Category: Discipleship

All

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr
November 12, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111224.cfm

When you have done all you have been commanded, say,
‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.
Luke 17:10

Today’s Gospel tells us that we have to give God our “All” because God is the Source of that “All”.

Often, we hear about “giving our all” in relationship to the sports world – give it everything you’ve got, leave it all on the field, all or nothing, win or go home.

What if we had the same attitude toward our spiritual lives? Toward performing the Works of Mercy, living the Beatitudes, keeping the Greatest Commandment. What if we really gave God all!

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We need plenty of practice to achieve the kind of dedication that gives “All”. Let’s begin or renew our will and effort right now through prayer, reflection, and living Mercy in our world.

Prayer: Thomas Merton

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. 
I do not see the road ahead of me. 
I cannot know for certain where it will end. 
Nor do I really know myself, 
and the fact that I think that I am following your will 
does not mean that I am actually doing so. 
But I believe that the desire to please you 
does in fact please you. 
And I hope I have that desire 
in all that I am doing. 
I hope that I will never do anything 
apart from that desire. 
And I know that if I do this 
you will lead me by the right road, 
though I may know nothing about it. 
Therefore will I trust you always, 
though I may seem to be lost 
and in the shadow of death. 
I will not fear, 
for you are ever with me, 
and you will never leave me 
to face my perils alone.”

Music: I Surrender All – Judson W. Van DeVenter (1896)

A gentle interpretation of an traditional favorite.

Millstone

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

Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop
November 11, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111124.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples,
“Things that cause sin will inevitably occur,
but woe to the one through whom they occur.
It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck
and he be thrown into the sea
than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.
Luke 17:1-2

Jesus is serious about the importance of good example and moral living. I mean, look at the heft of that millstone! It ain’t no necklace! If you’re thrown into the sea with that around your neck, there’s no coming back.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray for the spiritual sensitivity to be aware of our motivations, our influence on others, and any selfish or concupiscent choices we make.

Poetry: House of Light – Mary Oliver

Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled—
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing—
that the light is everything—that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and falling. And I do.

Music: Be A Light – Thomas Rhett

Livelihood

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality2 Comments

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
November 10, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111024.cfm

He sat down opposite the treasury
and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. 
Many rich people put in large sums.
A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. 
Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them,
“Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more
than all the other contributors to the treasury. 
For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth,
but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had,
her whole livelihood.”
Mark 12:41-44

We often hear the term “All or Nothing” to describe a superhuman effort perhaps on a sports field or in a gambling effort: “Leave it all on the field!”, “Give it everything you’ve got!”.

But let’s think about the phrase in reference to today’s reading. What would make this poor widow give her livelihood – everything she had – to the Lord’s treasury?

Jesus makes it clear that to assure ourselves of entry into Heaven, we must allow grace to convert every aspect of our lives. As long as we hold on to even a small uncoverted corner of selfishness, we will not be ready to receive the fullness of God. The parable in only minimally about money. It is about the riches of our hearts.

Poetry: The Widow’s Mites – Richard Crashaw ( c.1613 – 1649)

Two mites, two drops, yet all her house and land,
Fall from a steady heart, though trembling hand:
The other's wanton wealth foams high, and brave;
The other cast away, she only gave.

Video: The Widow’s Mites

Rejoice

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, holiness, joy, Praise, spirituality, suffering, TruthLeave a comment

Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
November 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110624.cfm

Do everything without grumbling or questioning,
that you may be blameless and innocent,
children of God without blemish
in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,
among whom you shine like lights in the world,
as you hold on to the word of life,
so that my boast for the day of Christ may be
that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
But, even if I am poured out as a libation
upon the sacrificial service of your faith,
I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.
In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me.
Philippians 2:15-18

Being a Christian is not easy. It was not easy for the Philippians, and it’s not easy for us. We still live in the midst of a “crooked and perverse generation.” And its crooked perversity is not always easy to discern as the culture becomes more clever in deceitful jargon and technological manipulation.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray to have a clear vision that sees into the heart of life in God. Despite challenges, Paul rejoices in this insightful faith of the Philippians and invites them to rejoice as well. Let’s consider our own faith journey and those aspects of it that cause us to rejoice:

  • God’s faithfulness and our perseverance
  • what we have given for love, and what we have received in return
  • the freedom faith has granted us, and the freedom we have fostered in others
  • the contentment of a long fidelity, and the assured hope of a promised eternity

Poetry: Mindful by Mary Oliver

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.

Music: Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Our Desiring – arranged by D. Qualey

White Robes

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Creation, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality1 Comment

Solemnity of All Saints
November 1, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110124.cfm

Then one of the elders spoke up and said to me,
“Who are these wearing white robes, and where did they come from?”
I said to him, “My lord, you are the one who knows.”
He said to me,
“These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress;
they have washed their robes
and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb.”
Revelations 7:14

The Book of Revelation conveys stunning and sometimes confusing images, but the image of the Blessed wrapped in white robes is very clear. These are the ones who haved witnessed, endured, and remained faithful. These are the saints.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
In the presence of the saints, we pray to many of our departed favorite saints, whose lives witnessed something which speaks to our own.
We have lived, and are living beside some of them right now.
But the purpose of the Book of Revelation is to pose this question to its readers:
Are you becoming one of them.
Will you wear the white robe of belonging fully to God?

Poetry: God Make Us Saints – Vachel Lindsay

Would I might wake St. Francis in you all,
Brother of birds and trees, God’s Troubadour,
Blinded with weeping for the sad and poor;
Our wealth undone, all strict Franciscan men,
Come, let us chant the canticle again
Of mother earth and the enduring sun.
God make each soul the lonely leper’s slave;
God make us saints, and brave.

Music: When the Saints Go Marching In

For those of my readers not from the Philadelphia area, this is a clip of the Quaker City stringband as they prepare for our famous Mummers Parade on New Year’s Day. You will notice the brooms in some of the dancers hands. These are to sweep out the old year and begin anew.

https://fb.watch/vdYnVLVPXi/

In case you would like to hear the lyrics:

Gate

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality2 Comments

Wednesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
October 30, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/103024.cfm

Jesus passed through towns and villages,
teaching as he went and making his way to Jerusalem.
Someone asked him,
“Lord, will only a few people be saved?”
He answered them, 
“Strive to enter through the narrow gate,
for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter
but will not be strong enough.
After the master of the house has arisen and locked the door,
then will you stand outside knocking and saying,
‘Lord, open the door for us.’
He will say to you in reply,
‘I do not know where you are from.’

Our own lives are the narrow gate through which we pass into eternal timelessness. In this passage, Jesus calls us to be strong, keeping our eyes fixed on what may seem distant, but is as close as our next choice.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We pray for the courage, strength, and insight to recognize God’s Presence so that God will fully recognize us.

Poem: The Narrow Way – Anne Brontë

Believe not those who say
The upward path is smooth,
Lest thou shouldst stumble in the way,
And faint before the truth.

It is the only road
Unto the realms of joy;
But he who seeks that blest abode
Must all his powers employ.

Bright hopes and pure delights
Upon his course may beam,
And there, amid the sternest heights
The sweetest flowerets gleam.

On all her breezes borne,
Earth yields no scents like those;
But he that dares not grasp the thorn
Should never crave the rose.

Arm—arm thee for the fight!
Cast useless loads away;
Watch through the darkest hours of night,
Toil through the hottest day.

Crush pride into the dust,
Or thou must needs be slack;
And trample down rebellious lust,
Or it will hold thee back.

Seek not thy honor here;
Waive pleasure and renown;
The world’s dread scoff undaunted bear,
And face its deadliest frown.

To labor and to love,
To pardon and endure,
To lift thy heart to God above,
And keep thy conscience pure;

Be this thy constant aim,
Thy hope, thy chief delight;
What matter who should whisper blame,
Or who should scorn or slight?

What matter, if thy God approve,
And if, within thy breast,
Thou feel the comfort of His love,
The earnest of His rest?

Music: The Narrow Gate

Foundation

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Community, Discipleship, Faith, spirituality1 Comment

Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, Apostles
October 28, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102824.cfm

Brothers and sisters:
You are no longer strangers and sojourners,
but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones
and members of the household of God, 
built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets,
with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.
Ephesians 2:19-20

As we celebrate the Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, we reflect on the long history of faith we have inherited. We think not only of those ancient brothers and sisters, but also of the more immediate members of our own families and communties who have formed us in the faith.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We give thanks for all those, especially those dear to us, who have transmitted and nurtured faith in our hearts.

Poetry: To Mother – Thomas W. Fessenden

You painted no Madonnas
On chapel walls in Rome,
But with a touch diviner
You lived one in your home.
You wrote no lofty poems
That critics counted art,
But with a nobler vision
You lived them in your heart.
You carved no shapeless marble
To some high-souled design,
But with a finer sculpture
You shaped this soul of mine.
You built no great cathedrals
That centuries applaud,
But with a grace exquisite
Your life cathedraled God.
Had I the gift of Raphael,
Or Michelangelo,
Oh, what a rare Madonna
My mother's life would show!

Music: The Church’s One Foundation – written by Samuel John Stone in the 1860’s

Worthy

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Discipleship, Faith, holiness, Jesus, Mary, spirituality2 Comments

Friday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
October 25, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102524.cfm

I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the spirit
through the bond of peace;  
one Body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:1-6

Paul encourages the Ephesian community to live a life worthy of their call. The same encouragement comes down through the ages to us. The unique blessing of our Baptism deserves a worthy response from us, one characterized by humility, gentleness, patience, love, unity, peace, and hope.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We examine our lives for the evidence of these virtues. They should not only be present in our desires but, more importantly, in our actions and choices.

Poetry: Annunciation – Denise Levertov
Mary is the perfect and complete model of the worthy life Paul calls us to.

We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,

almost always a lectern, a book; always
the tall lily.
Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,
the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,
whom she acknowledges, a guest.

But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentions
courage.
The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent.
God waited.

She was free
to accept or to refuse, choice
integral to humanness.

____________________________

Aren’t there annunciations
of one sort or another
in most lives?
Some unwillingly
undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.
More often
those moments
when roads of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.
God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.

______________________________

She had been a child who played, ate, slept
like any other child – but unlike others,
wept only for pity, laughed
in joy not triumph.
Compassion and intelligence
fused in her, indivisible.

Called to a destiny more momentous
than any in all of Time,
she did not quail,
only asked
a simple, ‘How can this be?’
and gravely, courteously,
took to heart the angel’s reply,
perceiving instantly
the astounding ministry she was offered:

to bear in her womb
Infinite weight and lightness; to carry
in hidden, finite inwardness,
nine months of Eternity; to contain
in slender vase of being,
the sum of power –
in narrow flesh,
the sum of light.
Then bring to birth,
push out into air, a Man-child
needing, like any other,
milk and love –

but who was God.

This was the moment no one speaks of,
when she could still refuse.

A breath unbreathed,
                                Spirit,
                                          suspended,
                                                            waiting.

______________________________

She did not cry, ‘I cannot. I am not worthy,’
Nor, ‘I have not the strength.’
She did not submit with gritted teeth,
                                                       raging, coerced.
Bravest of all humans,
                                  consent illumined her.
The room filled with its light,
the lily glowed in it,
                               and the iridescent wings.
Consent,
              courage unparalleled,
opened her utterly.

Music: Benedicta et Venerabilis

Benedicta et venerabilis es, Virgo Maria: quae sine tactu pudoris inventa es
Mater salvatoris.
Virgo Dei Genitrix, quem totus non capit orbis,
in tua se clausit viscera factus homo.

Blessed and venerable art thou, O Virgin Mary, who, without spot, wast found
the Mother of the Saviour.
Virgin Mother of God, He whom the whole world containeth not,
being made man, shut Himself in thy womb.

Surpasses

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, holiness, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Prayer, spiritualityLeave a comment

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
October 24, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102424.cfm

I kneel before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-19

Paul blesses his beloved Ephesian community with these stirring words:

..May you know the love of Christ
that surpasses all knowledge…

Ephesians 3:19

We, and the Ephesians who receive this blessing, are reminded that we cannot comprehend or analyze God’s infinite love for us. Neither can we rationalize what that Love calls us to.

Today in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask for the grace of holy abandonment, letting ourselves rest in God’s Love without reserve, question, or calculation. May that same generous trust inspire our gift of Love to others in God’s name.

Thought: from Bishop Silvio José Báez, O.C.D.

We can abandon ourselves to God
and totally trust God
even without fully comprehending God’s ways;
it’s a source of inexhaustible joy.

Read Bishop Báez’s inspiring bio here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvio_José_Báez

Music: Attende Domine – Juliano Ravanello

Steward

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, justice, Seasons, spiritualityLeave a comment

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
October 23, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102324.cfm

And the Lord replied,
“Who, then, is the faithful and prudent steward
whom the master will put in charge of his servants
to distribute the food allowance at the proper time?
Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so.
Truly, I say to you, he will put him
in charge of all his property.
Luke 12:42-44

In the language of his times, Jesus defines the attributes of a good steward: faithfulness, loyalty, dependability, justice, and mercy. We are the stewards of God’s Creation, given into our hands by our loving Creator.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray to recognize God’s trust invested in us. Through our relationships with all God’s creatures, may we tend faithfully to all that God has loved into being.

Thought: from poet Jane Kenyon

Be a good steward of your gifts.
Protect your time.
Feed your inner life.
Avoid too much noise.
Read good books,
have good sentences in your ears.
Be by yourself as often as you can.
Walk.
Take the phone off the hook.
Work regular hours.

Music: Elk Creek in the Fall – Kathryn Kaye

As the weather begins to change, I think this is a nice song to use for meditation as it brings us into relationship with natural Creation.