment

Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
June 17, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061724.cfm

Jesus said to them:
“Offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on your right cheek,
turn the other one to them as well.
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic,
hand them your cloak as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile,
go with theme for two miles.
Give to the one who asks of you,
and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”

Although the word “reverence” is not specifically mentioned in our readings, it summarizes their core message.

Jezebel has no reverence for human life. She is a conspirator, thief, and murderer. Jezebel has no moral code and only one interest in life – herself.

Jesus calls his followers to be the antithesis of Jezebel. We are to so reverence life and truth that we become like Jesus. We are to be peaceful, non-violent, forgiving, and generous – even toward the “jezebels” of this world.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Wow! No easy challenge, but nonetheless essential for discipleship! We ask Jesus to give us insight into any selfishness in our hearts, and the courage to live according to his mandate.

Prose: from Dorothy Day

“The greatest challenge of the day is:
how to bring about a revolution of the heart,
a revolution which has to start with each one of us?

When we begin to take the lowest place,
to wash the feet of others,
to love our brothers and sisters with that burning love,
that passion, which led to the Cross,
then we can truly say, ‘Now I have begun.'”

Music: Reverence by David Tolk

Flourish

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, Love, Psalms, spirituality1 Comment

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061624.cfm

The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall they grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
Psalm 92:13-14

This verse from Psalm 92 ties together all our readings for today.

In the passage from Exodus, God takes a tiny twig, protects and nourishes it, and it flourishes. The analogy describes God’s relationship with Israel and with us. We are called to flourish in the Kingdom of God.

In Corinthians, Paul expresses the conviction that we will receive our recompense according to how we flourish in response to God’s grace.

And in our Gospel, Jesus teaches that our faith – God’s gift to us – is the small seed that flourishes into eternal life, the fullness of life in God.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We realize that each of these flourishings begins with a tiny hope – a twig, a courageous aspiration, a mustard seed.

Such is life. It is the small but consistent acts of faith, hope, and love that eventually yield abundant harvest. – embracing us with all Creation in God’s complete Love.

Poetry: Mustard Seed – Meister Eckhart

I.

In the Beginning
High above understanding
Is ever the Word.
O rich treasure,
There the Beginning always bore the Beginning.
O Father’s Breast,
From thy delight
The Word ever flows!
Yet the bosom
Retains the Word, truly.

II.

From the two as one source,
The fire of love.
The bond of both,
Known to both,
Flows the All-Sweet Spirit
Co-equal,
Undivided
The Three are One.
Do you understand why? No.
It best understands itself.

III.

The bond of three
Causes deep fear.
Of this circle
There is no understanding.
Here is a depth without ground.
Check and mate
To time, forms, place!
The wondrous circle
Is the Principle,
Its point never moves.

IV.

The mountain of this point
Ascend without activity.
O intellect!
The road leads you
Into a marvelous desert,
So broad, so wide,
It stretches out immeasurably.
The desert has,
Neither time nor place,
Its mode of being is singular.

V.

The good desert
No foot disturbs it,
Created being
Never enters there:
It is, and no one knows why.

It is here, it is there,
It is far, it is near,
It is deep, it is high,
It is in such a way
That it is neither this nor that.

VI.

It is light, it is clear,
It is totally dark,
It is unnamed,
It is unknown,
Free of beginning or end.
It stands still,
Pure, unclothed.
Who knows its dwelling?
Let him come forth
And tells us what sort it is.

VII.

Become like a child,
Become deaf, become blind.
Your own something
Must become nothing;
Drive away all something, all nothing!
Leave place, leave time,
Avoid even image!
Go without a way
On the narrow path,
Then you will find the desert’s track.

VIII.

O my soul,
Go out, let God in!
Sink all my something
In God’s nothing.
Sink in the bottomless flood!
If I flee from You,
You come to me.
If I lose myself,
Then I find You,
O Goodness above being!

Music: The Ride of the Valkyries – Richard Wagner

I love to listen to this masterpiece when I imagine God opening heaven to all Creation at the end of time.

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

Ravens

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Faith, healing, spirituality4 Comments

Monday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
June 10, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061024.cfm

The LORD then said to Elijah:
“Leave here, go east
and hide in the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.
You shall drink of the stream,
and I have commanded ravens to feed you there.”
So he left and did as the LORD had commanded.
He went and remained by the Wadi Cherith, east of the Jordan.
Ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning,
and bread and meat in the evening,
and he drank from the stream.
1 Kings 17:2-6

Ravens are highly intelligent animals. In 1 Kings, God uses them to nourish Elijah for the completion of his mission.

To bolster our faith and courage, we too receive nourishment from the wonders of Creation. Praying beside an ancient stream or resting under an infinite sky can remind us how small we are but how great is the God Who sustains us.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s focus our hearts on the many ways God feeds us through the witness of Creation. As we think of the ravens in this Bible passage, we recognize our own Divine messengers in the gifts of the Universe, Mother Earth, and the animals and humans with whom we share life.

Who are the “ravens” in your life today?

Poetry: Sabbaths – Wendell Berry

No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are
that possibility you were.
More and more you have become
those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you.
You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was
and is no more in time, beloved
then, now, and always.
And you have become a sort of tree
standing over a grave.
Now more than ever you can be
generous toward each day
that comes, young, to disappear
forever, and yet remain
unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason
not to give yourself away.

Music: All Creatures of Our God and King – Tim Janis

Hide

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Faith, Scripture, spirituality2 Comments

Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 9, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060924.cfm

After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,
the LORD God called to the man and asked him, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself.”
Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then,
from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”
The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me—
she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”
The LORD God then asked the woman,
“Why did you do such a thing?”
The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”
Genesis 3: 9-12

In the Creation story, we are invited to find ourselves in the excuses of Adam and Eve. They choose, but do not immediately accept responsibility for their choices. They hide in their personal reinterpretations of what happened.

But God wants to find them, release them, from hiding in their “coverups” by asking, “Where are you?” —

  • the you I created
  • the you I love
  • the you I invite to eternal relationship

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We listen to God’s question, “Where are you?”. We open to Mercy any place where we may be hiding from God’s invitation to fullness of life.

Poetry: from Paradise Lost by John Milton

In this small snippet from the very long poem, the poet invokes the “Heavenly Muse” to instruct him about the Fall of Adam and Eve.

Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view
Nor the deep Tract of Hell, say first what cause
Mov'd our Grand Parents in that happy State,
Favour'd of Heav'n so highly, to fall off
From thir Creator, and transgress his Will
For one restraint, Lords of the World besides?
Who first seduc'd them to that foul revolt?
Th' infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile
Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv'd
The Mother of Mankind, what time his Pride
Had cast him out from Heav'n, with all his Host
Of Rebel Angels, by whose aid aspiring
To set himself in Glory above his Peers,
He trusted to have equal'd the most High,
If he oppos'd; and with ambitious aim
Against the Throne and Monarchy of God
Rais'd impious War in Heav'n and Battel proud
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
Hurld headlong flaming from th' Ethereal Skie
With hideous ruine and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
Who durst defie th' Omnipotent to Arms.

Music: Adam and Eve Duet from The Creation by Joseph Haydn

This Adagio tells of the couple’s early bliss before their fall and attempt to hide from the Creator.

By thee with bliss, O bounteous Lord,
the heav’n and earth are stor’d.
This world, so great, so wonderful,
thy mighty hand has fram’d.

Guide

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, spirituality3 Comments

Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter – Mass in the Morning
May 18, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051824.cfm

I will send to you the Spirit of truth
Who will guide you to all truth.

John 16: 7, 13

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

This Saturday morning, we stand at the threshold of the great Feast of Pentecost. Let us simply take quiet time to prepare our hearts for the Gift of the Holy Spirit. We each know the places where we, and our suffering world, most need the awakening touch of God’s Life. Let’s ask for it!

(Over the next few days, you are invited to pray with lovely videos shared with me by my dear and creative friend, Sister Mary Kay Eichman. Here is one for the Vigil of Pentecost.)

May

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Faith, Mary, spirituality5 Comments

God’s blessings to all of you, my readers, in this beautiful month of May! These days bring the full blossoming of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, the grape harvest in Australia, and the close of the rainy season in Peru. May all these gifts, and the special love of Mary, brighten these days.

Please enjoy this beautiful and elegant music, reminiscent of May:

Breakfast

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Eastertide, Faith, friendship, Jesus, peace, spirituality4 Comments

Friday in the Octave of Easter
April 5, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040524.cfm

When they climbed out on shore,
they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.”
So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore
full of one hundred fifty-three large fish.
Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.”
And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”
because they realized it was the Lord.

John 21: 9-12

Table Stock photos by Vecteezy

Have you ever eaten breakfast on a quiet morning beach?

When each of my nieces and nephew was about three years old, I would take her or him to the beach with me in the early morning. It was like an initiation. We would sit quietly at water’s edge as I taught them to hum or sing a morning hymn. After a little while, my dear sister-in-law, their mother, would arrive with a full pot of coffee and two cups. The praying child would be released to play while Mare and I took up the morning silence, stringing it with occasional words.

It was a time of wonderful love and ease among us, a time of unforgettable blessing. This is the gift Jesus gives his disciples in today’s reading. He offers us the same blessing too, if we can find a little space for him in our morning. Just a minute or two will do. Remember, Jesus can do a lot with just a word — just think about those 153 fish!

Poetry: Jesus Makes Breakfast: A Poem about John 21:1-14
– by Carol Penner, Mennonite pastor currently teaching theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario.

I could smell that charcoal fire a long way off
while we were still rowing far from shore.
As we got closer I could smell the fish cooking,
I imagined I could hear it sizzling.
When you’re hungry, your mind works that way.
When the man by the fire called out asking us about our catch,
we held up the empty nets.
And his advice to throw the nets in once more
is something we might have ignored,
except for the smell of cooking fish…
this guy must know something about catching fish!
The catch took our breath away;
never in my life have we pulled so many in one heave.
I was concentrating on the catch,
but John wasn’t even paying attention,
he was staring at the shore
as if his life depended on it.
Then he clutched my shoulder, crying,
“It is the Lord!”
Suddenly, everything came into focus,
the man, the catch, the voice,
and nothing could stop me,
I had to be with the Master.
There were no words at breakfast,
beyond, “Pass the fish,”
or “I’ll have a bit more bread.”
We sat there, eating our fill,
basking in the sunrise.
We didn’t have to say anything.
Jesus just smiled and served.

Music: Whispering Sea – Tony O’Connor