Category: Eternal Life

Deed

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Eternal Life, Faith, Forgiveness, Gospel, holiness, spirituality2 Comments

Fifth Sunday of Easter
April 28, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042824.cfm

Children, let us love not in word or speech
but in deed and truth.
Now this is how we shall know that we belong to the truth
and reassure our hearts before him
in whatever our hearts condemn,
for God is greater than our hearts and knows everything.
Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us,
we have confidence in God
and receive from him whatever we ask,
because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

1 John 3:18-22

John makes it so clear and simple, doesn’t he? It’s what we do that matters, not what we say. Jesus said the same thing once when he pointed out a tree to his disciples and said, “By their fruits, you will know them..”

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s take a good look at our lives, and the lives of those we allow to influence us. Are we like trees bearing good fruit – good deeds of charity, peace, forgiveness, mercy, honesty, respect, encouragement, hope, and fidelity?

If our deeds reflect the opposite of these virtues, John says they condemn us. He calls us to Gospel faithfulness in what we do as well as what we say.

Poetry:

How far that little candle throws his beams!
So shines a good deed in a weary world.

William Shakespeare

Music: Good Tree – Hillbilly Thomists (I thought these guys were fascinating! See more about them on their website: https://www.hillbillythomists.com/about)

You can’t gather grapes from a bramble bush
Or pick a fig from thorns
What I’d like to be
Oh, to be a good tree

Some fall in the rocks, on the beaten path
Some sink into great soil
From a tiny seed
Oh, to a good tree

Like a cedar high
And mustard wide
Where all the birds of the air can hide
Find rest inside

Oh, a good tree
The beetle bites
The black rot strikes
From the inside
Have your enemies

Oh, if you’re a good tree
High and dry
Some branches die
From time to time
A prune’s required
If you wanna be
Oh, a good tree

Even when I’m old
I still will be
Still full of sap, still green
That’s what I want to be
Oh, to be a good tree

By Your word
The dark is light
The tree of death becomes the tree of life
So let it be
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree
Oh, to be a good tree

Rise

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Eastertide, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, spirituality11 Comments

Easter Sunday The Resurrection of the Lord 
The Mass of Easter Day
March 31, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/033124.cfm

If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above,
where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.
For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ your life appears,
then you too will appear with him in glory.

Colossians 3:1-4

This succinct passage from Colossians is so powerful it defies commentary. Let your heart absorb its amazing truth. Let your spirit be challenged to live its promise. Cherishing this Easter gift, let your whole being become an Alleluia.

Happy and Blessed Easter, dear friends.

St. Augustine of Hippo

Music: from Handel’s Messiah – I know that my Redeemer liveth – Pavla Flámová

I found it beautiful to notice that Ms. Flámová is reading the music in Braille.

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day
Upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God
For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that
Sleep

Vigil

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Cross, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, spirituality2 Comments

Holy Saturday
March 30, 2024

There are no readings for Holy Saturday.

“On Holy Saturday, the Church waits at the Lord’s tomb in prayer and fasting, meditating on his Passion and Death and on his Descent into Hell, and awaiting his Resurrection.

The Church abstains from the Sacrifice of the Mass with the sacred table left bare, until after the solemn Vigil, that is, the anticipation by night of the Resurrection, when the time comes for paschal joys, the abundance of which overflows to occupy 50 days.

Holy Communion may only be given on this day as Viaticum.”

From New Roman Missal, Third Edition

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Jesus, I keep grateful vigil beside your tomb. I await the graces that will arise from this faithful abiding. As the hours pass, let me slowly empty my heart into your Divine Silence. When the morning comes, let me rise with You, transformed in Your Light.

Suffering

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Cross, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Love, spirituality, suffering1 Comment

Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
March 29, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032924.cfm

Who would believe what we have heard?
To whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
He grew up like a sapling before him,
like a shoot from the parched earth;
there was in him no stately bearing to make us look at him,
nor appearance that would attract us to him.
He was spurned and avoided by people,
a man of suffering, accustomed to infirmity,
one of those from whom people hide their faces,
spurned, and we held him in no esteem.

Yet it was our infirmities that he bore,
our sufferings that he endured,
while we thought of him as stricken,
as one smitten by God and afflicted.

Isaiah 53:1-4

Good Friday: when we stand awestruck before an Infinite Power Who chooses to suffer for the sake of Love.

We can neither comprehend such Love nor explain it. Before it, the words “why”, “how”, and “if” dissipate in futility. Such Love simply is, has always been, and will always be – Creator, Redeemer, and Holy Spirit.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Let us kneel in humble gratitude before this Infinite Love. By our own sufferings, may we learn a holy obedience – an ability to hear the heart of God crying in our world. May we tender God’s heart, broken over the willful selfishness of humankind. May we give ourselves to its healing.

Adoramus Te, Christe,
et benedicimus tibi,
quia per sanctam crucem tuam
redemisti mundum.
Qui passus es pro nobis,
Domine, Domine, miserere nobis		We adore Thee, O Christ,
and we bless Thee,
who by Thy Holy Cross
hast redeemed the world.
Thou, who hast suffered death for us,
O Lord, O Lord, have mercy on us.

Wash

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality1 Comment

Holy Thursday
March 28, 2024

This evening’s readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032824-Supper.cfm

He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.
The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over.
So, during supper,
fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power
and that he had come from God and was returning to God,
he rose from supper and took off his outer garments.
He took a towel and tied it around his waist.
Then he poured water into a basin
and began to wash the disciples’ feet
and dry them with the towel around his waist.

John 13: 1-4

Be there. Feel the astonished silence in the room as Jesus kneels before each of his disciples to wash their feet. Enter their hearts as they begin to realize he is giving them one of the final gifts of his amazing love. Imagine Jesus’ own heart as he washes the feet of each dear friend, knowing the time has come to be parted from them.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We let Jesus lean over us and pour the cleansing water of his love over us. We listen to the water, to his hands, to the silence – to hear the call to imitate his humble love in our lives.

Poetry: Morning of Fog – Jessica Powers (Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit, OCD)

Between this city of death with its gray face 
and the city of life where my thoughts stir wild and free 
a day stands. It is a road I trace 
too eagerly. For morning can give me nothing but a dull 
cold sense of having died. The towers lift 
like dreams. Down through the streets the beautiful 
gray fogs of sorrow drift. This is a city of phantoms. I am lost 
in a place where nothing that beats with life should roam. 
Only a spirit chilled into a ghost 
could call these streets its home. 
I shall go exiled to the fall of night, 
until I can return 
to the city I love where the streets are washed with light 
and the windows burn.

Music: Wash Me, Lord – Harvest

I thought I was so clever
Thought I was so wise
Surely You could never see
Inside this darkness
I thought that I had fooled You
Now I see I was the fool
Thinking that I could hide this darkness
In my heart

So wash me, Lord
In Your presence
Wash me, make me clean
There’s a stain in my heart
That only You can see
Wash me, make me clean

I brought You sacrifices
My silver and my gold
In my selfishness
I tried to buy Your pleasure
But Your holiness requires
The offering You desire
Is that I bring to You
A brokеn, humble heart

So break mе, Lord
In Your presence
Break me, set me free
There’s a stain in my heart
That only You can see

So wash me, Lord
In Your presence
Wash me, make me clean
There’s a stain in my heart
That only You can see
Wash me, make me clean

Yours

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Lent, Love, spirituality6 Comments

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
March 21, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032124.cfm

I will maintain my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
throughout the ages as an everlasting pact,
to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Genesis 17:7

Genesis describes the sacred covenant God shares with us. In our Gospel, Jesus asserts the eternal nature of that covenant, made real in our lives by keeping his Word.

God’s promise of eternal love was made to us as well as to Abraham.
In every moment, God says to us, “I am yours.”
In every moment. we are called to respond, “Yes, Lord, and I am Yours as well.”

Poetry: from The Book of Hours – Rainer Maria Rilkë

Although, as from a prison walled with hate,
each from his own self labors to be free,
the world yet holds a wonder, and how great!
ALL LIFE IS LIVED: now this comes home to me.
But who, then, lives it? Things that patiently
stand there, like some unfingered melody
that sleeps within a harp as day is going?
Is it the winds, across the waters blowing,
is it the branches, beckoning each to each,
is it the flowers, weaving fragrances,
the aging alleys that reach out endlessly?
Is it the warm beasts, moving to and fro,
is it the birds, strange as they sail from view?
This life — who really lives it? God, do you?

Music: My God, I Am Yours – Suscipe of Catherine McAuley

My God, I am yours for time and eternity.
Teach me to cast myself entirely
into the arms of your loving Providence
with a lively, unlimited confidence in your compassionate, tender pity.
Grant, O most merciful Redeemer,
That whatever you ordain or permit may be acceptable to me.
Take from my heart all painful anxiety;
let nothing sadden me but sin,
nothing delight me but the hope of coming to the possession of You
my God and my all, in your everlasting kingdom.

Remain

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

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
March 20, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032024.cfm

Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him,
“If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

John 8:31

In our first reading, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are examples of absolute trust in God. Their story is intended to assure the Jews in Babylonian captivity that God would deliver them.

In our Gospel, Jesus assures his followers that they too will be delivered from life’s tests if they trust fully in His Word.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s pray to deepen in our trust that God is with us always. Let’s sink the anchor of our faith, hope, and love into Christ’s promise. The more we can do this, the more we will be freed to love God, ourselves, and others with the fullness of Gospel love.

Poetry: Avowal – Denise Levertov

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.

Music: How Beautiful Is Your Love – The Commons/Josh Blakesley

oh how beautiful is your love for me.
oh what joy is mine in this mystery.
i will not fear the dark
here in the presence of your heart.
oh how beautiful is your love.

oh how wonderful is your offering.
lamb laid down for me on compassion’s tree.
how could i turn away
from the mercy of your face?
oh how wonderful is your love.

Jesus, Jesus,
oh how beautiful is your love.
Jesus, Jesus,
oh how beautiful is your love.

so miraculous is your sacrifice.
body broken here that i might have life.
take everything i own,
let me be yours alone.
so miraculous is your love.

Jesus, Jesus,
oh how beautiful is your love.
Jesus, Jesus,
oh how beautiful is your love.

Plot

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Cross, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Lent, spirituality1 Comment

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031624.cfm

Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter,
had not realized that they were hatching plots against me:
“Let us destroy the tree in its vigor;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will be spoken no more.”

Jeremiah 11:19

“Plot” can be an ugly word – a sinister trap woven in the darkness of fear and ignorance. Such plotters are befuddled by innocence, freedom, honesty, and goodness. Without these virtues themselves, they have no tools to meet challenges with sincerity and trust..

In our readings, we see darkened souls interweaving their fears to trap both Jeremiah and Jesus. It’s a picture of “conspiracy theories” in Biblical times!

In our current culture, we see people design elaborate arguments to justify war, rioting, oppression, weaponry, economic excess, and all the many “isms” that trap others in their vulnerability.

Lent is not just a remembrance of things past. It is a living participation in the Paschal Mystery as Christ experiences it in our times. We must ask ourselves if we ever stand with, or even silently near, the “plotters”.

Poem: The Second Crucifixion – Richard Le Gallienne (1866 – 1947)

LOUD mockers in the roaring street   
  Say Christ is crucified again:   
Twice pierced His gospel-bearing feet,   
  Twice broken His great heart in vain.   
  
I hear, and to myself I smile,          
For Christ talks with me all the while.   
  
No angel now to roll the stone   
  From off His unawaking sleep,   
In vain shall Mary watch alone,   
  In vain the soldiers vigil keep.   
  
Yet while they deem my Lord is dead   
My eyes are on His shining head.   
  
Ah! never more shall Mary hear   
  That voice exceeding sweet and low   
Within the garden calling clear:   
  Her Lord is gone, and she must go.   
  
Yet all the while my Lord I meet   
In every London lane and street.   
  
Poor Lazarus shall wait in vain,   
  And Bartimæus still go blind;   
The healing hem shall ne'er again   
  Be touch'd by suffering humankind.   
  
Yet all the while I see them rest,   
The poor and outcast, on His breast.   
  
No more unto the stubborn heart   
  With gentle knocking shall He plead,   
No more the mystic pity start,   
  For Christ twice dead is dead indeed.   
  
So in the street I hear men say,   
Yet Christ is with me all the day.

Music: Agnus Dei – Michael Hoppé

Recompense

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Cross, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Lent, spirituality2 Comments

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 15, 2024

Today’s readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031524.cfm

The wicked said among themselves…
“Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”
These were their thoughts, but they erred;
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they knew not the hidden counsels of God;
neither did they count on a recompense of holiness
nor discern the innocent souls’ reward.

Wisdom 2: 20-22

In our readings, the Holy One meets the opposition of those who plot against him. They rationalize their persecutions, proclaiming them as acts of justice. They expect their victim to crumble under the pressure of their judgments. What they do not expect is a return of goodness, gentleness, and forgiveness – a recompense of holiness. They do not expect the great contradiction of the Cross, and they are incapable of comprehending it.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

As Lent deepens, and we come closer to the shadows of Calvary, we are summoned into the sufferings of Jesus to test our own understanding of this Great Contradiction.

What does Christ teach us about payback, unforgiveness, revenge, violence, and war – the popular “recompenses” of our culture to any resistance or injury we encounter?

What might a “recompense of holiness” look like in my life when I meet gracelessness in another person or situation?

How might it transform our belligerent culture if we modeled our behaviors on the holiness of Jesus?

Poetry: Peace-making Is Hard …. – Daniel Berrigan, SJ

hard almost as war. 
the difference being 
one we can stake life upon 
and limb and thought and love.
I stake this poem out 
dead man to a dead stick 
to tempt an Easter chance— 
if faith may be 
truth, our evil chance 
penultimate at last, 
not last. We are not lost. 
When these lines gathered 
of no resource at all 
serenity and strength, 
it dawned on me 
a man stood on his nails, 
an ash like dew, a sweat 
smelling of death and life. 
Our evil Friday fled, 
the blind face gently turned 
another way. Toward Life. 
A man walks in his shroud. 

Music: He Trusted in God – from Handel’s Messiah

Water

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, healing, Jesus, Lent, spirituality3 Comments

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
March 12, 2024

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031224.cfm

There is a stream whose runlets gladden the city of God,
the holy dwelling of the Most High.
God is in its midst; it shall not be disturbed;
God will help it at the break of dawn.

Psalm 46:5-6

Our Psalm today connects two readings centered around life-giving water.

Ezekiel’s watery vision offers a symbolic interpretation of the life-force flowing from God’s heart (symbolized by the Temple) to all Creation.

In our Gospel, a man waits for decades beside the waters of an inaccessible pool until Jesus cures him – until Jesus himself becomes the “Water of Life”.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Imagine yourself being blessed by life-giving water – maybe a cool swim on a blistering day, or a warm bath on a frosty one.

Imagine walking in a gentle summer rain, no umbrella, no puddle prohibitions.

If you love the ocean, imagine diving under soft waves at flood tide, belly-riding them back, again and again, to a warm, quiet beach.

Now imagine that all that water is God’s Love for you, because it is. And let your heart pray with a joy similar to today’s psalmist!

Poetry: The Waterfall – Henry Vaughan (1621-1695)

With what deep murmurs through time’s silent stealth
Doth thy transparent, cool, and wat’ry wealth
Here flowing fall,
And chide, and call,
As if his liquid, loose retinue stay’d
Ling’ring, and were of this steep place afraid;
The common pass
Where, clear as glass,
All must descend
Not to an end,
But quicken’d by this deep and rocky grave,
Rise to a longer course more bright and brave.

Dear stream! dear bank, where often I
Have sate and pleas’d my pensive eye,
Why, since each drop of thy quick store
Runs thither whence it flow’d before,
Should poor souls fear a shade or night,
Who came, sure, from a sea of light?
Or since those drops are all sent back
So sure to thee, that none doth lack,
Why should frail flesh doubt any more
That what God takes, he’ll not restore?

O useful element and clear!
My sacred wash and cleanser here,
My first consigner unto those
Fountains of life where the Lamb goes!
What sublime truths and wholesome themes
Lodge in thy mystical deep streams!
Such as dull man can never find
Unless that Spirit lead his mind
Which first upon thy face did move,
And hatch’d all with his quick’ning love.
As this loud brook’s incessant fall
In streaming rings restagnates all,
Which reach by course the bank, and then
Are no more seen, just so pass men.
O my invisible estate,
My glorious liberty, still late!
Thou art the channel my soul seeks,
Not this with cataracts and creeks.

Music: How Deep Is the Ocean
As you listen to the smooth jazz of Diana Krall, let yourself be in love with God who raises you from beside whatever pool where you’ve been lingering.