Category: Faith

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”

Aroma

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Community, Creation, Faith, Jesus, spirituality5 Comments

Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 11, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081124.cfm

So be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love,
as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us
as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma.
Ephesians 5:1-2

You are hungry. It is a cold, grey, and rainy day. You walk into your gently lit home needing rest and nourishment. Then, imagine the aroma of freshly baked bread, just lifted from the oven.

Jesus tells us that he is that Bread, given to feed the deep hungers of our soul, and the deep hungers of all Creation.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray for the graces we need to allow us a rich appreciation of Eucharist:

  • in our Church and its liturgies
  • in the world as we share life and ministry
  • in the reverence for all Creation which becomes complete by our completeness in Christ

Prose: from The Mass on the World – Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Since once again, Lord — though this time not in the forests of the Aisne but in the steppes of Asia — I have neither bread, nor wine, nor altar, I will raise myself beyond these symbols, up to the pure majesty of the real itself; I, your priest, will make the whole earth my altar and on it will offer you all the labours and sufferings of the world.

Over there, on the horizon, the sun has just touched with light the outermost fringe of the eastern sky. Once again, beneath this moving sheet of fire, the living surface of the earth wakes and trembles, and once again begins its fearful travail. I will place on my paten, O God, the harvest to be won by this renewal of labour. Into my chalice I shall pour all the sap which is to be pressed out this day from the earth’s fruits.

My paten and my chalice are the depths of a soul laid widely open to all the forces which in a moment will rise up from every corner of the earth and converge upon the Spirit. Grant me the remembrance and the mystic presence of all those whom the light is now awakening to the new day.

Music: Fresh Bread – Chuck Girard

Fresh bread, cool water, come and receive it
Fresh bread, cool water, come and receive it
Cease from your labors, come now and dine
Fresh bread, cool water, come get the oil and wine

In every life there comes a time to dance
In every life there comes a time to be still
Sometimes you’re given’ out until there’s nothin’ left
Then there’s a time that comes to be refreshed and filled

Repeat chorus

Come get the oil of gladness, and the bread of life
Come get the living water, be refreshed tonight
Come get the fruit of joy, come on and dance in the dirt
We’ll get the mud off your shoes and  
Have you back to the table in time for dessert

Repeat chorus

There’s a season of labor, then a day of rest
There’s a time of trial, then you pass the test
There’s a time when the wind blows, then a time of peace
There’s a time when you have to fast, then a time, a time when you feast

CHORUS

Come get the living water
Come get the bread of life
Come get the oil of gladness
Be refreshed tonight 
Cease from your labor, come now and dine
Fresh bread, cool water, come get the oil and wine

Unless…

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Creation, Cross, dying, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality3 Comments

Feast of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and Martyr
August 10, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081024.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains just a grain of wheat;
but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
John 12:24

The great paradox of existence is that, in order to live, we must die. It is a truth endemic to all Creation. It is a reality lived out in all relationships.

Jesus cites this universal truth to teach his disciples the key to eternal life. We must die to self to find our life in God.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We prayerfully reflect on the times when this truth has been evident in our lives. When have we found new life? When have we experienced the freedom to grow? What had to die in us before these graces could transform us?

Poetry: Unless a Grain of Wheat – Malcolm Guite

Oh let me fall as grain to the good earth
And die away from all dry separation,
Die to my sole self, and find new birth
Within that very death, a dark fruition,
Deep in this crowded underground, to learn
The earthy otherness of every other,
To know that nothing is achieved alone
But only where these other fallen gather.

If I bear fruit and break through to bright air,
Then fall upon me with your freeing flail
To shuck this husk and leave me sheer and clear
As heaven-handled Hopkins, that my fall
May be more fruitful and my autumn still
A golden evening where your barns are full.

Music: Unless a Grain of Wheat Shall Fall – Bernadette Farrell

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.



Covenant

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, holiness, Love, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saint Dominic, priest
August 8, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080824.cfm

But this is the covenant that I will make 
with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD.
I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; 
I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
No longer will they have need to teach their friends and relatives
how to know the LORD.
All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, 
for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.
Jeremiah 31:33-34

In today’s first reading, Jeremiah’s love song with God continues. He tells the people that God will “marry” their hearts by writing the Divine Design within them, and that all shall be included in that covenant of Infinite Mercy.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
In Jesus Christ, we are living in the fullness of that promise. Even in an apparently contradictory world, our faith impels us to believe, and to live a life which trusts that fulfillment.

Poetry: Draw Near – Scott Cairns

προσέλθετε (Come)

For near is where you’ll meet what you have wandered 
far to find. And near is where you’ll very likely see 
how far the near obtains. In the dark katholikon
the lighted candles lent their gold to give the eye
a more than common sense of what lay flickering
just beyond the ken, and lent the mind a likely
swoon just shy of apprehension. It was then
that time’s neat artifice fell in and made for us
a figure for when time would slip free altogether.
I have no sense of what this means to you, so little
sense of what to make of it myself, save one lit glimpse 
of how we live and move, a more expansive sense in Whom.

Music: Love Overflows – Michael Hoppé

One glass half empty
One glass half full,
Some may be dry now
Mine overflows.
See what you want to.
Each to their own.
My eyes are wide open
And love overflows

In the darkest hours
when you’re alone,
think of me, darling,
And love overflows.
In the darkest hours,
when you’re alone,
think of me, darling,
and love overflows.

Glory

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

Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
August 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080624.cfm

Beloved:
We did not follow cleverly devised myths
when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received honor and glory from God the Father
when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory,
“This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven
while we were with him on the holy mountain.
Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable.
You will do well to be attentive to it,
as to a lamp shining in a dark place,
until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
2 Peter 1:16-19

This beautiful passage from Peter shines with faith, adoration, and praise. It invites us to let go of our “thinking” about God and, instead, to bask in the Divine Glory of which our faith assures us.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
The Feast of the Transfiguration beckons us to be with God in the way we would be with someone we deeply love – not analyzing the bliss, but resting in it gratefully and contentedly.

Poetry: Transfiguration – Malcolm Guite

For that one moment, ‘in and out of time’,
On that one mountain where all moments meet,
The daily veil that covers the sublime
In darkling glass fell dazzled at his feet.
There were no angels full of eyes and wings
Just living glory full of truth and grace.
The Love that dances at the heart of things
Shone out upon us from a human face
And to that light the light in us leaped up,
We felt it quicken somewhere deep within,
A sudden blaze of long-extinguished hope
Trembled and tingled through the tender skin.
Nor can this blackened sky, this darkened scar
Eclipse that glimpse of how things really are.

Music: Transfiguration – by Wren and Manalo

False

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality, Truth2 Comments

Monday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 5, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080524.cfm

Remove from me the way of falsehood,
and favor me with your law.
Take not the word of truth from my mouth,
for in your ordinances is my hope.
Psalm 19:29,43

The passage from Jeremiah tells the story of the false prophet Hananiah who offered a counterfeit hope because he did not have a true relationship with God. Jeremiah’s message, which called for sincere repentance, was honest but not popular.

Today’s Psalm 19 is a prayer for the courage to listen to and live in God’s Truth, not to ascribe to a false message just because that is the one we want to hear.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray for the courage to hear God’s Word in the truth of our hearts, a truth created by living a life of prayer, spiritual honesty, repentance, and mercy.

Poetry: Tell All the Truth – Emily Dickinson

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —

Music: Great Is Thy Faithfulness – written by Thomas Chisholm (1866–1960)

Bread

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Love, spirituality2 Comments

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 4, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080424.cfm

Then the LORD said to Moses,
“I will now rain down bread from heaven for you.
Each day the people are to go out and gather their daily portion;
thus will I test them,
to see whether they follow my instructions or not.

“I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites.
Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh,
and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,
so that you may know that I, the LORD, am your God.”
Exodus 16:11-12

In both our readings, God recognizes physical hunger and ties it to spiritual strength.

In our Gospel, Jesus makes the connection clear. He tells his followers:

“For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”

No matter how much we are “fed”, we will never be satisfied until our nurture blesses the rest of the world as well as ourselves.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask to be more aware of, grateful for, and generous with the blessings we have received.

Poetry: Bread – Richard Levine

Each night, in a space he’d make
between waking and purpose,
my grandfather donned his one
suit, in our still dark house, and drove
through Brooklyn’s deserted streets
following trolley tracks to the bakery.
There he’d change into white
linen work clothes and cap,
and in the absence of women,
his hands were both loving, well
into dawn and throughout the day—
kneading, rolling out, shaping
each astonishing moment
of yeasty predictability
in that windowless world lit
by slightly swaying naked bulbs,
where the shadows staggered, woozy
with the aromatic warmth of the work.
Then, the suit and drive, again.
At our table, graced by a loaf
that steamed when we sliced it,
softened the butter and leavened
the very air we’d breathe,
he’d count us blessed.

Music: Bread for the World – Bernadette Farrell