Category: Gospel

Fresh

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

Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070624.cfm

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.
No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth,
for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.
People do not put new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.
Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Matthew 9:14-17

Jesus tells the Baptist’s questioning disciples that his is a new world. The confines of the Old Law will no longer contain the new grace of the Paschal Mystery and the Gospel.

Old wineskins become brittle with overuse. The analogy is applicable to many realities in life. Often, as time passes, we pay less attention to some important things or people. We may take them for granted, over-depend on their effectiveness, fail to effectively communicate, surrender to that famous “contemptuous familiarity”.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Immobilizing constriction can affect our faith too. Jesus encourages us to keep faith “fresh” by prayer, communal reflection, and practice. Neither our personal nor our communal faith is static. Grace offers us the invitation to become ever deeper in our understanding of God. The current Synodal process within the Catholic Church is a wonderful example of openness to fresh, new “wineskins” for our faith.

Poetry: Wine Skins – Evelyn McNulta
This is a simple poem with devout sentiments, but what struck me most about it is where I found it – in a public newspaper, The Atlanta Chronicle.
The poem reminded me of a poet some of my older local readers might remember – James Metcalfe. His “Daily Poem Portraits” were published in The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin during the 1950s. They were a great favorite of my Dad.

My hands are uplifted in homage to Him,
They're not empty.
They hold loosely those sins that cause separation
of His spirit and mine.

Dear Father, take them and fill me with new wine.
The wine skins of my life are brittle and hard,
They can't hold your new wine because they are marred.
Please replace them with supple new skins

That can be distended again and again.
These wine skins are vessels that hold Your concerns,
Help me remember the things I have learned.
The more I am emptied of selfish desires,

The more You can cleanse me with Your cleansing fire.
You'll burn away malice, ill-temper and greed,
And open my eyes to Your people in need.
You'll put unforgiveness also in Your fire,

And fill my heart with the burning desire
To worship, to honor, to praise Your dear name.
Your new wine remakes hearts, they're never the same.
Take mine, Holy Father, change what you will,

I'm nothing without You, I need You to fill
Each crevice, and corner and nook of my heart.
There's much to be changed, I'm asking, please start.

Music: Fall Afresh on Me

Follow

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Discipleship, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality4 Comments

Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 5, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070524.cfm

Our Gospel today recounts the call of Matthew to be Jesus’ disciple. The master artist Caravaggio has beautifully captured that “Who me?” moment. We see the summoning hand of Jesus out of the shadows on the right. Matthew and his companion are flushed with Light. Matthew, on the left, points to his chest in the implied question, “Are you talking to me?”.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Yes, God is talking to me. Do I see God’s Presence, perhaps out of the shadowy circumstances of my life? Do I listen? What do I hear? Do I follow?.

Matthew stood right up and followed. What can we learn from him?

Poetry: The Calling of St. Matthew – James Lasdun

Not the abrupt way, frozen
In the one glance of a painter’s frame
Christ in the doorway pointing. Matthew’s face
Bright with perplexity, the glaze
Of a lifetime at the countinghouse
Cracked in the split second’s bolt of being chosen.

But over the years, slowly,
Hinted at, an invisible curve;
Persistent bias always favoring
Backwardly the relinquished thing
Over the kept, the gold signet ring
Dropped in a beggar’s bowl, the eye not fully

Comprehending the hand, not yet;
Heirloom damask thrust in a passing
Stranger’s hand, the ceremonial saddle
(Looped coins, crushed clouds of inline pearl)
Given on an irresistible
impulse to a servant. Where it sat

A saddle-shaped emptiness
Briefly, obscurely brimming … Flagons
Cellars of wine, then as impulse steadied
into habit, habit to need,
Need to compulsion, the whole vineyard
The land itself, graves, herds, the ancestral house,

Given away, each object’s
Hollowed-out void successively
More vivid in him than the thing itself,
As if renouncing merely gave
Density to having; as if
He’s glimpsed in nothingness a derelict’s

Secret of unabated,
Inverse possession … And only then,
Almost superfluous, does the figure
Step softly to the shelter door;
Casual, foreknown, almost familiar,
Calmly received, like someone long awaited.

Music: The Summons – John Bell and Graham Maule

Nest

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality1 Comment

Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 1, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070124.cfm

A scribe approached and said to him,
“Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
Another of his disciples said to him,
“Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”
But Jesus answered him, “Follow me,
and let the dead bury their dead.”
Matthew 8: 19-22

The scribe. What was Jesus driving home to this learned interpreter of the Law who now bursts with enthusiasm for discipleship? Perhaps Jesus looked up to a small nest in a nearby tree. Maybe he pointed to it and told the scribe, ” You have to spread your wings and fly with God if you follow me!”

Basically, I think Jesus is saying this:

  • Think about it. It’s a way very different from your present comfortable life.
  • We are itinerant preachers, going out to the whole world. We are not intrenched in the Law, commanding people to come to us.
  • Even the core responsibilities to which you are devoted will be secondary to your Gospel ministry.
  • The whole foundation of your life will be turned upside-down.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We want to serve God by living the Gospel with a steadfast and enthusiastic heart. We pray for the grace and courage to do so, understanding clearly where our first responsibilities lie as a committed Christian.

Prose from: The Wisdom of the Carpenter by Ron Miller

Jesus walked the earth as a homeless vagrant
and identified his disciples by their concern
for the most marginalized people in the community.
It’s such a simple criterion
and yet one so easily forgotten.
Daily Prayer: Help me to be especially attentive to You today
in those who have so little of the world’s wealth.

Music: He Had Not Where To Lay His Head
Score: Alison Willis
Text: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825 – 1911)

Read about her amazing life.

The conies had their hiding place

the fox his stealthy tread a covert found

but Christ the Lord had not a place

to lay his head.


The eagle had an eyrie home,

the blithesome bird its rest,
but not the humblest spot on earth

was by the Son of God possessed.


Princes and kings had palaces,

with grandeur could adorn each tomb;

for him who came with love and life

they gave no room.


The hand whose touch sent thrills of joy

through nerves and palsied frame,

the feet that travelled for our need

were nailed unto the cross of shame.



How feet that travelled for our need

were nailed unto the cross of shame.


Touch

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, healing, spirituality10 Comments

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 30, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/063024.cfm

There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years.
She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors
and had spent all that she had.
Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.
She had heard about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd
and touched his cloak.
She said, “If I but touch his clothes, I shall be cured.”
Immediately her flow of blood dried up.
She felt in her body that she was healed of her affliction.
Matthew 5:25-29

After praying with this passage from Mark, I wrote this homily almost a decade ago. I liked it very much. And even though it is long, I thought some of you might like to read it or to pray with it this Sunday.

https://lavishmercy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/homily-mk-5-21-43-.docx

Music: Touch the Hem of His Garment – Sam Cooke

One of my favorite voices from the 50s and 60s, Sam Cooke is considered one among the greatest R&B artists of all time. Some of you may recall his pop hits like “You Send Me” and “Twisting’ the Night Away”.

Early in his career, he sang with a Gospel group, the Soul Stirrers.

In 1950, Cooke replaced gospel tenor R. H. Harris as lead singer of his gospel group The Soul Stirrer. Their first recording under Cooke’s leadership was the song “Jesus Gave Me Water” in 1950. They also recorded the gospel songs “Peace in the Valley”, “How Far Am I from Canaan?”, “Jesus Paid the Debt” and “One More River”, among many others, some of which he wrote. Cooke was often credited for bringing gospel music to the attention of a younger crowd of listeners, mainly girls who would rush to the stage when the Soul Stirrers hit the stage just to get a glimpse of him. (Wikipedia)

Wish

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Faith, Forgiveness, Gospel, healing, spirituality1 Comment

Memorial of Saint Irenaeus, Bishop and Martyr
June 28, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062824.cfm

When Jesus came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him.
And then a leper approached, did him homage, and said,
“Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”
He stretched out his hand, touched him, and said,
“Of course I will do it. Be made clean.”
Matthew 8:1-3

This leper, this beautiful soul, trusts that Jesus’s wish is the same as his own. He wants to be clean, to be free of all that may tarnish a life as one passes through the years. And Jesus does share the leper’s wish. He transforms that “wish” into a “will” — “of course, I will do it!”.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
As we look over our lives, perhaps we too carry a few unhealed pockmarks or scars. These may be past grudges, unforgivenesses, or harbored hurts. They may be a current resistance of heart, an indifference to need, an unexamined selfishness.

Like the leper, we may long to be free of any canker that we have carried too long. Jesus wills that for us too. Believing in, learning from, and imitating him is the path to healing.

Poetry: The Leper – John Newton (1725-1807)

Oft as the leper's case I read,
My own described I feel;
Sin is a leprosy indeed,
Which none but Christ can heal.
Awhile I would have passed for well,
And strove my spots to hide;
Till it broke out incurable,
Too plain to be denied.
Then from the saints I sought to flee,
And dreaded to be seen;
I thought they all would point at me,
And cry, Unclean, unclean!
What anguish did my soul endure,
Till hope and patience ceased?
The more I strove myself to cure,
The more the plague increased.
While thus I lay distressed, I saw
The Savior passing by;
To him, though filled with shame and awe,
I raised my mournful cry.
Lord, thou canst heal me if thou wilt,
For thou canst all things do;
O cleanse my leprous soul from guilt,
My filthy heart renew!
He heard, and with a gracious look,
Pronounced the healing word;
I will, be clean - and while he spoke
I felt my health restored.
Come lepers, seize the present hour,
The Saviour's grace to prove;
He can relieve, for he is pow'r,
He will, for he is love.

Video: Jesus Heals the Leper – from The Chosen

Rock

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, Mercy, spiritualityLeave a comment

Thursday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
June 27, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062724.cfm

Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
Matthew 7:24-25

When the storm comes, who doesn’t want their house to be built on rock – steady, constant, imperturbable ROCK! But take a good look at the picture above. How hard do you think it was for the builders to:

  • penetrate that rock for a new foundation
  • transport and maintain building materials on to that precipice

Jesus recognizes that such commitment is not easy, but the rewards are incomparable. He teaches the people that empty proclamations will not sustain a spiritual life. Such stability is achieved only by committed “building” – by opening ourselves to God’s word and acting on it.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We pray for the courage and vision to sincerely engage God’s word by our actions for mercy and justice.

Poetry: Psalm 18 – interpreted by Christine Robinson

I open my heart to you, O God
for you are my strength, my fortress,
the rock on whom I build my life.
I have been lost in my fears and my angers
caught up in falseness, fearful, and furious
I cried to you in my anguish.
You have brought me to an open space.
You saved me because you took delight in me.

I try to be good, to be just, to be generous
to walk in your ways.
I fail, but you are my lamp.
You make my darkness bright
With your help, I continue to scale the walls
and break down the barriers that fragment me.
I would be whole, and happy, and wise
and know your love
Always.

Music: O Lord, My Rock and My Redeemer – Prayers of the Saints Alive

Herald

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

Solemnity of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist
June 24, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062424.cfm

From this David’s descendants God, according to the promise,
has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus.
John heralded his coming by proclaiming a baptism of repentance
to all the people of Israel;
and as John was completing his course, he would say,
‘What do you suppose that I am? I am not he.
Behold, one is coming after me;
I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.’
Acts 13:23-25

John the Baptist was a striking figure written across the pages of scripture. His astonishing lifestyle, his passionate preaching, and his resolute moral witness established him as a giant in human history.

Surely he could have personally profited from his extraordinary gifts and ability to inspire discipleship in his listeners. But instead, this was the Baptist’s message:

Listen people, you ain’t seen nothing yet!

Behold, One is coming after me;
I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We ask to be humble, selfless heralds for Christ in our world. May the Gospel impel us to live in such a way that our very being announces God’s Lavish Mercy for the world.

Poetry: John the Baptist – Philip C. Kolin

Out of the wilderness came this prophet of fire
and repentance, his voice a flame igniting
souls out of darkness to witness the Messiah.
Wherever he went bonfires reddened the night air.

He wore a tunic of camel hair, and a rope
cincture binding unruly flesh from
appetite; he lived on locusts and burr-
nested cones. When he entered the Jordan

it flowed east, away from the sin-crusted west.
Each wave was engraved with grace as he plunged
sinners heavy with the world’s woes under
only to lift them up toward the light.
But not the Pharisees. Stones would rise sooner.

When he announced Christ passing by,
the birds of the air carried each honeyed syllable
to every open heart and sin-ridden soul.

Music: Ut queant laxis – Latin Hymn to John the Baptist

1. Ut queant laxis resonáre fibris
Mira gestórum fámuli tuórum,
Solve pollúti lábii reátum, Sancte Joánnes.
2. Núntius celso véniens Olýmpo
Te patri magnum fore nascitúrum,
Nomen, et vitae sériem geréndae
Ordinae promit.
3. Ille promíssi dúbius supérni,
Pérdidit promptae módulos loquélae: 
Sed reformásti genitus perémptae 
Organa vocis. 
4. Ventris obstrúso récubans cubíli 
Sénseras Regem thálamo manéntem:
Hinc parens nati méritis utérque Abdita pandit. 
5. Sit decus Patri, genitaéque Proli
et tibi, compare utriúsque virtus, 
Spíritus semper, Deus unus, omni 
Témporis aevo. 
Amen.

  1. O for your spirit, holy John, to chasten
    Lips sin-polluted, fettered tongues to loosen;
    So by your children might your deeds of wonder
    Meetly be chanted.
  2. Lo! a swift herald, from the skies descending,
    Bears to your father promise of your greatness;
    How he shall name you, what your future story,
    Duly revealing.
  3. Scarcely believing message so transcendent,
    Him for a season power of speech forsaketh,
    Till, at your wondrous birth, again returneth,
    Voice to the voiceless.
  4. You, in your mother’s womb all darkly cradled,
    Knew your great Monarch, biding in His chamber,
    Whence the two parents, through their offspring’s merits,
    Mysteries uttered.
  5. Praise to the Father, to the Son begotten,
    And to the Spirit, equal power possessing,
    One God whose glory, through the lapse of ages,
    Ever resounding. Amen.

Worry

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, spirituality9 Comments

Saturday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
June 22, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://wordpress.com/post/lavishmercy.com/35531

Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying
add a single moment to your life-span?
Matthew 6:26-27

What is “worrying” really? For me, it’s about trying to control things that are completely out of my control. Worrying is a futile practice in which I continue to engage despite all logic! What about you?

With his words today, Jesus wants to spare us from worrying. One of the simple examples he uses are the birds. Birds don’t worry. That doesn’t mean they give everything up and loaf in the trees expecting God to wait on them!

Birds are industrious – building nests, feeding and training offspring, migrating long distances when its time. In other words, birds do what they can, The rest is in God’s hands. That’s the lesson today!

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We want to learn from nature what peace, acceptance and hope look like. Jesus tells us that there is a lot to learn there.
If you can, try to pray outside today. No books, no earbuds, no buddies to converse with. Just be quiet and learn.

Scripture: Matthew 6:28-30

Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
If God so clothes the grass of the field,
which grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow,
will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?

Music: Consider the Lilies of the Field – The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square

Forgive

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Courage, Faith, Forgiveness, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality2 Comments

Thursday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
June 20, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062024.cfm

Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.’

“If you forgive others their transgressions,
your heavenly Father will forgive you.
But if you do not forgive others,
neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.

In these verses, Jesus utters another dangerous prayer: forgive us, God, as we forgive others.

Uh oh! I don’t know about you, but I think we can be pretty bad at forgiveness. It’s so much easier to remember a wrong done to us, to excuse ourselves of any responsibility for it, to fester in its hurt, to calculate a concomitant revenge, to demonize and ostracize the offender.

Jesus says, “Hey, is that the way you want God to forgive you?”

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We examine Jesus’s words in the Our Father to find the secret to forgiveness.

  • We are all the children of One God, equally and completely loved.
  • God wills holiness and joy for every one of us.
  • God will always grant forgiveness to the ready heart.
  • We live for the hope of heaven, and the circumstances of this world pale in its Light.
  • Still, in our daily circumstances, we need to be fed by the Spirit in order to find the courage and desire to forgive as God does.

Poetry: Enemies – Wendell Berry

If you are not to become a monster,
you must care what they think.
If you care what they think,
how will you not hate them,
and so become a monster
of the opposite kind? From where then
is love to come—love for your enemy
that is the way of liberty?
From forgiveness. Forgiven, they go
free of you, and you of them;
they are to you as sunlight
on a green branch. You must not
think of them again, except
as monsters like yourself,
pitiable because unforgiving.

Music: Forgiveness – Matthew West

Secret

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Gospel, holiness, Jesus, Love, Prayer, spirituality2 Comments

Wednesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
June 19, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061924.cfm

But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.

But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door,
and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.

But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to others to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.
Matthew 6:3-4;6;17-18

In these verses, Jesus tells us that our relationship with God – through almsgiving, prayer, and fasting – is private, personal, and intimate. When we commune with God through these actions, it is secret – a love shared between you and the Divine Beloved.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s think about our acts of generosity, prayer, and spiritual discipline as gifts given to God, even though they are offered through our service to others. Living a grateful life, we are delighted by God’s gifts to us given from an Infinite Love. May we respond by our humble efforts to delight God in return.

Poetry: from St. Teresa of Avila

Christ has no body on earth but yours. 
Yours are the eyes with which 
he looks compassionately on this world. 
Yours are the feet with which 
he walks to do good. 
Yours are the hands with which 
he blesses all the world. 
Christ has no body now on earth
but yours!

Music: God Has No Body Now But Yours – David Ogden based on Teresa of Avila