Category: Eternal Life

Stranger

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, friendship, inclusivity, justice, spirituality1 Comment

Saturday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
November 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111624.cfm

Beloved, you are faithful in all you do for the brothers and sisters,
especially for strangers;
they have testified to your love before the Church.
Please help them in a way worthy of God to continue their journey.
For they have set out for the sake of the Name
and are accepting nothing from the pagans.
Therefore, we ought to support such persons,
so that we may be co-workers in the truth.
3 John 5:8

Most of us have felt like strangers at some point in our lives. It’s not a nice feeling. You might have attended an event without a date or companion. You might have been the only woman in a group of men, or vice versa. You might have been the only Black person at a White funeral or the other way around. Didn’t we hope to find someone to connect to, someone who would offer us an open door?

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
As we think about Paul’s teaching, and our own experiences, let’s prayerfully consider our attitudes and actions regarding immigrants and refugees. Persons displaced by climate, politics, poverty, lawlessness, and a host of other causes deserve our help, as Paul describes. Let’s ask ourselves how we’re doing with that.

Poem: The Kindness of Strangers – Sally Van Dorn

Here I am with all my flaws
seeking form and shelter.

I blanche at the notion
of violence, but it’s coming

after us, closing in like a
superstition I can’t shake.

If I acquiesce to your harsh
future you must promise me

one thing. Where we go we will
find our youth again. Can you

see it there under the yellow linen
tablecloth? I’m depending on it.

Music: Wayfaring Stranger – published in 1858, author unknown

I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger
Traveling through this world below
There is no sickness, no toil, no danger
In that bright land to which I go
I'm going there to see my father
And all my loved ones who've gone on
I'm just going over Jordan
I'm just going over home
I know dark clouds will gather 'round me
I know my way is hard and steep
But beauteous fields arise before me
Where God's redeemed, their vigils keep
I'm going there to see my mother
She said she'd meet me when I come
So I'm just going over Jordan
I'm just going over home
I'm just going over Jordan
I'm just going over home

Forgiveness

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

Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time
November 14, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111424.cfm

Beloved:
I have experienced much joy and encouragement from your love,
because the hearts of the holy ones
have been refreshed by you, brother.
Therefore, although I have the full right in Christ
to order you to do what is proper,
I rather urge you out of love,
being as I am, Paul, an old man,
and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus.
I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus,
whose father I have become in my imprisonment,
who was once useless to you but is now useful to both you and me.
Philemon 1:7-11

Did you ever have to intercede for a friend? Or if you were the friend, did anyone ever have to intercede for you? That’s what is happening in this passage.

Onesimus, the escaped slave of Philemon, had also been accused of petty theft. During his escape, he comes into Paul’s company, is converted, and befriends and assists Paul.

Paul pleads with Philemon to forgive and reconcile with Onesimus as a brother in Christ.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We give thanks for those who have stood by us in times of testing, who knew our hearts better than others did, and who represented us in Christ.

Poetry: “Onesimus” by Tania Runyan

Since I stole your money, Philemon, and even more, myself, the body
that broke earth and stacked stones at daybreak while you slept,

you have every right to lash me till the whites of my intestines show,
brand FUG on my forehead, or throw me to the lions, who love especially

the taste of escaped slaves, our blood sweet with freedom’s fleeting breath.
But Paul, wild-eyed with Christ, has washed down his prison walls

with prayer. He knows you will take me back, not a slave, but a brother
delivering koinonia to your congregation in this present evil age, teaching

how to pray paralytics into motion and how to sleep in peace
when soldiers sharpen swords outside your windows. Paul calls me his son, no—

his very heart. I am no longer your body but will reside in yours,
pump forgiveness and prayer through your veins. I will make you

see Christ in every jangling harlot and rotting, leprous face.
I will make you a slave to God’s bidding.

Music: Return to the Heart – David Lanz

Cabrini

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, spirituality3 Comments

Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin
November 13, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/111324.cfm

But when the kindness and generous love
of God our savior appeared,
not because of any righteous deeds we had done
but because of his mercy,
he saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our savior,
so that we might be justified by his grace
and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7

The saint we honor today is an exemplar of the spiritual life Paul describes in his letter to Titus – centered in God’s mercy, inspired by the Holy Spirit, and unified with Jesus Christ and his Gospel.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we take time to be with Frances Xavier Cabrini, and with any of our special saints who model for us the pathway to eternal life.

Research: The story of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini’s life is inspiring and astounding. To read a summary, click here:

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

Music: Va, Pensiero (from the film Cabrini) is an aria from the opera Nabucco written by Giuseppe Verdi in 1842. The aria is popularly known as “The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves”.

The opera recollects the period of Babylonian captivity after the destruction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC.

The libretto is by Temistocle Solera, inspired by Psalm 137. The opera with its powerful chorus established Verdi as a major composer in 19th-century Italy. The full incipit is “Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate”, meaning “Go, thought, on wings of gold”. (Wikipedia)

Goes, thought, on golden wings
Va, pensiero, sull’ali dorate

It goes, it places you on the slopes, on the hills
Va, ti posa sui clivi, sui colli

Where they smell warm and soft
Ove olezzano tepide e molli

The sweet auras of the native soil
L’aure dolci del suolo natal
He greets the banks of the Jordan
Del Giordano le rive saluta

The towers of Sione collapsed
Di Sione le torri atterrate

Oh, my beautiful and lost homeland
Oh, mia patria sì bella e perduta

Oh, memory so dear and fatal
Oh, membranza sì cara e fatal
Golden harp of the fateful prophets
Arpa d’or dei fatidici vati

Why does it change from the willow tree you hang?
Perché muta dal salice pendi?

Rekindle the memories in your chest
Le memorie nel petto raccendi

It tells us about times gone by
Ci favella del tempo che fu
O similar of Sòlima to the fates
O simile di Sòlima ai fati

You draw a sound of raw lament
Traggi un suono di crudo lamento

O may the Lord inspire you with a concert
O t’ispiri il Signore un concento

May it infuse virtue into suffering
Che ne infonda al patire virtù
May it infuse virtue into suffering
Che ne infonda al patire virtù

May it infuse virtue into suffering
Che ne infonda al patire virtù

Virtue to suffering
Al patire virtù

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

Infinity

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, dying, Eternal Life, Faith, holiness, spirituality, suffering1 Comment

The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed
November 2, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110224.cfm

In the time of their visitation they shall shine,
    and shall dart about as sparks through stubble;
they shall judge nations and rule over peoples,
    and the Lord shall be their King forever.
Those who trust in God shall understand truth,
    and the faithful shall abide with God in love:
because grace and mercy are with God’s holy ones,
    whose care embraces the Elect.
Wisdom 3:7-9

All Souls Day is a glorious feast, and yet it is threaded with a tinge of sadness. We remember those we have loved and lost into the incomprehensible dimensions of eternity, into an infinty of Love.

The gifted Wisdom writer consoles us with the verse we are all so familiar with from many funerals:

The souls of the just
are in the hand of God,
and no torment shall touch them.

Wisdom 3:1

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We place our trust in God’s promise to hold our beloveds in tenderness until we see them again.

Poetry: from John O’Donohue

Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts,
Where no storm or might or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of colour.

The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being;
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
With wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief,
Your spirit was live, awake, complete.

We look towards each other no longer
From the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
We know our soul’s gaze is upon your face,
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.

Let us not look for you only in memory,
Where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
Beside us when beauty brightens,
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,
Darkest winter has turned to spring;
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.

May you continue to inspire us:
To enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love
Until we see your beautiful face again
In that land where there is no more separation,
Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,
And where we will never lose you again.

Music: Spirit Touch – Joseph Akins

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:

Wings

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

Thursday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
October 31, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/103124.cfm

Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how many times I yearned to gather your children together
as a hen gathers her brood under her wings,
but you were unwilling!
Behold, your house will be abandoned.
But I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say,
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Luke 13:34-35

Scripture often uses the image of wings to convey the sense of divine protection as in Psalm 91:4:

You will cover me with your pinions
and hide me in the shadow of your wings.

In today’s reading, Jesus expresses his desire to love and protect us in this way. Yet some, by their life choices, remain unwilling.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We gratefully nestle in God’s grace and protection asking that our lives be transformed in that Holy Shadow.

Poem: Peace – Gerard Manley Hopkins

When will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut,
Your round me roaming end, and under be my boughs?
When, when, Peace, will you, Peace? I'll not play hypocrite
To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but
That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows
Alarms of wars, the daunting wars, the death of it?

O surely, reaving Peace, my Lord should leave in lieu
Some good! And so he does leave Patience exquisite,
That plumes to Peace thereafter. And when Peace here does house
He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo,
He comes to brood and sit.

Music: Shadow of Your Wings – Amy Michelle

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

Seed

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Hope, spirituality2 Comments

Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
October 29, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/102924.cfm

Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like?
To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that someone planted in the garden.
When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”
Luke 13:18-19

These poetic words of Jesus paint a picture of heaven filled with humility, hope, vitality, possibility, and Divine hospitality. Our hearts are the gardens where God plants this mystical seed! Amazing!

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray to have a holy longing for the heavenly seed God’s offers us. We pray to be loving gardeners of God’s indescribable gifts of faith, hope, and charity.

Poetry: God’s Garden by Dorothy Frances Gurney

The Lord God planted a garden
In the first white days of the world,
And He set there an angel warden
In a garment of light enfurled.

So near to the peace of Heaven,
That the hawk might nest with the wren,
For there in the cool of the even
God walked with the first of men.

And I dream that these garden-closes
With their shade and their sun-flecked sod
And their lilies and bowers of roses,
Were laid by the hand of God.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,–
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

For He broke it for us in a garden
Under the olive-trees
Where the angel of strength was the warden
And the soul of the world found ease.

Music: Gardens in the Sun – Georgia Kelly