Do Not Be Afraid

On December 19, 2022December 19, 2022 By Renee Yann, RSMIn Advent, Courage, Faith, Gospel, Mary, Poetry, spiritualityLeave a comment

Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Advent
December 20, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/122022.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray the O Antiphon:

“O Key of David,
come and bring forth
from his prison house
the captive.”

We might not think of ourselves as captives. But simply by virtue of our humanity, we are probably inhibited in some way – by fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, self-doubt…

Paula D’Arcy puts it like this: “Who would I be, and what power would be expressed in my life, if I were not dominated by fear?”
(Or maybe anger, some type of “ism’, greed, pride, and on and on.)

Let us pray this prayer together, dear friends, for all held captive in both visible and invisible ways. May we pray especially for those captured by drugs, alcohol, or any other addiction. Pray also for those held in any kind of oppression through poverty, political manipulation, war and disregard for human rights.

O Key of David,
opening the gates of God’s eternal Kingdom:
come and free the prisoners of darkness!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Our Gospel is the cherished passage of the Annunciation, a scripture we pray so often when we say the Hail Mary. Different lines and thoughts may strike our hearts as we pray these familiar verses. One stood out for me today:

Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.

It’s such a tender exchange! It reveals Mary’s honest humanity in that, of course, she was stunned and a little fearful when an angel jumped into her bedroom! And the message wasn’t too easy to comprehend either!

The words also reveal the great sensitivity of Gabriel, the fearless angel who noticed, understood, and comforted Mary’s uneasiness.

When we feel God speaking to us, particularly in challenging situations, it might ease us as well to think of these words. “Do not be afraid. You have found favor with God.” Indeed, every one of us has found favor with God through the Life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

Poetry: Annunciation – Denise Levertov

We know the scene: the room, variously furnished,

almost always a lectern, a book; always
the tall lily.
Arrived on solemn grandeur of great wings,
the angelic ambassador, standing or hovering,
whom she acknowledges, a guest.

But we are told of meek obedience. No one mentions
courage.
The engendering Spirit
did not enter her without consent.
God waited.

She was free
to accept or to refuse, choice
integral to humanness.

____________________________

Aren’t there annunciations
of one sort or another
in most lives?
Some unwillingly
undertake great destinies,
enact them in sullen pride,
uncomprehending.
More often
those moments
when roads of light and storm
open from darkness in a man or woman,
are turned away from
in dread, in a wave of weakness, in despair
and with relief.
Ordinary lives continue.
God does not smite them.
But the gates close, the pathway vanishes.

______________________________

She had been a child who played, ate, slept
like any other child – but unlike others,
wept only for pity, laughed
in joy not triumph.
Compassion and intelligence
fused in her, indivisible.

Called to a destiny more momentous
than any in all of Time,
she did not quail,
only asked
a simple, ‘How can this be?’
and gravely, courteously,
took to heart the angel’s reply,
perceiving instantly
the astounding ministry she was offered:

to bear in her womb
Infinite weight and lightness; to carry
in hidden, finite inwardness,
nine months of Eternity; to contain
in slender vase of being,
the sum of power –
in narrow flesh,
the sum of light.
Then bring to birth,
push out into air, a Man-child
needing, like any other,
milk and love –

but who was God.

This was the moment no one speaks of,
when she could still refuse.

A breath unbreathed,
Spirit,
suspended,
waiting.

______________________________

She did not cry, ‘I cannot. I am not worthy,’
Nor, ‘I have not the strength.’
She did not submit with gritted teeth,
                                                       raging, coerced.
Bravest of all humans,
                                  consent illumined her.
The room filled with its light,
the lily glowed in it,
                               and the iridescent wings.
Consent,
              courage unparalleled,
opened her utterly.

Music; Michael G. Hegeman

Her Morning

On December 17, 2022December 17, 2022 By Renee Yann, RSMIn Advent, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Mary, Poetry, spirituality1 Comment

Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 18, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121822.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our scripture readings roll out before our prayer the long line of salvation history. It is a line that we can walk in wonder, winding from Isaiah’s prophecy, through the House of David, down to Joseph dreaming in the Nazarene night, and Mary fully waking to God in the Nazarene morning.

It is a story filled with words we love because, ever since our childhood, they have carried to us the fragrant scent of Christmas. These readings are the thrilling stuff of prophecies and dreams, all the more wonderful because we know them now fulfilled.

Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign:
the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son,
and shall name him Emmanuel.
Isaiah 7:14

Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.
Matthew 1:20

This long wick of Promise, burning slowly through the biblical years, bursts into light with the birth of Jesus Christ, the Fire of God.

Through our faith, that Divine Light kindles us – we who now, through our Baptism, carry the sacred DNA of Jesus into our times.

On this final Sunday of Advent, when the world’s “crazy Xmas” tries to hijack our souls, let us be very intentional about the true meaning of these days. Let us take the time to “go into our heart cave” and prepare for Jesus.

Poetry: And in Her Morning – Jessica Powers

The Virgin Mary cannot enter into
my soul for an indwelling. God alone
has sealed this land as secretly His own;
but being mother and implored, she comes
to stand along my eastern sky and be
a drift of sunrise over God and me.

God is a light and genitor of light.
Yet for our weakness and our punishment
He hides Himself in midnights that prevent
all save the least awarenesses of Him.
We strain with dimmed eyes inward and perceive
no stir of what we clamored to believe.
Yet I say: God (if one may jest with God),
Your hiding has not reckoned with Our Lady
who holds my east horizon and whose glow
lights up my inner landscape, high and low.
All my soul’s acres shine and shine with her!
You are discovered, God; awake, rise
out of the dark of Your Divine surprise!

Your own reflection has revealed Your place,
for she is utter light by Your own grace.
And in her light I find You hid within me,
and in her morning I can see Your Face.

Music: Emmanuel – Tim Manion (Lyrics below)

Baby born in a stall.
Long ago now and hard to recall
Cold wind, darkness and sin,
your welcoming from us all.

How can it be true?
A world grown so old now, how can it be new?
Sorrow’s end, God send,
born now for me and you

Emanuel, Emanuel
What are we that You have loved us so well?
A song on high, a Savior’s high, angel hosts rejoice
Thy glory to tell

Lord, lead us to know.
You lay like a beggar, so humble, so low;
no place for Your head and straw for a bed,
the glory of God to show.

Babe on mother’s knee,
child so soon to be nailed to a tree;
all praise, till the end of our days;
O Lord, You have set us free

Turn to Me

On December 13, 2022December 13, 2022 By Renee Yann, RSMIn Advent, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, justice, Mercy, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saint John of the Cross, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Wednesday of the Third Week of Advent
December 14, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121422.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, through the lyricism of Isaiah, God proclaims his majesty and omnipotence. But as awesome as that Power is, it descends over us in the gentlest form – justice and salvation like morning dew and springtime blossoms:

Let justice descend, O heavens, like dew from above,
like gentle rain let the skies drop it down.
Let the earth open and salvation bud forth;
let justice also spring up!
I, the LORD, have created this.
Isaiah 45:8

Our God invites us all into that gentle embrace, asking us to deepen our hearts in faith and worship:

Turn to me and be safe,
all you ends of the earth,
for I am God; there is no other!
By myself I swear,
uttering my just decree
and my unalterable word:
To me every knee shall bend;
by me every tongue shall swear,
Saying, “Only in the LORD
are just deeds and power.
Isaiah 45:22-24

Our Gospel is a repeat of this past Sunday’s, only this time told by Luke instead of Matthew. It again reminds us of what this just and gentle reign of God will look like:

“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard:
the blind regain their sight,
the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”
Luke 7:22-23

Praying in these twilight days of Advent,
let’s ask to be drenched in gentle Justice
and life-giving Mercy
so that we may be living signs
of the One Who is to come on Christmas.

Poetry: Annunciation – Scott Cairns – a wonderful poet. Read about him here:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/scott-cairns

Deep within the clay, and O my people
very deep within the wholly earthen
compound of our kind arrives of one clear,
star-illumined evening a spark igniting
once again the tinder of our lately
banked noetic fire. She burns but she
is not consumed. The dew lights gently,
suffusing the pure fleece. The wall comes down.
And—do you feel the pulse?—we all become
the kindled kindred of a King whose birth
thereafter bears to all a bright nativity.

Music: Turn to Me – John Foley, SJ

A Dozen Days

On December 12, 2022December 12, 2022 By Renee Yann, RSMIn Advent, Conversion, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality1 Comment

Memorial of Saint Lucy, Virgin and Martyr
Monday of the Third Week of Lent

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121322.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we feel the Church moving ever closer to the miracle of Christmas. The prophet Zephaniah, not quite as lyrically as Isaiah, paints a picture of who is ready for that miracle – because it is a fact: some will be able to receive it, and some will not.

Thus says the LORD:
Woe to the city, rebellious and polluted,
to the tyrannical city!
She hears no voice,
accepts no correction;
In the LORD she has not trusted,
to her God she has not drawn near.
Zephaniah 3:1-2

But the prophet also makes clear that there will be a “remnant people” in whose hearts the miracle will take life:

I will leave as a remnant in your midst
a people humble and lowly,
Who shall take refuge in the name of the LORD:
the remnant of Israel.
They shall do no wrong
and speak no lies;
Nor shall there be found in their mouths
a deceitful tongue;
They shall pasture and couch their flocks
with none to disturb them..
Zephaniah 3:12-13

As Jesus told the chief priests and elders in our Gospel:

“Amen, I say to you,
tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the Kingdom of God before you.
When John came to you in the way of righteousness,
you did not believe him;
but tax collectors and prostitutes did.
Yet even when you saw that,
you did not later change your minds and believe him.”
Matthew 21: 31-32

Our readings today reiterate a truth that threads through all of scripture: the “Kingdom” is composed of the least likely in the world’s eyes. Wealth, power, influence, or appearances don’t cut it. Faith and dependence on God define the “remnant” who are God’s people.

I don’t think there are a lot of tax collectors among my readers, and probably not too many prostitutes either. 🙂 So who are we when we take a good look at ourselves? Are we our power, money or upper hand in the world? Or are we faithful souls who try to keep our hearts open to the Divine call to love God and our neighbor?

The more we try to be the latter, the more we will comprehend the Miracle we celebrate just twelve days from now.

Prose: Advent Credo – Allan Boesak (from Walking Among Thorns)

It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss—
This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life;

It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, 
hunger and poverty, death and destruction—
This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.

It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, 
and that war and destruction rule forever—
This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, 
and the government shall be upon his shoulder, 
his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, 
the Everlasting, the Prince of peace.

It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil 
who seek to rule the world—
This is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, 
and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.

It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, 
who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers—
This is true: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh 
and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, 
your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams.

It is not true that our hopes for liberation of humankind, of justice,
of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth and for this history—
This is true: The hour comes, and it is now,
that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.

So let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope. 
Let us see visions of love and peace and justice.
 Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage: 
Jesus Christ—the life of the world.

Music: Just after today’s passage from Zephaniah, the prophet preaches in a more reassuring tone in verse 17. I thought you might like to pray with it.

Am I not here, I who am your mother?

On December 11, 2022December 11, 2022 By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Faith, Gospel, Mary, spiritualityLeave a comment

(The above words were spoken to Juan Diego)
Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
December 12, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121222.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, commemorating the apparitions of Mary to the Mexican peasant Juan Diego in 1531.

It is also on this date, 300 years later, that Catherine McAuley founded the Sisters of Mercy in Dublin, Ireland.

With a joyous faith like that expressed in our first reading, both Mary and Catherine found their joy in total commitment to God’s will and presence in their lives. May they inspire and help to make God the center of our lives. May that discovery fill us with joy.

Sing and rejoice, O daughter Zion!
See, I am coming to dwell among you, says the LORD.
Many nations shall join themselves to the LORD on that day,
and they shall be his people,
and he will dwell among you,
and you shall know that the LORD of hosts has sent me to you.
Zechariah 2:14

Perhaps by increasing our spiritual simplicity, trust and humility like Juan Diego, we can grow closer to Mary and to her Son.

Today’s beautiful readings can lead us closer into Mary’s arms. Zechariah, even without knowing her, named Mary the Holy Dwelling from whom Christ would come forth. Revelation captures multiple images from the Hebrew scriptures, fashioning a glorious picture of Mary’s significance in salvation history.

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
Revelation 11:19

And our treasured passage from Luke — can we not read it like a beloved family story that gives us roots and wings?

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
Luke 1:26

Mary is not so far away from us. She chose to enter Juan Diego’s life, looking like a queen he would recognize in his own culture. She has chosen to do the same thing in many other struggling cultures.

How is Mary present to us today? How was she present to Catherine McAuley? Maybe as a homeless woman? An immigrant mother? An incarcerated young woman/? A sickly neighbor? An annoying, lonely grandmother?

What language is Mary speaking to us? Through what image is she reaching out to touch our hearts and lead us to her Son?

Poetry: The Messenger – Thomas Merton

There is some sentry at the rim of winter
Fed with the speech the wind makes
In the grand belfries of the sleepless timber.
He understands the lasting strife of tears,
And the way the world is strung;
He waits to warn all life with the tongue of March's
bugle,
Of the coming of the warrior sun.
When spring has garrisoned up her army of water,
A million grasses leave their tents, and stand in rows
To see their invincible brother.
Mending the winter's ruins with their laughter,
The flowers go out to their undestructive wars.

Walk in the woods and be witnesses,
You, the best of these poor children.

When Gabriel hit the bright shore of the world,
Yours were the eyes saw some
Star-sandalled stranger walk like lightning down the
air,
The morning the Mother of God
Loved and dreaded the message of an angel.

Music: Tota Pulchra Es Maria – Latin words and translation below. This lovely hymn reflects our responsorial psalm for today.

Tota pulchra es, Maria,
et macula originalis non est in te.
Vestimentum tuum candidum quasi nix, et facies tua sicut sol.
Tota pulchra es, Maria,
et macula originalis non est in te.
Tu gloria Jerusalem, tu laetitia Israel, tu honorificentia populi nostri.
Tota pulchra es, Maria.

You are all beautiful, Mary,
and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.
Your clothing is white as snow, and your face is like the sun.
You are all beautiful, Mary,
and the original stain [of sin] is not in you.
You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the joy of Israel, you give honour to our people.
You are all beautiful, Mary.

Gaudete, Rejoice!

On December 10, 2022December 10, 2022 By Renee Yann, RSMIn Advent, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, joy, spiritualityLeave a comment

Third Sunday of Advent
December 11, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/121122.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Isaiah gives us the best news anyone could ever want to hear:

Here is your God…
Who comes to save you!

The news inspires great joy in the waiting heart. Our first reading is full of exultant words pulling us from the shadows of waiting into the hope-filled Light.

What Isaiah proclaims for all generations is that we never need remain in darkness and confusion; that the Lord of Light wills a sunrise for us; that something wondrous and holy is not only possible but inevitable if we but have faith.

This is a powerful revelation and call. If we receive and accept it with open hearts, we are bound to live in joy.

In our second reading, James tells us the secret to living with this kind of joy – PATIENCE.

Be patient, brothers and sisters,
until the coming of the Lord.
See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth,
being patient with it
until it receives the early and the late rains.
You too must be patient.
Make your hearts firm,
because the coming of the Lord is at hand.
James 5: 7-8

We too must welcome into our lives both “the early and the late rain”. We must not only believe; we must ponder our faith within the circumstances of our life and the world around us. This pondering deepens us and allows the power of God to visit the world through our lives.

In our Gospel, Jesus explains what the world looks like when we let the Mercy of God shine through us:

“Go and tell John what you hear and see:
the blind regain their sight,
the lame walk,
lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear,
the dead are raised,
and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”
Matthew 11: 4-6

On this beautiful Gaudete Sunday,
as we come closer to the Gift of Christmas,
let us choose to be agents of God’s joy,
love and mercy in our world.

Poetry: Gaudete – Brad Reynolds, SJ

Because Christmas is almost here
Because dancing fits so well with music
Because inside baby clothes are miracles.
Gaudete
Because some people love you
Because of chocolate
Because pain does not last forever
Because Santa Claus is coming.
Gaudete
Because of laughter
Because there really are angels
Because your fingers fit your hands
Because forgiveness is yours for the asking
Because of children
Because of parents.
Gaudete
Because the blind see.
And the lame walk.
Gaudete
Because lepers are clean
And the deaf hear.
Gaudete
Because the dead will live again
And there is good news for the poor.
Gaudete
Because of Christmas
Because of Jesus
You rejoice.

Music: The Medieval Carol “Gaudete” sung by the Choir of Clare College with the London Cello Orchestra (lyrics and translation below)