Category: Discipleship

Guileless

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Faith, friendship, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality5 Comments

Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle
August 24, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082424.cfm

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,
“Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no guile in him.”
Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” 
Jesus answered and said to him,
“Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
Nathanael answered him,
“Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
John 1:47-49

I’m sure Jesus loved all his disciples, but I think he loved Nathaniel in a special way. Nathaniel was a WYSIWYG person – “what you see is what you get“. Jesus never had to second-guess Nathaniel. His faith and longing for holiness were clear. When he had doubts and reservations he brought them openly and humbly to God.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask to be guileless, without duplicity with God, with ourselves, and with our companions. May we burn with a sincerity of heart lit by faith, hope, and charity.

Poetry: The Glance – George Herbert (1593-1633)

As he comes from under the fig tree, Nathaniel’s life is changed and consecrated by his first glance of Jesus.

The Glance

When first thy sweet and gracious eye
Vouchsaf’d ev’n in the midst of youth and night
To look upon me, who before did lie
Weltring in sinne;
I felt a sugred strange delight,
Passing all cordials made by any art,
Bedew, embalme, and overrunne my heart,
And take it in.

Since that time many a bitter storm
My soul hath felt, ev’n able to destroy,
Had the malicious and ill-meaning harm
His swing and sway:
But still thy sweet originall joy,
Sprung from thine eye, did work within my soul,
And surging griefs, when they grew bold, controll,
And got the day.

If thy first glance so powerfull be,
A mirth but open’d and seal’d up again;
What wonders shall we feel, when we shall see
Thy full-ey’d love!
When thou shalt look us out of pain,
And one aspect of thine spend in delight
More then a thousand sunnes dispurse in light,
In heav'n above.

Music: Hymn to St. Bartholomew (also known as Nathaniel) – Fr. Ricardo Arriola

Garment

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

Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary
August 22, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082224.cfm

But when the king came in to meet the guests
he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment.
He said to him, “My friend, how is it
that you came in here without a wedding garment?”
Matthew 22:11-12

Today’s readings for the day do not mention Mary, although a second set of readings retells the account of the Annunciation.

I chose instead to pray with the concept of the “garment” which the wedding guest lacked, but that Mary wore in magnificence. The garment is God’s grace given to all of us as it was to Mary, but sometimes abandoned or forgotten as it was with the wedding guest.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray in thanksgiving for the garment of God’s grace and ask to wear it with honor and love.

Poetry: Suspended – Denise Levertov

I had grasped God's garment in the void
but my hand slipped
on the rich silk of it.
The 'everlasting arms' my sister loved to remember
must have upheld my leaden weight
from falling, even so,
for though I claw at empty air and feel
nothing, no embrace,
I have not plummeted.

Music: Clothed with Light / Kyrie Eleison – from a Russian Hymn

Just

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, justice, Love, spirituality1 Comment

Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope
August 21, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082124.cfm

Jesus told his disciples this parable:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a landowner
who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard.
After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage,
he sent them into his vineyard.
Going out about nine o’clock,
he saw others standing idle in the marketplace,
and he said to them, ‘You too go into my vineyard,
and I will give you what is just.’
Matthew 20:1-4

Jesus tells the parable of the generous landowner who measures out recompense by love not law. Jesus teaches that this new law of love is the Godly means to calculate justice.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray to live by the kind of loving justice Jesus calls us to, not by the measurements that keep others in subservience or oppression.
We might ask ourselves these questions:

  • What really belongs to me?
  • If I have achieved or received much in life is it not by the grace of God and good fortune?
  • How can I help others have what they justly deserve?

Poetry: from Rumi

When I am with you, everything is prayer.
I prayed for change,
so, I changed my mind.

I prayed for guidance
and learned to trust myself.

I prayed for happiness
and realized I am not my ego.

I prayed for peace
and learned to accept others unconditionally.

I prayed for abundance
and realized my doubt kept it out.

I prayed for wealth
and realized it is my health.

I prayed for a miracle
and realized I am the miracle.

I prayed for a soul mate
and realized I am with the One.

I prayed for love
and realized it is always knocking,
but I have to allow it in.

Music: Already All I Need – Christy Nockels

First

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

Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church
August 20, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082024.cfm

And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters
or father or mother or children or lands
for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more,
and will inherit eternal life.
But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
Matthew 19:29-30

Today’s Gospel builds on yesterday’s theme: what is it that we have to give up to inherit eternal life? We might interpret this Gospel passage to mean that we have to give up everything to achieve perfection – “houses, brothers, sisters…”.

But I think it means not so much what we have to give up as what we need to acquire. We need to acquire that absolute thirst for God that allows us, when necessary, to put everything else aside.

Thought:

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

Rumi

Music: Kyrie from Missa Solemnis – Beethoven

Sad

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

Monday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
August 19, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081924.cfm

Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be perfect, go,
sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven.
Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad,
for he had many possessions.
Matthew 19:21-22

All of us who pray the Gospel have probably, at one time or another, put ourselves in the place of this young man. We don’t want to “go away sad” from the invitation of Jesus. We’re good people who want to be even better. What is that final gift that we must give to God to become the full person God created us to be?

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We listen to God speaking in our lives. There is always a call to greater intimacy with God through our living out of the Gospel. May we have the grace and courage to hear this infinite call.

Poetry: The Call of the Far – Rabindranath Tagore

Ever I am restless
I am athirst for the far.
My time passes by
And in an absent mind
I keep waiting at my window
Hoping and hoping you will come.
O how my entire being
Is eager for your intimate touch!
O you far, O you boundless far
So irresistible is the call of your flute
But I forget I have no wings
I am bound to one place.
I am listless, I am indifferent.
At the sun-tinged lazy midday
Among the rustling of the trees
In the play of light and shade
In the blue of the sky
I get a glimpse of your fugitive form.
O you far, O you boundless far
So irresistible is the call of your flute
But I forget my doors are barred.

Music: The Lark Ascending – Ralph Vaughn Williams

Tested

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality1 Comment

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081624.cfm

Some Pharisees approached Jesus,
and tested him, saying,
“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife
for any cause whatever?”

Matthew 19:3

The Pharisees miss the whole point of the Presence of Jesus. Think of it: here they have the Messiah they have longed for right in their midst. They can talk to him, touch him, listen to him. Instead, they are strangled in rationalizations which prevent them from believing.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask for a clear and innocent faith, one not caught in the need for proofs and signs. May we hold nothing back from God in our practice of faith.

Poetry: Two Went Up Into the Temple to Pray – Richard Crashaw

Two went to pray? O rather say
  One went to brag, th’ other to pray:

   One stands up close and treads on high,
  Where th’ other dares not send his eye.

   One nearer to God’s altar trod,
  The other to the altar’s God.

Music: The Pharisee in Me – Temitope

Gathered

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Church, Community, Discipleship, Faith, spirituality4 Comments

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr
August 14, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081424.cfm

For where two or three
are gathered together in my name,
there am I in the midst of them.

Matthew 18:20

Today’s Gospel speaks to the power of community and the responsibility of being a member. Being gathered in the Name of Christ means being gathered in love where each one seeks the good of all others.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We realize that community is itself a ministry and sacrament exercised by a group of people who choose to love God by loving and supporting one another for mission. Whether that be in a family, a religious community, a workplace, a local or universal Church, we owe one another honesty, respect, encouragement, hospitality, and compassion. These gifts release each one of us to minister in love to a broken world.

Poetry: The Things that Count – Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)

Now, dear, it isn’t the bold things,
Great deeds of valour and might,
That count the most in the summing up 
of life at the end of the day.
But it is the doing of old things,
Small acts that are just and right;
And doing them over and over again, 
no matter what others say;
In smiling at fate, when you want to cry, 
and in keeping at work when you want to play—
Dear, those are the things that count.

And, dear, it isn’t the new ways
Where the wonder-seekers crowd
That lead us into the land of content, 
or help us to find our own.
But it is keeping to true ways,
Though the music is not so loud,
And there may be many a shadowed spot 
where we journey along alone;
In flinging a prayer at the face of fear, 
and in changing into a song a groan—
Dear, these are the things that count.

My dear, it isn’t the loud part
Of creeds that are pleasing to God,
Not the chant of a prayer, or the hum of a hymn, 
or a jubilant shout or song.
But it is the beautiful proud part
Of walking with feet faith-shod;
And in loving, loving, loving through all, 
no matter how things go wrong;
In trusting ever, though dark the day, 
and in keeping your hope 
when the way seems long—
Dear, these are the things that count.

Music: Sesame Street Community Song

Scroll

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Faith, spirituality1 Comment

Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 13, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081324.cfm

The Lord God said to me: Son of man, eat what is before you;
eat this scroll, then go, speak to the house of Israel.
So I opened my mouth and he gave me the scroll to eat.
Son of man, he then said to me,
feed your belly and fill your stomach
with this scroll I am giving you.
I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
He said: Son of man, go now to the house of Israel,
and speak my words to them.
Ezekiel 3:1-3

The scroll represents the Word of God which we are all called to embrace by the faithful living of our lives. We cannot fully do so with only our mind and its analysis. When we do only that, the Word seems difficult and vexing.

Rather, we must consume the Word making it part of ourselves. It must become the sustenance without which we cannot live. When we do that, the Word becomes sweet and longed for.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask for a deep longing for God’s Word and the courage to fully embrace it by our faithful lives.

Poetry: Immersion – Denise Levertov

There is anger abroad in the world, a numb thunder,
because of God’s silence. But how naïve,
to keep wanting words we could speak ourselves,
English, Urdu, Tagalog, the French of Tours, the French of Haiti…
Yes, that was one way omnipotence chose
to address us—Hebrew, Aramaic, or whatever the patriarchs
chose in their turn to call what they heard. Moses
demanded the word, spoken and written. But perfect freedom
assured other ways of speech. God is surely
patiently trying to immerse us in a different language,
events of grace, horrifying scrolls of history
and the unearned retrieval of blessings lost for ever,
the poor grass returning after drought, timid, persistent.
God’s abstention is only from human dialects. The holy voice
utters its woe and glory in myriad musics, in signs and portents.
Our own words are for us to speak, a way to ask and to answer.

Music: Word of God Speak – Mercy Me

Coin

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spiritualityLeave a comment

Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 12, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081224.cfm

When he came into the house, before he had time to speak,
Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon?
From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax?
From their subjects or from foreigners?”
When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him,
“Then the subjects are exempt.
But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook,
and take the first fish that comes up.
Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax.
Give that to them for me and for you.”
Matthew 17:25-27

Can you see Peter shaking the little fish until the coin popped out in his hand? Can you see his astounded face at this magical miracle? As we picture the scene, we may realize that there are miracles hidden in all Creation, in all experience if we can trust and seek the truth.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Jesus wants to teach us too, just as he taught Peter and encouraged his faith. We need to look around our lives and to seek the hidden miracles in our daily experience. Jesus may smile at our grateful astonishment, just as he smiled at Peter.

Poetry: The Temple Tax – William Merriman

I have the taste of money in my mouth.
The metallic tang covers my tongue,
As my throat unslackens and unlooses
Prayers, praises, verses, songs
With one hand raised to the altar,
And the other in my pocket.

You who drew the fish from the water
And withdrew the coins of copper 
From its consuming, biting teeth
To pay the price of entry—
Kill this mammon greed,
And, instead, Lord, enter me. 

Music: some lovely music as you think about spiritual “fishing”

Deny

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

Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 9, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080924.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 16: 24-25

This passage from Matthew is one of the most astounding challenges Jesus gave his disciples: deny yourself, take up your cross, follow me.

What does it really mean to deny oneself? Does it mean to become a doormat or a Milquetoast? Does it suggest repressing one’s personality or ambitions? To act like a nobody?

Of course not! So many places in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures assure us that we are unique, precious, and beloved of God. God doesn’t want us not to be ourselves because that’s who we were created to be!

I think denying oneself means not getting caught in the mirror of selfishness. Instead we are called to focus on Jesus and his absolute care for all Creation, especially those who are poor, sick, outcast, and troubled. We can’t really do that if we are consumed with self-interest.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask for the grace to be aware, brave, and faithful enough to put the good of others first for the sake of Christ.

Poetry: As the Ruin Falls – C.S. Lewis

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you.

I never had a selfless thought since I was born.

I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through:
I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn.

Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek,
I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin:
I talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek--
But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack.

I see the chasm.
 And everything you are was making
My heart into a bridge by which I might get back
From exile, and grow man.
 And now the bridge is breaking.

For this I bless you as the ruin falls.
 The pains
You give me are more precious than all other gains.

Music: Deny Yourself – Paul Melley

Deny yourself.

Take up your cross
.
Despite the pain

Despite the cost.
Leave all behind

and follow me.

Deny yourself,

be free.

For what will it profit to gain the world
and lose your life? 

Those who would save their life will lose it.

What can you give in return for your life?

For those would lose their life will find it.

Deny yourself.

Come, take up your cross and daily follow me 

and you will have rich reward in heaven.

Those who have left their home and family for his sake

inherit one hundred fold,

inherit eternal life.
Deny yourself.

What can you give in return for your life?
For those who would lose their life,

lose their life will find it

Deny yourself

Lord, you reveal the depth 
of your life and your love
in your everlasting covenant.

Strengthen the faith we share,
fill our work with your love,
and bring all of us to grace,
to the grace you promise.