Category: Gospel

Shepherd

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

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 21, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072124.cfm

Today’s Alleluia Verse encapsulates the theme of all the readings:

My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.

John 10:27

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We LISTEN – one of the hardest things to do in life. Really listen – to what we hear with our ears, but more importantly, what we hear with our hearts. God is always speaking to us. May we listen.

Poetry: You, Neighbor God – Ranier Maria Rilkë

You, neighbor god, if sometimes in the night
I rouse you with loud knocking, I do so
only because I seldom hear you breathe
and know: you are alone.
And should you need a drink, no one is there
to reach it to you, groping in the dark.
Always I hearken. Give but a small sign.
I am quite near.

Between us there is but a narrow wall,
and by sheer chance; for it would take
merely a call from your lips or from mine
to break it down,
and that without a sound.

The wall is builded of your images.

They stand before you hiding you like names.
And when the light within me blazes high
that in my inmost soul I know you by,
the radiance is squandered on their frames.

And then my senses, which too soon grow lame,
exiled from you, must go their homeless ways.

Music: The Lonely Shepherd – Gheorghe Zamfir

Reed

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

Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 20, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072024.cfm

Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved in whom I delight;
I shall place my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not contend or cry out,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory.
And in his name the Gentiles will hope.
Matthew 12:18-21 (cited from Isaiah 42:1-4

This beautiful passage, that focuses on the gentleness of the Messiah, comforts our spirits. But it also calls us to imitate that gentleness with those most in need of it.

The example Jesus offers us is not popular in our often violent world. It is hard to live in its courageous imitation. But it matters that we do.

“The modern world’s feverish struggle
for unbridled, often unlicensed, freedom
is answered by the bound, enclosed
helplessness and dependence of Christ—
Christ in the womb,
Christ in the Host,
Christ in the tomb.”

― Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God

Poetry: A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break – Christina Rossetti

I will accept thy will to do and be,
Thy hatred and intolerance of sin,
Thy will at least to love, that burns within
And thirsteth after Me:
So will I render fruitful, blessing still,
The germs and small beginnings in thy heart,
Because thy will cleaves to the better part.—
Alas, I cannot will.
Dost not thou will, poor soul? Yet I receive
The inner unseen longings of the soul,
I guide them turning towards Me; I control
And charm hearts till they grieve:
If thou desire, it yet shall come to pass,
Though thou but wish indeed to choose My love;
For I have power in earth and heaven above.—
I cannot wish, alas!
What, neither choose nor wish to choose? and yet
I still must strive to win thee and constrain:
For thee I hung upon the cross in pain,
How then can I forget?
If thou as yet dost neither love, nor hate,
Nor choose, nor wish,—resign thyself, be still
Till I infuse love, hatred, longing, will.—
I do not deprecate.

Music: A Bruised Reed by Charlie and Jill LeBlanc

Beautiful images despite a somewhat monotonous melody.

Woe

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

Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071624.cfm

Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
Matthew 11:20-21

Chorazin and Bethsaida were privileged. They had been blessed to see God’s power miraculously displayed in Jesus. And yet they failed to believe! How can that be? Hard-heartedness? Stupidity?

I think that, more likely, it was fear – the woeful condition that holds us back from giving ourselves to the truth. What would be required of them if they believed? What changes would they have to make in their lives? How would their comfortable world be turned upside-down?

Repentance: that would be the fruit of faith in Jesus. Many of them just couldn’t face it.

Today in God’s Lavish Mercy:

How committed is my faith? How is the Truth of Jesus alive in my life? What repentance, large or small, do I need to offer God?

Poetry: Savior – Maya Angelou

Petulant priests, greedy
centurions, and one million
incensed gestures stand
between your love and me.

Your agape sacrifice
is reduced to colored glass,
vapid penance, and the
tedium of ritual.

Your footprints yet
mark the crest of
billowing seas but
your joy
fades upon the tablets
of ordained prophets.

Visit us again, Savior.
Your children, burdened with
disbelief, blinded by a patina
of wisdom,
carom down this vale of
fear. We cry for you
although we have lost
your name.

Music: Calling – Masako, Ackerman, Eaton

Peace

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Cross, Discipleship, Gospel, Jesus, justice, Mercy, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
July 15, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071524.cfm

Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.
Matthew 10:34-36

I would not have liked hearing these words from Jesus, would you? The last thing I would have ever wanted was to be set against my precious mother! So WHAT is Jesus talking about?

These words are central to Christ’s mandate to his disciples. He is telling them that they will inevitably meet painful conflict while living out his mission. Sometimes the conflict will even be within their families and among their friends.

This is because God’s Peace is not quiet indifference but the striving for just equanimity for all people. This is the sword of discipleship – we must cut ourselves away from anything that turns us from a just and merciful God.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy,
We pray for graced insight that we may see where the sword is pointing in our lives, and for courage that we may do the necessary cutting to be worthy disciples and build an honest peace in our world.

Poetry: Swords Into Plowshares – Daniel Berrigan, SJ
This poem was written in response to the conviction of the Plowshares Eight, of whom Berrigan was a member, for their civil disobedience against nuclear war.

Everything enhances, everything
gives glory—everything!

Between bark and bite
Judge Salus’s undermined soul
betrays him, mutters
very alleluias.

The iron cells—
Row on row of rose trellised
Mansions, bridal chambers!

Curses, vans, keys, guards—behold
the imperial lions of our vast acres!

And when hammers come down
and our years are tossed to four winds—

why, flowers blind the eye, the saints
pelt us with flowers!

For every hour
scant with discomfort
(the mastiff’s baleful eye,
the bailiff’s mastery)—

see, the Lord’s hands heap
eon upon eon,
like fruit bowls at a feast.

Music: Go Light Your World – Chris Rice

At Hand

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Mercy, spirituality4 Comments

Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 10, 2024

Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation:
‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
Matthew 10: 5-7

In this passage, Jesus is concerned with those who were offered faith in One God but have lost touch with it — “lost sheep of the house of Israel”. He wants these lost believers to be given the message, “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

While the message conveys a sense of urgency (Hurry up and get your act together), it also offers a calming security. When something is “at hand”, we can touch it. We can hold on to it for balance. We can feel support and accompaniment as we we hold hands with a Loving Presence.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We may hear Jesus’s words either as a warning or an invitation to intimacy. Love is at hand for us, even if our faith has become distracted and our direction “lost”. We are invited to reach out to the God Who waits for us.

Poetry:

“The Beloved is with you in the midst of your seeking!
God holds your hand wherever you wander.

Rumi

Music: Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand – Jennie Bain Wilson (1857) Sung here by Lynda Randle

Time is filled with swift transition,
Naught of earth unmoved can stand,
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

Refrain:
Hold to God’s unchanging hand,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand;
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.


Trust in Him who will not leave you,
Whatsoever years may bring,
If by earthly friends forsaken
Still more closely to Him cling.

When your journey is completed,
If to God you have been true,
Fair and bright the home in glory
Your enraptured soul will view.

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