Category: Faith

Hospitality – Our Human Anti-freeze

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, inclusivity, Seasons, spirituality1 Comment

January 19, 2025

January by Vladimir Sterzer

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How do the great trees die and come to life again?  It’s a question we can ponder every winter as the bare, black branches fill with ice.  Their stark emptiness seems to be a place from which there is no return.  But we know otherwise.  In the encroaching cold of every December, our experience whispers that there will be another April.  Still, in the frigid dark, it is sometimes hard to believe.

Like nature, each one of us has our seasons.  

  • Our lives contain the seasons of our youth and aging.  
  • Our daily experiences turn in both the ebb and tide of life.  
  • Each of us has blossomed with spring’s new life:  beginning a new job, relationship, adventure.  
  • Each of us has cultivated what we love over warm summers of dedication and growth – our faith, families, friends, ministries, andcareers.  
  • Each of us has reaped the autumn returns of our efforts, walking away from a red and golden field carrying a well-earned harvest – graduations, anniversaries, promotions, retirements. 
  • Certainly, each of us has known our own winters, when cold has threatened and dark has isolated – and yet, like the trees – we have survived.

As we move into the depths of “Winter 2025”, it seems an opportune time to review the lessons of the season – especially the chapters on deep roots, inner quiet, and a hidden spiritual warmth that defies freezing.  

In the winters of our lives, we are invited to learn what truly sustains us.  We are called to delve into the power of endurance, forgiveness, honesty, loyalty, and faithfulness.  These are the winter virtues that sustain life deep under the surface of any paralyzing storm.  These are the salts that keep life’s highways passable, allowing us to stay connected to all that keeps us vibrant.

On any given day of the year, we can experience “winter”.  Think of the times you have received (or given) the “cold shoulder”.  Remember the times your explanations have been given an icy reception?   Haven’t there been conversations where you were frozen out?  Can’t you still see the frosty stare you got from someone who thought you were beneath them?  We have all known some sub-zero responses when we were looking for a warm word.  We have all received some chilly greetings when we needed not to feel like a stranger. 

Hospitality is the perfect antidote to all these methods of freezing one another out.  It is the human anti-freeze that reminds us that we need one another’s warmth to survive the treacheries of life.  If there is someone you have exiled to the Arctic, think about reaching out in hospitality, forgiveness or honesty.  This winter, let go of the glacial grudges, silences, and harbored hurts that sometimes freeze our souls and kill our hope of returning to life.  Listen to the voice of the dark December night.  It tells us how to move toward spring.

Music: Winter Sonata – David Lanz

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Colossians 3:12-17

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The Red Fox

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

January 15, 2025

Photo by Alex Andrews on Pexels.com
We Are the World – Michael Jackson

The red fox lay dead in the road a little east of the mall entrance. It was a beautiful animal come to an inglorious end. 

When an animal is killed trying to cross a road, it demonstrates a lesson learned in college biology – “geographic isolation”.   Geographic isolation occurs when human-made structures, such as roads or canals, artificially separate animals of the same family.  Over the course of decades, the animals on one side of the road assume different characteristics from the same type of animals on the other side of the road.  Eventually, they may begin to behave toward each other as if they were two different species. In other words, their isolation begins to fool them into thinking they are different – even enemies.

There are all kinds of geographies in the world – not just the traditional ones that delineate nations. And there are all kinds of isolations that we can build into our multiple internal and external maps.

That little red fox might cause us to consider the breadth of our landscapes, our mindscapes, our soulscapes.  How restricted are we in our ability to travel to and be comfortable in all different kinds of worlds.   As we look at the circle of our friends, experiences, ideas, multi-cultural exposure – is the circle expansive or very limited and controlled?  Have we allowed ourselves to live in a compressed world with fake boundaries? At the end of our one precious life, will we be sorry for all the growth opportunities we missed because our “geography” was so protected and myopic?

History boasts a few borderless explorers who have led the rest of us out of our comfort zones and into the challenges of discovery. These leaders had a sense of a universal geography.  They saw borders only as the farthest points to which we can stretch – imagination, love, hope and courage. Their standard approach to life’s newness was an inclusive hospitality.  They had a constant attitude that questioned isolation and was suspect of territorialism. They were the believers who knew there was more beyond the horizon – beyond the limits of a flat world or a self-centered universe.

Martin Luther King was such a man.  The artificial boundaries created by race and economic status were invisible to him.  He challenged people who built their “privilege” on these unfounded borders.  He opened the eyes and hearts of millions who had taken this moral “geographic isolation” for granted.  He began the building of bridges that, if we complete them, will ultimately heal our world and our spirits.

Martin Luther King knew that we are all one people.  He refused to allow the separations of prejudice and stereotyping to define the borders of his life.  May his inspiration spur the rest of us to move outside our life-limiting ideas and step into a world of unity, mutuality, respect, and hope.

This year, we will celebrate MLK Day on January 20th. But today, as we mark his actual birthday, let’s take a sincere look at how much our prejudices control our choices.  Let’s find someone or something that will help us continue to grow in openness and understanding.

Music: We Shall Overcome – Morehouse College

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: John 17:20-23

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Epiphany

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Faith, spirituality7 Comments

January 5, 2025

Brent Mulligan- Revelation Song

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Have you ever heard a troubled friend say, “I feel as if God has abandoned me!”? Here’s a little story about that.

One spring morning, two country kids were walking to school across their local railroad tracks.  They had been drilled in the three essential steps before crossing:

STOP, LOOK and LISTEN!

On this particular morning, as they diligently executed these steps, they heard an unexpected, barely audible sound.  Four tiny, orphaned ducklings had taken refuge in a gully under one of the nearby ties.  The children, in their alert attentiveness, were able to hear the tiny peeps that would otherwise have been missed. They scooped up the ducks and carried them to safety. What an epiphany! 

January places us in the season of Epiphany. The word means much more than just “discovery”.  It means an unexpected revelation of divine grace within our ordinary circumstances – the Unexpected within the Ordinary.

When the Three Wise Men experienced the Epiphany, it was not just “dumb luck”.  They had prepared for that moment throughout their entire lives, just never imagining where they would find it — hidden in a cold stable. Through study, prayer and living good lives, they had perfected the all-important practice:  STOP, LOOK and LISTEN to your ordinary life, to what is happening just underneath the surface, underneath appearances, underneath the silence. Allow yourself to be surprised by God!

It is in the life underneath that God waits to be revealed to us every day.  The revelation doesn’t come like a loud, anticipated train.  It comes in the unexpected whisper we would have missed had we not stopped, looked, and listened to our lives.  It comes in the otherwise unspoken need of a friend, in the finally recognized destructive practice or relationship we must change, in the belated act of forgiveness, in the long overdue and grateful acknowledgment of our life as the blessing that it is.

Before we go too far in this New Year, think about this practice.  When we feel as if God or the Spirit is not part of our lives, we may not be looking in the right places.  Each morning and evening, give yourself at least five quiet minutes to breathe.  Put a “reflective stethoscope” to your day, and ask yourself “Where is God hidden in these moments?”  If we really STOP, LOOK and LISTEN, eventually, the Epiphany will come!

Music: Listen, Listen, Listen – Robert Gass

Listen, listen, listen to my heart’s song:
I will never forget you, I will never forsake you.

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Reading: 1 Samuel 3:1-10

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New Year’s Eve

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Christmastide, Courage, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality6 Comments

December 31, 2024

Memory – Andrew Lloyd Webber

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We stand now on the far western shore of the Year of Our Lord, 2024.  It is well near evening.  Our memories are silhouetted against the deep magenta sky as they sail beyond the shimmering horizon.  We have lived, laughed, lost and loved in ways never to be repeated, yet never to be forgotten.  The great turning of time goes relentlessly on, but we have written our story in its indelible trail.

The stroke of midnight on December 31st – magic, mysterious, holy. 

With fireworks and reveling, popular culture will invite us to the brash celebration of our presence within this point in history.  But, at the altar of our hearts, we recognize this long evening of reminiscence as a time of quiet thanksgiving and petition.  It is a time of awe and trust in the power of our Almighty God.

Like flint struck against the steadfast soul of God, we have been given the spark of life.  We are God’s fire at this moment in time’s long unwinding.  Tonight, we turn our spirits to those beside us, behind us, before us, and we pray in thanksgiving and hope for them.

Together, we sink into the dark infinity of our Creator who sustains all life beyond our worries, fears and limitations.  With innumerable universes, God balances us in the palm of Mercy.  As the midnight shadows fall, God closes Divine fingertips over us in grace and protection.

In the split moment between two years, we too become infinite – fire in God’s darkness, spark redeemed beyond time. In 2025, we will forget this transcendent moment.  The bright light of daily living will blind us to that piece of divinity shining in our souls.  But tonight, let us remember.  As midnight passes by, may our spirits kneel within us to the Awesome Mystery who holds us, as one, eternally within Itself.

Music: Auld Lang Syne

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings

Suggested Reading: Psalm 90: 10-17

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Coal and Tangerines

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Christmastide, Faith, spirituality1 Comment

December 24, 2024

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

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One of the treasured rituals of my childhood home was the filling of the Christmas stockings.  They were simple times, and my family lived simply – so the items we anticipated might be surprising today.    Each year, there might be a new pencil, a silver dollar, an emory board, and maybe a comic book and bubble gum.  

But two staples that appeared yearly were a piece of coal and a tangerine.  These two constants were oddly comforting to my young heart.  They came to represent important truths: we are not perfect (coal from Santa), and there is the hope of spring freshness even in the winter. (tangerine) 

As you and your family gather in this holy season, may you be warmed by the goodness in your own hearts.  In your “stockings”, there will “coal” and “tangerines”.   May each of them, in their own way, bring you an awareness of gratitude and peace, anchoring your heart in recognition of the love that blesses your life.

This beautiful holy season is the time to wrap ourselves in the circles of faith, family, and friendship that sustain our lives.  It is a time to remember, to be grateful, and to hope.  May these holidays and holy days renew and bless you and your loved ones.  May Christians be deepened and confirmed in the grace and love of Jesus Christ.  And for all of us of every faith, may this be a time of peace, good health, and joy.

Music: Tangerine – one of my Dad’s favorite songs

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Wisdom 18:14-17

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Gifts of Darkness

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, FaithLeave a comment

December 22, 2024

Winter Moon – Dulin

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For me, there is always something magical about dark winter mornings.  I think the feeling might be left over from childhood.  Stretching on tiptoes then, I would peek over the window sill into that rich darkness to see if it had snowed.  Had the silent night left a white playground awaiting me in the first glimmer of the morning?  

The magic too may be a residue of many Christmas mornings when I would peer into the darkness for a glimpse of a vanishing Santa, hoping to surprise him before his undiscovered retreat.  Even today on a winter morning, before I brew my tea, I look out into the darkness for the promise and surprise of the new day.  Something of childlike hope stays in all our grown-up hearts.

But sometimes, darkness can be scary.  It can cause us to lose our way.  It can cover the familiar with a grey veil of unfamiliarity. But darkness can also reveal what we might otherwise overlook.  The magnificence of the stars can only be realized in the dark. The gentle revelation of moonlight on the water is a gift only of the night.

My father died suddenly when I was still a young woman.  His death was devastating to me and my family and I wondered why God had seemed to forget us.  The deep mourning lasted for months, but I remember one night in the midst of it that changed everything.  

It was a clear, almost purple evening.  I had walked to the window, my soul still filled with the silent tears of a long bereavement.  I stared out into the darkness and saw the first brilliant evening star singularly poised in the velvet blackness.  In that moment, I knew that under all our pain, the love and justice of God still anchored the world.  I knew that in time more stars would break through and eventually the first rays of sun.  I knew that the darkness contained much more than I could ever see or understand and that my father was safe in its embrace. I understood that the deep light of faith is often wrapped in the shawl of night.

This is a time of year when we remember the gifts that have come to us out of the darkness.  Advent is a time when we await the Divine Word Who “when the night was midway through its course, and the whole world was still, leapt down from heaven to earth.” (Wisdom 18:1) .

During this time of faith and magical memories, may each one of us find our light in the darkness. May that light fill any night inside us with promise, hope, forgiveness, and thanksgiving.  May it lead us to the confidence that under all our experience, God anchors our world in love.

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture:

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Hannukah / Mercy Anniversary

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, spirituality6 Comments

December 12, 2024

Shma Israel – The Soul of Jewish Music

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As Sisters of Mercy around the world, celebrate our 193rd Anniversary, we find ourselves in a great season of faith and gift-giving shared by those of many faith traditions!  

Christians are in the midst of the season of Advent, also a time of fasting and prayer.  Soon the exchange of gifts on Christmas will symbolize the love and peace we wish to give to one another in imitation of Christ Who was Gift to us.

But today I would like to speak of the beautiful celebration of Hanukkah, or the Feast of Lights.  Those of Jewish faith remember in this feast the reclaiming of the Temple from their ancient enemies. Once the Temple Mount in Jerusalem had been reclaimed, the Temple had to be rededicated. According to tradition, only one jar of sacramental oil was found, enough for one day. Miraculously, the oil burned for eight days, thus the eight days of Hanukkah.

This stirring faith story is one that all of us, whatever our tradition, can hear with joy and comfort.  For indeed, God’s mercy is so generous that it abides with us always — for one day, for eight days, for all of the days that we live.  God is with us — just like the Lights of Hanukkah — and there is nothing that can ever separate us from that Love and Presence.

It is a painful and challenging time for so much of our human family around the world.  Caught in the tangle of wars, geographic displacement, and threats of political tyranny, we may be tempted to lose hope.

But God unfailingly abides with us.  Remember this and rejoice when you see the lights of Hanukkah or Christmas; when you experience the generosity, forgiveness, encouragement and good will of those with whom you work and live.

Thank you for the Light each one of you offers to Creation.  All Sisters of Mercy around the world pray in gratitude for you today.  May that miraculous gift shine in your hearts and in the hearts of your families in this special season. Please pray for us as well.

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Maccabees 4: 36-61 – The Rededication of the Temple

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Judgment

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, spiritualityLeave a comment

Feast of Saint Andrew, Apostle
November 30, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/113024.cfm

The judgments of the Lord are true,
and all of them are just.

The law of the LORD is perfect,
    refreshing the soul;
The decree of the LORD is trustworthy,
    giving wisdom to the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
    rejoicing the heart;
The command of the LORD is clear,
    enlightening the eye.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
    enduring forever;
The ordinances of the LORD are true,
    all of them just.
They are more precious than gold,
    than a heap of purest gold;
Sweeter also than syrup
    or honey from the comb.
~from Psalm 19

Our Gospel tells the almost unbelievable story of hardy fishermen dropping their nets, family, and livelihood to follow an itinerant preacher. What could possibly make them do that?

There was a magnetism in Jesus that completely captured the first followers. His words, his judgments, his entire being reflected the Way, the Truth, and the Life. His call unleashed a force in theirs that they hadn’t known was there.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
On this eve of Advent, we ask ourselves, “Why do I follow (or fail to follow) Jesus? Are my judgments aligned with the Truth who Jesus is? What great attraction is drawing my heart to the next depth of holiness?

Poem: The Call – George Herbert (1593-1633)

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
Such a Life, as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a Light as shows a feast:
Such a Feast, as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joyes in love.

Music: After 300 yers, George Herbert’s poem was put to music by Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)

Near

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

Friday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
November 29, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112924.cfm

Jesus told his disciples a parable.
“Consider the fig tree and all the other trees.
When their buds burst open,
you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near;
in the same way, when you see these things happening,
know that the Kingdom of God is near.
Luke 21:29-31

Jesus tells his followers to be attuned to the emergence of God’s Kingdom.

The reality is that the Kingdom of God already enfolds us, but it is difficult for us to see it with our human eyes. When we see a ripe peach or tomato, we know it is ready to come to the table. But are we able to see the Spirit of God ripening in the world around us? Are we ready to pluck grace from our everyday circumstances so that God’s Reign is released into the world?

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We prayerfully consider all that blossoms in our daily life. Where is the invitation to holiness within our circumstances? May God lift us to pick the fruit offered.

Poetry: Go to the Limits of Your Longing – Rainer Maria Rilké

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like a flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

Music: Awakening – Tim Barabas

Thanksgiving

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Faith, Gospel, inclusivity, Jesus, Mercy, spirituality8 Comments

Thursday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time-Thanksgiving
November 28, 2024

Readings for Thanksgiving Day:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112824-thanksgiving.cfm

And now, bless the God of all,
    who has done wondrous things on earth;
Who fosters people’s growth from their mother’s womb,
    and fashions them according to his will!
May he grant you joy of heart
    and may peace abide among you;
May God’s goodness toward us endure
    to deliver us in our days.
Sirach 50:22-24

Poetry: Thanksgiving Presence – Renee Yann, RSM

Music: Now Thank We All Our God