Category: Eternal Life

It’s That Simple

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, repentance, spirituality3 Comments

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 29, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102923.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings instruct us on how to love God. Now maybe you think you don’t need any help on that topic, and maybe you’re right. But — just maybeeeeee – you and I are a little bit like the folks in our passage from Exodus who sometimes forgot that the way to love God is to love neighbor.

“You shall not molest or oppress an alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. 
You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. 
If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me,
I will surely hear their cry. 

Exodus 22;21-22

It seems that these Exodus folks suffer from spiritual obtusity. They are a little forgetful of who they really are. They forget their roots – that they were once aliens themselves. They forget that widows and orphans matter as much as they do. They forget that their neighbor needs a cloak (or a home) to be able to sleep at night.

So God tells them, “Hey, I love these people you have conveniently “forgotten”. So don’t pretend you love me if you don’t love them.” It’s that simple.

In our Gospel, Jesus basically says the same thing. When the brilliant Pharisee tries to trap Jesus in an obtuse intellectual argument, Jesus disarms him with a clear and simple response:

Jesus said to him,
“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:37-40

The whole enterprise of the spiritual life is to actualize Jesus’s response in one’s life. In the process of doing that by our response to God’s grace, we might sometimes get caught in spiritual forgetfulness, intellectual excuses, or the blare of a dissonant culture.

In our second reading, Paul commends the Thessalonians for having done well in this spiritual endeavor. They did it by replacing what was idolatrous in their lives with the living and true God:

You turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God
and to await his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead,
Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath.

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10

I don’t like to think of myself as particularly idolatrous, but I do have little false gods pop up in my life at times. They tend to wear the deceptive costumes of the seven deadly sins convincing me that I have a right, or at least an excuse, to ignore my neighbor for the sake of my egotism, possessiveness, or spiritual laziness.

May today’s readings wake us up to anything we need to hear within them so that we may freely sing with today’s psalmist:

I love you, my true God, my strength,
my neighbor God, present in my life,
my balance, safety, comforter.
My God, my dear steady God,
my protection, well of my salvation,
my trustworthy Friend!
I praise You because, with You,
I am safe from any false god
and anointed by your grace
for the journey.

Psalm 18: my prayerful adaptation

Poetry: You, Neighbor God – Rainer Maria Rilkë

You, neighbor god, if sometimes in the night
I rouse you with loud knocking, I do so
only because I seldom hear you breathe
and know: you are alone.
And should you need a drink, no one is there
to reach it to you, groping in the dark.
Always I hearken. Give but a small sign.
I am quite near.
Between us there is but a narrow wall,
and by sheer chance; for it would take
merely a call from your lips or from mine
to break it down,
and that without a sound.
The wall is builded of your images.
They stand before you hiding you like names.
And when the light within me blazes high
that in my inmost soul I know you by,
the radiance is squandered on their frames.
And then my senses, which too soon grow lame,
exiled from you, must go their homeless ways.

Music: Overcome – Psalm 18 – James Block

This song renders the Psalm in a beautiful melody. The Psalm, however, retains the militant images so prevalent in the culture of ancient Israel (and sadly in our own). Our task, as we listen and pray these Psalms, is to hear those images as metaphors for our own spiritual challenges and blessings, rather than as an approbation of war and domination.

Bear Witness to the Light

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

Thursday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
October 26, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102623.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy,  Jesus says he has come to set fire on the earth! He says that, because of him, there will not be peace but division, setting households against one another. It’s not a comforting Gospel.

“I have come to set the earth on fire,
and how I wish it were already blazing!
There is a baptism with which I must be baptized,
and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished!
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth?
No, I tell you, but rather division.

Luke 12: 49- 1

We don’t live in a comforting world, do we? We see human beings set against each other in war, political corruption, economic despoiling, human trafficking, ecological crime, and other deeply ingrained systemic abuses.

Pope John Paul II in his encyclical EVANGELIUM VITAE refers to these realities as a “culture of death”.

Some threats come from nature itself, but they are made worse by the culpable indifference and negligence of those who could in some cases remedy them. Others are the result of situations of violence, hatred and conflicting interests, which lead people to attack others through murder, war, slaughter and genocide.

And how can we fail to consider the violence against life done to millions of human beings, especially children, who are forced into poverty, malnutrition and hunger because of an unjust distribution of resources between peoples and between social classes? And what of the violence inherent not only in wars as such but in the scandalous arms trade, which spawns the many armed conflicts which stain our world with blood? What of the spreading of death caused by reckless tampering with the world’s ecological balance, by the criminal spread of drugs, or by the promotion of certain kinds of sexual activity which, besides being morally unacceptable, also involve grave risks to life? It is impossible to catalogue completely the vast array of threats to human life, so many are the forms, whether explicit or hidden, in which they appear today! 

Paul says that, through our Baptism, we are called and strengthened to bear witness against such a culture:

But now that you have been freed from sin and have become slaves of God,
the benefit that you have leads to sanctification,
and its end is eternal life.
For the wages of sin is death,
but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:22-23
poor child

Every day, each of us has the opportunity to stand up for mercy and justice by the choices we make, the attitudes we affirm, and the values we stand for. But sometimes it’s hard, because doing so can set us against some of the people around and close to us. That’s when the rubber meets the road! Do we belong to Christ, or not?

Poetry: A Blessing – Bob Holmes

May the quiet fire of God’s love
arise within you.
May its flames of joy and peace
Enlighten your steps in this world,
And may you be like the burning bush,
The presence of God for each other,
That holy healing of light of love,
The breath of God made manifest
In you.

Music: Gabriel’s Oboe – written by Ennio Morricone, played by Hauser

Obedient Heart

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

Wednesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
October 25, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102523.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Paul and Jesus both instruct and challenge their listeners and us.

Rm6_17 obedient heart

… thanks be to God that, although you were once slaves of sin,
you have become obedient from the heart
to the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted.
Freed from sin, you have become slaves of righteousness.

Romans 6:17

Paul wants us to understand that, through our Baptism, we are living in a whole new power for goodness and grace. The world may look the same as it did before we belonged to Christ, but it isn’t. 

To use a phrase from the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins,

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

If we see with the new eyes of grace, we will be able to respond to Jesus’s challenge:

Stay awake!
For you do not know when the Son of Man will come.

Matthew 24:42

Stay awake. See the world and your life as they truly are  – places where God awaits you in every moment. Incline your heart to listen lovingly to the sound of the Holy Spirit in your life. That obedient heart is precious to God!

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:  Speak, O Lord – Kristyn Getty

Be Brave!

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, spirituality7 Comments

Tuesday of the Twenty-ninth Week in Ordinary Time
October 24, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102423.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Paul contrasts the sin of “Adam” with the gift of Jesus, demonstrating the specifics of Christ’s redemptive act.

Adam

A key phrase for our prayer might be the following. The concupiscence of human nature will always make the sinful choice a possibility. But we can gain courage and strength from this powerful line from Paul:

Where sin increased,
grace overflowed all the more….

Romans 5:15

In our Gospel, Jesus teaches a lesson about perseverance in the spiritual life. He says if we stick with it, God will welcome us the way a generous master thanks and embraces a loyal servant. He adds a comforting thought for those of us of “a certain age”.

And should he come in the second or third watch
and find them prepared in this way,
blessed are those servants.

Luke 12:38

Speaking personally now, I find that moving into “the second or third watch” can be a little scary. As various physical functions occasionally fail me, and some of my joints are replaced with earth minerals, a line from Yeats’s poem comes to mind – “things fall apart“:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...

As I look through my reading glasses at the information for my new titanium knee, I remember the young athlete who could drive a basketball down the lane for an explosive layup, often being knocked on her nethers by a powerful opponent. Nevertheless, she would jump up for the next rebound. What happened to that girl?

This Gospel reminds me that she is still inside me, but she is golden now — lifting her spirit, by God’s grace, to deeper challenge.

 I am beginning to understand that aging is its own life phase, not just a final comfortable fixity in one’s maturing. Just as every other life phase requires a gradual mastery of its challenges, so does aging. Toddlers must conquer balance and language skills. Teens must gain confidence and self-direction. Young adults work for greater wisdom and meaningful life relationships. Those “post-50” evaluate and may be challenged by the “successes” of their past years. And those in the sometimes not-so-really golden years are still doing all these earlier tasks while meeting the unique challenges of aging. One must be brave!

I hope some of you are Harry Potter fans. The books have powerful little encouragements tucked in their magical dialogue. One of my favorites is this. Harry, encouraging his elderly and fearful teacher to make a courageous choice, says, “Be brave, Professor… Otherwise, the bowl will remain empty… forever.”

The bowl of our life is never filled until it’s filled. Jesus reminds us that none of us knows when that day of fulfillment will come and we must be vigilant for it until it does.

Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.

Luke 12:37

We draw courage for that vigilance not from Harry Potter of course, but from Christ’s own promise to us that there is a special blessing especially for us 2nd or 3rd watchers:

And should he come in the second or third watch
and find them prepared in this way,
blessed are those servants.

Luke 12:38

I believe that if we prayerfully listen, we will find that this blessing already suggests itself this side of Christ’s final arrival. As Paul indicates in our first reading, when we remain open to graceful relationship with God, we already live in the peaceable kingdom.

… how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace
and the gift of justification
come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ…

Romans 5:17

Poetry: Sailing to Byzantium – William Butler Yeats

I

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees,
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

II

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

III

O sages standing in God’s holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

IV

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

Music: Candlelight – Ottmar Liebert

Liebert is a German classical guitarist, songwriter and producer best known for his Spanish-influenced music. A five-time Grammy Award nominee, he is also an ordained Zen monk.

One Bad Apple …?

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

Saturday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
October 21, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102123.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our scripture readings are a little heavy. I had to dig to get my inspiration. But there are gems in these dense words!

It was not through the law
that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants
that he would inherit the world,
but through the righteousness that comes from faith.

This is a spiritually freeing passage. It assures us that God is with us through our faith, not through the perfection with which we keep laws and rules.

Our Gospel reinforces the message:

Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven,
but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will not be forgiven.

Luke 12:10
lk12_10HolySpirit

The passage is a little scary when first read, because we all hope we haven’t done anything to offend the Holy Spirit. But what Jesus is telling his listeners is this:

If a person criticizes or rejects Christ’s life and teaching, forgiveness is still possible when they come to their senses and repent. It’s like cutting the bad spot out of an otherwise good apple.

But if a person chooses to live a life which blasphemes (mocks, dismisses) the Spirit of life, love, mercy and peace, that person can never be forgiven — because they can never repent. They will be hardened and rotten to the core.

So the advice of Paul and Jesus boils down to this, I think. Befriend the Holy Spirit by your life of faithful choices. Listen to Her inspiration. Help others to do the same. And do not worry when you make a few mistakes. God stands by the promise to be with us always.

Prose: Christmas Address of Pope Francis – 12/22/2022

Much has happened in the course of this year and, before anything else, we want to thank the Lord for all his blessings. Yet we hope that among those blessings is that of our conversion. Conversion is a never-ending story. The worst thing that could happen to us is to think that we are no longer in need of conversion, either as individuals or as a community.
To be converted is to learn ever anew how to take the Gospel message seriously and to put it into practice in our lives. It is not simply about avoiding evil but doing all the good that we can. That is what it means to be converted. Where the Gospel is concerned, we are always like children needing to learn. The illusion that we have learned everything makes us fall into spiritual pride.

Music: Spirit of the Living God- Divine Hymns

Practice Resurrection

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

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 15, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101523.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with radically liberating readings including Psalm 23, a familiar, comforting and beloved prayer.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
In verdant pastures he gives me repose;
beside restful waters he leads me;
he refreshes my soul.

Psalm 23: 1-3

The psalm comes between readings that assure us of a waiting and sumptuous banquet to which we gain entrance by both mercy and grace.  

Isaiah describes the feast in the future tense:

On that day it will be said:
“Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!
This is the LORD for whom we looked;
let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!”

Isaiah 25:9

But Paul reminds us of the truth we often forget. The banquet is NOW!

My God will fully supply whatever you need,
in accord with his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:20

In our Gospel, Jesus invites his guests to that feast with both an immediacy and a demand. The celebration of abundance is open to all. But we must at least make the effort to don a wedding garment – that reverent, grateful attitude which gives glory to the Source of our abundance. 

The edge of the white choir mantle is visible below the veils.

In ancient times – when I first came to religious life 🙂 – we would add a special garment to our habit to celebrate a great feast. The white choir mantle was a symbol of our awareness of a particularly sacred moment.

Miraculously, it is that reverent awareness that opens our eyes to the plentitude in our midst. It releases us to the freedom of a hope already realized, but hidden from those whose hearts refuse to be dressed in grace.

You spread the table before me
in the sight of my foes;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

Psalm 23:5

Our readings invite us to live as not only invited but saved people, completely convinced of God’s eternal welcome and protection.

Only goodness and kindness follow me
all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

Psalm 23:6

What would the world be like if we lived out this conviction – that we already possess God’s gracious abundance? 

How might the reproaches of fear, competition,
domination, selfishness, and hoarding
be removed from our midst?

How might the rush of generosity, forgiveness, and mercy 
flow out of our confident hearts
to wash the earth in God’s restful waters?

Poem: Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.
When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.
Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.
Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.
Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.
Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.
Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?
Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.
As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go. Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Music: Abundant Life – written by Ruth Duck, sung by Marty Haugen

We cannot own the sunlit sky, 
the moon, the wild-flowers growing, 
For we are part of all that is 
within life’s river flowing.

With open hands receive and share 
the gifts of God’s creation, 
That all may have abundant life 
in every earthly nation.

When bodies shiver in the night 
and weary wait for morning,
When children have no bread but tears, 
and war horns sound their warning. 

God calls humanity to awake, 
to join in common labor,
That all may have abundant life, 
oneness with their neighbor.

God calls humanity to join as partners
in creating a future free 
from want or fear.
Life’s goodness celebrating, 

that new world beckons from afar,
Invites our shared endeavor 
that all might have abundant life 
and peace endure forever.

Valley of Decision

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

Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
October 14, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101423.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Joel launches into a cautionary poem replete with metaphors. His images are so effective that, even 3000 years later, many will be very familiar to us from the liturgy and even from modern culture.

Some of my readers may be of an age to remember the wonderful film “The Valley of Decision” starring two of the all-time greats, Greer Garson and Gregory Peck. The film’s title is plucked right out of Joel.

Apply the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe;
Come and tread,
for the wine press is full;
The vats overflow,
for great is their malice.
Crowd upon crowd
in the valley of decision;
For near is the day of the LORD
in the valley of decision.
Sun and moon are darkened,
and the stars withhold their brightness.
The LORD roars from Zion,
and from Jerusalem raises his voice;
The heavens and the earth quake,
but the LORD is a refuge to his people,
a stronghold to the children of Israel.

By using metaphors, the poet-prophet accomplishes an extensive lesson that, delivered in prose, would have exhausted his beleaguered audience.

Metaphors have a way
of holding the most truth
in the least space.

Orson Scott Card

Like all prophets, Joel employs current events to point to a deeper understanding. Many of the metaphors he uses throughout his prophecy have been employed in the liturgy, particularly during Lent. Joel’s message is a universal call to repentance germane to every generation, but particularly to that liturgical season.

Yet even now,’ declares the Lord,
‘return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
and rend your hearts and not your garments.

Joel 2: 12-13

In our Gospel. the core of Joel’s message is given direct and fuller voice in Jesus’ statement:

Blessed are those
who hear the Word of God
and observe it.

Luke 11:28

In our own lives – our own “valleys of decision”, this is the foolproof way we prepare for the Day of the Lord – hearing and observing the Word of God.

Music: Valley of Decision – Christafari

(When I read about Christafari, I am reminded that we can never underestimate or judge the many ways that people come to Christ.)

Christafari was founded in 1989 by Pastor Mark Mohr. Raised in a Christian family, during his teens Mohr strayed from his spiritual upbringing and turned to drugs and alcohol, going as far as growing and even dealing marijuana. After running away from home, living on the streets, and hitting rock-bottom, he had an undeniable encounter with God that drastically transformed his world. At 17, Mark re-committed his life to Christ and took what he now calls his “Freedom Step” out of addiction.

Christafari is comprised of men and women from various continents, countries, and cultures who are true missionaries at heart and share a love for reggae music and passion for following Jesus to the ends of the earth.

Run come and fall
People take heed to His call
Valley of decision
(Valley of decision)
This is no game
People have to die in His name
Valley of decision
(Valley of decision)
Darkness, it looms all around us
I find it hard to see
But I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know
Whether I should stay or whether I should flee
People all around me seem, they seem to be so sad
I hear them cry, I hear them ball
I see them back against the wall
I wish I could wipe away their tears
There’s a Holy
A Holy hill
Holy mount Zion
Holy, Holy mount Zion
Just know that He’s the Lord, Your God, yeah
In this valley of decision
Valley of decision
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
I fear no evil, ’cause God is with me
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
Thy rod and staff, they will comfort me
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
I fear no evil, ’cause God is with me
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
Thy rod and staff, they will comfort me
Run come and fall
People take heed to His call
Valley of decision
(Valley of decision)
This is no game
People have to die in His name
Valley of decision
(Valley of decision)
There’s a Holy
A Holy hill
Holy mount Zion
Holy, Holy mount Zion
Just know that He’s the Lord, Your God, yeah
In this valley of decision
Valley of decision
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
I fear no evil, ’cause God is with me
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
Thy rod and staff, they will comfort me
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
I fear no evil, ’cause God is with me
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
Thy rod and staff, they will comfort me
Jah great and dreadful day will soon come
Jah will pour out His mighty, mighty, mighty Spirit to all mankind
Through Him all creation, all creation was made
Those who call upon His name
(Call on His name and You will be saved)
There’s a Holy
A Holy hill
Holy mount Zion
Holy, Holy mount Zion
Just know that He’s the Lord, Your God, yeah
In this valley of decision
Valley of decision
Run come and fall
People take heed to His call
Valley of decision
(Valley of decision)
This is no game
People have to die in His name
Valley of decision
(Valley of decision)
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
I fear no evil, ’cause God is with me
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
Thy rod and staff, they will comfort me
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
I fear no evil, ’cause God is with me
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
Thy rod and staff, they will comfort me
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
I fear no evil, ’cause God is with me
Even though I run through enough hills and valleys
Thy rod and staff, they will comfort me

The Door is Actually Open…

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, Prayer, spiritualityLeave a comment

Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
October 12, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101223.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, both our readings are replete with images regarding how we earn or access our heavenly reward.

Malachi presents us with the image of a record book wherein the names of the just are recorded:

Then they who fear the LORD spoke with one another,
and the LORD listened attentively;
And a record book was written before him
of those who fear the LORD and trust in his name.
And they shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts,
my own special possession, on the day I take action.
And I will have compassion on them,
as a man has compassion on his son who serves him.

Malachi 3: 16-17

It’s an image that has stuck with people throughout the centuries. Kind of reminds you of Santa Claus, doesn’t it – “making a list, checking it twice. Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice.” We’ve all seen depictions of St. Peter, at the “pearly gates”, checking that Book for someone who seems to have forgotten their reservation!

Such images illustrate our natural desire to understand the afterlife and its relationship to our moral choices. And guess what! Forget it! We are never going to comprehend or control that dynamic, because God isn’t Santa Claus, doesn’t have a little black book, and there are no gates in heaven.

In our Gospel today, Jesus tells us the only thing we can be sure of – that God is our Friend and desires to be one with us in the Holy Spirit.

If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit
to those who ask him?”

Luke 11:13

And Jesus says it’s not all that hard – just ask, seek, and knock. Of course, it matters what we are asking, seeking, and knocking FOR. It must be FOR deeper intimacy with God lived out in a grateful and generous life. This kind of holy relationship eradicates any need to manufacture worries about a record book or locked gates.

I tell you, ask and you will receive;
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives;
and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Luke 11: 9-10

Poetry: You, Neighbor God – Rainer Maria Rilke

You, neighbor God, if sometimes in the night
I rouse you with loud knocking, I do so
only because I seldom hear you breathe
and know: you are alone.
And should you need a drink, no one is there
to reach it to you, groping in the dark.
Always I hearken. Give but a small sign.
I am quite near.
Between us there is but a narrow wall,
and by sheer chance; for it would take
merely a call from your lips or from mine
to break it down,
and that without a sound.
The wall is builded of your images.
They stand before you hiding you like names.
And when the light within me blazes high
that in my inmost soul I know you by,
the radiance is squandered on their frames.
And then my senses, which too soon grow lame,
exiled from you, must go their homeless ways.

Music: God Hears Our Prayers – Mandy Lining

I think this song is very beautiful in its simplicity. I hope you like it.

The Lord’s Vineyard

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Psalms, repentance, spirituality8 Comments

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 8, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100823.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 80, rather a desperate plea in the midst of devastation.

… the vineyard which  you planted …
Why have you broken down its walls,
so that every passer-by plucks its fruit,
The boar from the forest lays it waste,
and the beasts of the field feed upon it?

Psalm 80: 13-14
Angelus – Jean Francois Millet

Among my readers there are probably not too many farmers, but there may be a few serious gardeners. You would know what it feels like to lose a valued and tendered crop. And all of us have probably seen a movie or two where early settlers lose the crop which sustained their existence, or a news story of the same tragedy in real life. No words.

So Isaiah tells us that Israel, and by extension the People of God, is that precious vineyard, lovingly planted in hope by the Creator. The prophet paints the image of a deeply disappointed God:

The vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah are his cherished plant;
he looked for judgment, but see, bloodshed!
for justice, but hark, the outcry!

Isaiah 5:7

But Psalm 80 calls out to that “disappointed” God and asks for forgiveness and restoration. The psalmist is inspired by the same kind of relentless hope Paul encourages in our second reading:

Have no anxiety at all, but in everything,
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God.
Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding
will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:6-7

Our Gospel demonstrates for us that the cycle continues throughout history: hope – sin – devastation- repentance – forgiveness – renewed hope. It continues in individuals, families, societies, churches.

But that cycle has been forever absorbed into the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Christ who once and for all redeemed us from its clutches. In the grace of Jesus Christ, we can never remain devastated or bereft of life. This is the glory of our Baptism into Christ, if we will but claim it!

Paul guides us, himself like a tender gardener, in this passage that is so worth our quiet reflection. It will be our “poem” for today! 

Finally, brothers and sisters,
whatever is true, whatever is honorable,
whatever is just, whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious,
if there is any excellence
and if there is anything worthy of praise,
think about these things.
Keep on doing what you have learned and received
and heard and seen in me.
Then the God of peace will be with you.

Music: Shen Khar Venakhi ( You are a Vineyard )
A hymn of praise to God’s perfect vineyard, the Virgin Mary who brought forth Christ

You are a vineyard newly blossomed.
Young, beautiful, growing in Eden,
A fragrant poplar sapling in Paradise.
May God adorn you. 
No one is more worthy of praise.
You yourself are the sun, shining brilliantly.

Thou Art a Vineyard (Georgian: შენ ხარ ვენახი, transliterated: Shen Khar Venakhi) is a medieval Georgian hymn. The text is attributed to King Demetrius I of Georgia (1093–1156). The composer of the music is unknown. Supposedly Demetrius wrote it during his confinement as a monk in the monastery. The hymn is dedicated to Georgia and the patronage of the Virgin Mary: it is also a prayer of praise to Mary in the Georgian Orthodox Church

As the lyrics did not mention any saints or gods, this was the only church-song that was permitted to be performed in the anti-religious Soviet Union. There are East Georgian (Kartli-Kakhetian) and West Georgian (Gurian) versions of this chant with very different musical compositions.

Eternal Compassion

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

Tuesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
September 19, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/tuesday-twenty-fourth-week-ordinary-time

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Paul gives the Church a job description for bishops. Obviously, there was a time when the worshipping community had significant input into the choice of its spiritual leaders. Therefore, Paul counsels the community to look for appointees who are well-balanced at:

  • the family level
  • the ministry level
  • the societal level

While directed toward bishops and deacons, Paul’s words could serve as an examen for anyone who professes to minister in God’s name.

nain

However, it is the Gospel story of the widow of Nain where my prayer rests today. Reading it, I remember standing by a large walkway window at the Louisville Airport on a sweltering July day nearly twenty years ago.

Down on the heat-softened tarmac, a small bevy of soldiers stood at attention. Slowly, a flag-draped casket was lowered into their waiting arms. Just to the side, a huddled family waited as well. Two children clung to either side of their young mother. An older couple stood behind her, hands gentled on her shoulders.

At the window with me, several other travelers gathered in silence. A few teenage boys removed their inverted baseball caps when they noticed a distinguished older gentleman stand tall and hold a salute.

No one who witnessed that brief ceremony will ever forget it. The grief, reverence and astonishment at life’s fragility emblazoned the moment on every witnessing heart.

When Jesus passed the gates of Nain on that ancient morning, he had a like experience. He saw this “only son of a widowed mother”. Once again, shaken to his roots with compassion –splancha– he pulled heaven down to heal heart-breaking loss.

How I wished Jesus were flying out of Louisville that day in 2005! But then I realized He was there. The miracle was hidden, but still real. The Divine Compassion flowed through me, through the reverent gathering beside me, through the soldiers’ honoring arms, through the long prayerful memory we would all forever share.

That young man from Nain was raised from the dead… but only for a while. He, like all of us, eventually died. The miracle was not about him and the restoration of his life. The miracle was the visible sign of God’s infinite compassion for his mother, and for all of us – God’s “feeling-with-us” in all our experiences. That compassion, whether miraculously visible or not, is always with us.

It just took a different form that day in Louisville.

military funeral

Poetry: First Born Sons and the Widow of Main by Irene Zimmerman, OSF

Jesus halted on the road outside Nain
where a woman’s wailing drenched the air.
Out of the gates poured a somber procession
of dark-shawled women, hushed children,
young men bearing a litter that held
a body swathed in burial clothes,
and the woman, walking alone. 
A widow then—another bundle 
of begging rags at the city gates. 
A bruised reed! 
Her loud grief labored and churned in him till
“Halt!” he shouted.
The crowd, the woman, the dead man stopped.
Dust, raised by sandaled feet,
settled down again on the sandy road.
Insects waited in shocked silence. 
He walked to the litter, grasped a dead hand.
“Young man,” he called
in a voice that shook the walls of Sheol,
“I command you, rise!” 
The linens stirred.
Two firstborn sons from Nazareth and Nain
met, eye to eye. 
He placed the pulsing hand into hers.
“Woman, behold your son,” he smiled.

Music:  I was reminded of this consoling country song for today’s prayer. Like much country music, it hits the heart where it matters, even if the theology is a little frayed.

God Only Cries – written by Tim Johnson, sung here by Diamond Rio
Lyrics below

On an icy road one night
A young man loses his life
They marked the shoulder with a cross
An’ his family gathers round
On a piece of Hallowed ground
Their hearts are heavy with their loss
As the tears fall from their eyes
There’s one who’ll always sympathise

God only cries for the living
‘Cause it’s the living that are left to carry on
An’ all the angels up in Heaven
They’re not grieving because they’re gone
There’s a smile on their faces
‘Cause they’re in a better place than…
They’ve ever known.

God only cries for the living
‘Cause it’s the living that are so far from home

It still makes me sad
When I think of my Grand-dad
I miss him each and every day
But I know the time will come
When my own grandson
Wonders why I went away
Maybe we’re not meant to understand
Till we meet up in the Promised Land