Category: Faith

Lord

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

Saturday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
September 7, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090724.cfm

While Jesus was going through a field of grain on a sabbath,
his disciples were picking the heads of grain,
rubbing them in their hands, and eating them.
Some Pharisees said,
“Why are you doing what is unlawful on the sabbath?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Have you not read what David did
when he and those who were with him were hungry?
How he went into the house of God, took the bread of offering,
which only the priests could lawfully eat,
ate of it, and shared it with his companions?”
Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”
Luke 6:1-5

A religion, like any other social construct, makes rules to define its character. The process can be as simple the “club” rules we made in elementary school (with the accompanying
“All Others Keep Out” sign.) Or it can be as complex as who qualifies, by their behavior, as a certified Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, etc.

But humanly constructed rules can be easily degraded when the purpose of their design is forgotten or ignored. This is what Jesus wanted his listeners to understand. He did not come to redefine the Old Law. He is Lord of the New Law whose definition is mercy and love not regulation.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
A sainted Mother Superior, in my young religious life, once offered me this insight: “The rules are for those who need them.”
Did she mean that religious rules should be ignored? Certainly not.
The maxim suggests that those who live the true spirit of the Gospel have no need of a list of rules to guide them.

Thought: from Joan Chittister, OSB

The spiritual life… is not achieved 
by denying one part of life 
for the sake of another. 
The spiritual life is achieved 
only by listening to all of life 
and learning to respond 
to each of its dimensions 
wholly and with integrity.

Music: Lord of the Sabbath – Keiko Ying

Patch

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

Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
September 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090624.cfm

And Jesus also told them a parable.
“No one tears a piece from a new cloak to patch an old one.
Otherwise, he will tear the new
and the piece from it will not match the old cloak.
Luke 5:36

Jesus wants his disciples to understand that his Gospel invitation is to an entirely new way of thinking. The word Jesus preaches is one of Mercy not Law. To understand that dynamic change, his disciples must let go of the measurements of the Old Law. They are not sufficient to convey the infinite mercy and love of God.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask for the grace of a clearer understanding – one that can release the need for measurements and judgements. May the overflowing love of God move our hearts to see the world with Mercy.

Poetry: But Not With Wine – Jessica Powers

O God of too much giving, 
whence is this inebriation that possesses me, 
that the staid road now wanders all amiss, 
and that the wind walks much too giddily, 
clutching a bush for balance, or a tree? 
How then can dignity and pride endure 
with such inordinate mirth upon the land, 
when steps and speech are somewhat insecure 
and the light heart is wholly out of hand? 

If there be indecorum in my songs, 
fasten the blame where rightly it belongs: 
on Him who offered me too many cups 
of His most potent goodness—not on me, 
a peasant who, because a King was host, 
drank out of courtesy.

Music: Wineskins – Cloverton

[Verse 1]
There is trouble up ahead
The water’s getting rough
And smoke is in the wind
There’s a fear that comes with the unknown
But clinging to the past
Will keep you where you don’t belong

[Chorus]
New wine in the old wineskins
Something breaks when nothing bends
New wine in the old wineskins
We can’t stay so how’s this end?

[Verse 2]
Don’t try to cover up the holes
With patches that are fragile
And stitches that won’t hold
These patterns hold us in a line
We need an alteration
The old self must be left behind

[Chorus]
New wine in the old wineskins
Something breaks when nothing bends
New wine in the old wineskins
We can’t stay so how’s this end?
New wine in the old wineskins
Something breaks when nothing bends
New wine in the old wineskins
We can’t stay so how’s this end?

Deep

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

Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
September 5, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090524.cfm

After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon,
“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Simon said in reply,
“Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing,
but at your command I will lower the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish
and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat
to come to help them. 
They came and filled both boats
so that the boats were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said,
“Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men.”
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.
Luke 5:4-11

In today’s Gospel, Jesus takes his disciples “deep” – into his power, his vision, and his mission. He does it with a little Divine Magic on the ordinary Gennesaret fish. The fishermen are astonished enough to leave everything and follow him.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Jesus takes the ordinary things of our lives too and, if we have faith, let’s us see the divine Power under the surface of our lives.

Thought: from Thomas Merton

You do not need to know
precisely what is happening
or exactly where it is going.
What you need is to recognize
the possibilities and challenges
offered by the present moment,
and to embrace them
with courage, faith and hope.

Thomas Merton

Music: Secret Ocean – Peter Kater

Tidings

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Gospel, Jesus, joy, justice, Mercy, spiritualityLeave a comment

Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
September 4, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090424.cfm

The Lord sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor
and to proclaim liberty to captives.

Luke 4:18

In today’s Gospel, Jesus zealously launches his universal ministry. He has been rejected in his hometown of Nazareth and revered in Capernaum. Now he readies himself to break in a redeeming tide over all the nations. His ministry promises waves of joy to those who are poor and liberty to those held captive.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Christ’s ministry in our world has not changed. We are his agents called now to break over our suffering world in waves of mercy, justice, and joy.

Poetry: Tides – Mary Oliver

Every day the sea
blue gray green lavender
pulls away leaving the harbor’s
dark-cobbled undercoat

slick and rutted and worm-riddled, the gulls
walk there among old whalebones, the white
spines of fish blink from the strandy stew
as the hours tick over; and then

far out the faint, sheer
line turns, rustling over the slack,
the outer bars, over the green-furled flats, over
the clam beds, slippery logs,

barnacle-studded stones, dragging
the shining sheets forward, deepening,
pushing, wreathing together
wave and seaweed, their piled curvatures

spilling over themselves, lapping
blue gray green lavender, never
resting, not ever but fashioning shore,
continent, everything.

And here you may find me
on almost any morning
walking along the shore so
light-footed so casual.

Music: Tides of the Soul – Ty Burke

Holy Spirit

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, holiness, Holy Spirit, Jesus, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
September 3, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090324.cfm

The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.
Among men, who knows what pertains to the man
except his spirit that is within?
Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.
We have not received the spirit of the world
but the Spirit who is from God,
so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.
And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom,
but with words taught by the Spirit,
describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.
1 Corinthians 2:10-13

When Jesus lived, God was present to us in the flesh. With Pentecost, God became present to us in the Spirit. But we who are bodily may be challenged to perceive the invisible Spirit. The Spirit becomes visible only in our works of mercy, justice, and love.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask that we may grow in our relationship with the Holy Spirit, and that we may allow God’s Omnipotent Power to work through us for the continued sanctification of the world.

Poetry: In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being – Denise Levertov

Birds afloat in air's current,
sacred breath? No, not breath of God,
it seems, but God
the air enveloping the whole
globe of being.
It's we who breathe, in, out, in, in the sacred,
leaves astir, our wings
rising, ruffled -- but only the saints
take flight. We cower
in cliff-crevice or edge out gingerly
on branches close to the nest. The wind
marks the passage of holy ones riding
that ocean of air. Slowly their wake
reaches us, rocks us.
But storms or still,
numb or poised in attention,
we inhale, exhale, inhale,
encompassed, encompassed.

Music: Hymn to the Holy Spirit – Nicholas Echeveria, OSA

Lyrics are taken from a prayer attributed to St. Augustine

Jesus Christ

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Cross, Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, spirituality1 Comment

Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
September 2, 2024

today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090224.cfm

When I came to you, brothers and sisters,
proclaiming the mystery of God,
I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you
except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2

Paul gets it, and he wants to give it to his listeners. Jesus Christ is the First and the Last Word. When Paul was given the gift of faith, he embraced the whole mystery of Christ, Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Who is the Christ that I believe in? Only a God of personal prosperity and abundance? Or a God Who continues to take flesh, suffer, and rise in my life and the lives of my sisters and brothers?

Prose: from Henri Nouwen

Suffering invites us
to place our hurts in larger hands.
In Christ we see God suffering – for us.
And calling us to share in
God’s suffering love for a hurting world.
The small and even overpowering pains of our lives
are intimately connected with
the greater pains of Christ.
Our daily sorrows are anchored
in a greater sorrow
and therefore a larger hope.

Music: Gabriel’s Oboe – Ennio Morricone

Foolish

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Cross, Faith, Forgiveness, Gospel, inclusivity, justice, Mercy, peace, spirituality2 Comments

Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time
August 30, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/083024.cfm

Brothers and sisters:
Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the Gospel,
and not with the wisdom of human eloquence,
so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning.

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:17-18

Paul writes that the meaning of the Cross depends on who you are. If you believe, it manifests God’s Power. If you do not believe, it signifies foolishness.

The Gospel and the Cross turn the realities of the world upside down. For those who have falsely believed that power exists in egotism, legalism, division, aggression, vengeance, and greed, Paul says, “No!”. These are only signs that you are perishing.

The power of the Cross is manifested in mercy, justice, community, peace, forgiveness and generosity. This is the path to salvation.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask for the courage to trust the contradictory wisdom of the Gospel, and to live a life that reveals the “foolish” power of the Cross.

Poetry: Jesus Is Nailed to the Cross – Malcolm Guite

See, as they strip the robe from off his back
And spread his arms and nail them to the cross,
The dark nails pierce him and the sky turns black,
And love is firmly fastened on to loss.
But here, a pure change happens.
On this tree, loss becomes gain, death opens into birth.
Here wounding heals and fastening makes free, 

Earth breathes in heaven, heaven roots in earth. 
And here we see the length, the breadth, the height, 
Where love and hatred meet and love stays true, 
Where sin meets grace and darkness turns to light, 
We see what love can bear and be and do.
And here our Saviour calls us to his side, 
His love is free, his arms are open wide.

Music: The Power of the Cross – Stuart Townend

Grudge

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Discipleship, Faith, Forgiveness, healing, Mercy, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist
August 29, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082924.cfm

John had said to Herod,
“It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Herodias harbored a grudge against him
and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.
Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man,
and kept him in custody.
When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed,
yet he liked to listen to him.
Matthew 6:18-20

Our Gospel today describes the manner of death for John the Baptist. It is a sad and horrifying story. But the sadder story is how Herodias’s grudge poisoned both her heart and the cowardly heart of Herod.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We examine our own hearts for any shadow of grudge or ill-feeling we might hold against others. It may be a small fracture, but it can widen over the years to become spiritually poisonous. We pray for the grace to be able to heal, to change, to forgive, and to be truly compassionate.

Poetry: Things That Cause a Quiet Life – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey

My friend, the things that do attain
The happy life be these, I find:
The riches left, not got with pain,
The fruitful ground; the quiet mind;

The equal friend; no grudge, no strife;
No charge of rule nor governance;
Without disease the healthy life;
The household of continuance;

The mean diet, no dainty fare;
True wisdom joined with simpleness;
The night discharged of all care,
Where wine the wit may not oppress;

The faithful wife, without debate;
Such sleeps as may beguile the night:
Content thyself with thine estate,
Neither wish death, nor fear his might.

Music: J.S. Bach / Christ unser Herr zum Jordan kam, BWV 7
This is one of several church cantatas which Johann Sebastian Bach composed for the Feast of St. John the Baptist.

Walk

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Eternal Life, Faith, holiness, justice, Mercy, repentance, spiritualityLeave a comment

Memorial of Saint Augustine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
August 28, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082824.cfm

Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
Psalm 128:1-2

In today’s Gospel, Jesus really slams the Pharisees! They had to walk away from his condemnation thinking twice about the pretense of their lives!

Paul advises his followers not to “walk in disorderly way” – a little bit gentler admonition, but still a call to get one’s act together.

Our instructive psalm tells us why we should pay attention to the reproofs of Jesus and Paul. It reminds us that to walk in the way of the Lord brings us eternal blessing and favor.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask to continually learn how to walk in God’s grace for there is always a new challenge on Life’s pathway.

Thought:

As you start to walk on the way,
the way appears.

Rumi

Music: Walk in the Light – Aretha Franklin

Jesus is the light of the world
Come on choir

Walk in the light (walk in the light)
Beautiful light (well it’s a beautiful light)
Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright (Oh Lord)
Shine all around us by day and by night
Oh oh oh oh, Jesus is the light of the world

I wonder, do you know that this evening
Yeah yeah yeah

Walk in the light (we’re walk in the light)
Beautiful light (well it’s a beautiful light)
Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright 
Oh Lord, shine all around us by day and by night
Oh Lord, Jesus is the light of the world

Oh oh oh, oh oh oh oh, yeah

Walk in the light (we’re going the distance, yeah)
Beautiful light (we’re going the distance where the light)
Come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright (of mercy shine bright)
Shine all around us by day and by night
(Oh Lord) Jesus is the light of the world (the Lord is the light of the world)

He’s shining (Yes, he’s shining)
He’s shining (oh yes he is, he’s shining)
He’s shining in my soul (oh yes he is, oh yeah)

Tithes

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

Memorial of Saint Monica
August 27, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082724.cfm

Jesus said:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.
You pay tithes of mint and dill and cummin,
and have neglected the weightier things of the law:
judgment and mercy and fidelity.
But these you should have done, without neglecting the others.
Matthew 23:23

Today’s Gospel is about the sincerity of our faith. Jesus accuses the Pharisees of shallow practices not motivated by sincere faith. They are surface believers, practicing a religion of appearances.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We place our own practice of faith before God, asking for the grace to face these questions. Is our faith only a visible display, or is it grounded in the deep virtues of honest judgment, generous mercy, and steadfast fidelity?

Poetry: Flickering Mind – Denise Levertov

Lord, not you
it is I who am absent.
At first
belief was a joy I kept in secret,
stealing alone
into sacred places:
a quick glance, and away -- and back,
circling.
I have long since uttered your name
but now
I elude your presence.
I stop
to think about you, and my mind
at once
like a minnow darts away,
darts
into the shadows, into gleams that fret
unceasing over
the river's purling and passing.
Not for one second
will my self hold still, but wanders
anywhere,
everywhere it can turn. Not you,
it is I am absent.
You are the stream, the fish, the light,
the pulsing shadow.
You the unchanging presence, in whom all
moves and changes.
How can I focus my flickering, perceive
at the fountain's heart
the sapphire I know is there?

Music: We Walk by Faith – Marty Haugen