Category: Gospel

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

Reverence

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Discipleship, Faith, Forgiveness, Gospel, holiness, Jesus, Mercy, spirituality1 Comment

Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
June 17, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061724.cfm

Jesus said to them:
“Offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on your right cheek,
turn the other one to them as well.
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic,
hand them your cloak as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile,
go with theme for two miles.
Give to the one who asks of you,
and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”

Although the word “reverence” is not specifically mentioned in our readings, it summarizes their core message.

Jezebel has no reverence for human life. She is a conspirator, thief, and murderer. Jezebel has no moral code and only one interest in life – herself.

Jesus calls his followers to be the antithesis of Jezebel. We are to so reverence life and truth that we become like Jesus. We are to be peaceful, non-violent, forgiving, and generous – even toward the “jezebels” of this world.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Wow! No easy challenge, but nonetheless essential for discipleship! We ask Jesus to give us insight into any selfishness in our hearts, and the courage to live according to his mandate.

Prose: from Dorothy Day

“The greatest challenge of the day is:
how to bring about a revolution of the heart,
a revolution which has to start with each one of us?

When we begin to take the lowest place,
to wash the feet of others,
to love our brothers and sisters with that burning love,
that passion, which led to the Cross,
then we can truly say, ‘Now I have begun.'”

Music: Reverence by David Tolk

Flourish

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Hope, Jesus, Love, Psalms, spirituality1 Comment

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
June 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061624.cfm

The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall they grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
Psalm 92:13-14

This verse from Psalm 92 ties together all our readings for today.

In the passage from Exodus, God takes a tiny twig, protects and nourishes it, and it flourishes. The analogy describes God’s relationship with Israel and with us. We are called to flourish in the Kingdom of God.

In Corinthians, Paul expresses the conviction that we will receive our recompense according to how we flourish in response to God’s grace.

And in our Gospel, Jesus teaches that our faith – God’s gift to us – is the small seed that flourishes into eternal life, the fullness of life in God.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We realize that each of these flourishings begins with a tiny hope – a twig, a courageous aspiration, a mustard seed.

Such is life. It is the small but consistent acts of faith, hope, and love that eventually yield abundant harvest. – embracing us with all Creation in God’s complete Love.

Poetry: Mustard Seed – Meister Eckhart

I.

In the Beginning
High above understanding
Is ever the Word.
O rich treasure,
There the Beginning always bore the Beginning.
O Father’s Breast,
From thy delight
The Word ever flows!
Yet the bosom
Retains the Word, truly.

II.

From the two as one source,
The fire of love.
The bond of both,
Known to both,
Flows the All-Sweet Spirit
Co-equal,
Undivided
The Three are One.
Do you understand why? No.
It best understands itself.

III.

The bond of three
Causes deep fear.
Of this circle
There is no understanding.
Here is a depth without ground.
Check and mate
To time, forms, place!
The wondrous circle
Is the Principle,
Its point never moves.

IV.

The mountain of this point
Ascend without activity.
O intellect!
The road leads you
Into a marvelous desert,
So broad, so wide,
It stretches out immeasurably.
The desert has,
Neither time nor place,
Its mode of being is singular.

V.

The good desert
No foot disturbs it,
Created being
Never enters there:
It is, and no one knows why.

It is here, it is there,
It is far, it is near,
It is deep, it is high,
It is in such a way
That it is neither this nor that.

VI.

It is light, it is clear,
It is totally dark,
It is unnamed,
It is unknown,
Free of beginning or end.
It stands still,
Pure, unclothed.
Who knows its dwelling?
Let him come forth
And tells us what sort it is.

VII.

Become like a child,
Become deaf, become blind.
Your own something
Must become nothing;
Drive away all something, all nothing!
Leave place, leave time,
Avoid even image!
Go without a way
On the narrow path,
Then you will find the desert’s track.

VIII.

O my soul,
Go out, let God in!
Sink all my something
In God’s nothing.
Sink in the bottomless flood!
If I flee from You,
You come to me.
If I lose myself,
Then I find You,
O Goodness above being!

Music: The Ride of the Valkyries – Richard Wagner

I love to listen to this masterpiece when I imagine God opening heaven to all Creation at the end of time.

Reconciled

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Creation, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, justice, spirituality4 Comments

Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church
June 13, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061324.cfm

Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Matthew 5: 23-24

Jesus teaches a profound lesson in today’s Gospel. We cannot be in balance with God if we are out of balance with our neighbor.

In the “court” of God’s justice, that balance resides not in judgment or vengeance. It resides in a love beyond “liking” — in reconciliation, forgiveness, mercy, patience, hospitality, reverence, and service toward one another.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We realize that we can’t like everybody. We can’t feel good toward everybody. We can’t approve of everybody. But we can choose to be Christlike to everybody.

May we grow in that grace, inspired by the awareness that we are One in God with all Creation.

Poetry: One Hundred Love Sonnets: XVII – Pablo Neruda

I don’t love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain obscure things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn’t bloom but carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that arose
from the earth lives dimly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where,
I love you directly without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don’t know any other way to love,
except in this form in which I am not nor are you,
so close that your hand upon my chest is mine,
so close that your eyes close with my dreams.

Music: Amor Dei – Stephen Peppos

Lampstand

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality3 Comments

Memorial of Saint Barnabas, Apostle
June 11, 2024

Today’s Readiings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061124.cfm

You are the light of the world.
A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden.
Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket;
it is set on a lampstand,
where it gives light to all in the house.
Just so, your light must shine before others,
that they may see your good deeds
and glorify your heavenly Father.
Matthew 5:14-16

Jesus tells us to let our light shine before others. Is this an invitation to show off or be prideful? Definitely not. It is a call to shine with “beatitudenal goodness” that gives glory to God.

We can take Jesus’s words as an invitation to spiritual transparency. We should, by our actions and choices, proclaim that we live in faith, hope, charity, and gratitude. The important part of the lampstand is the flame that it lifts up. So too with us – the important part of our faith is the witness it gives to the Gospel.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We pray for the simplicity and integrity of soul that allows God to shine through us.

Poetry: Let Your Light Shine – Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be 
brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God. 
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking 
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest 
the glory of God that is within us.
It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine, 
we unconsciously give other people 
permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, 
our presence automatically liberates others.

Music: We Are the Light of the World – Jean A. Greif

Sword

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Cross, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, holiness, Mary, spirituality3 Comments

Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
June 8, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/060824.cfm

When his parents saw him,
they were astonished,
and his mother said to him,
“Son, why have you done this to us?
Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”
And he said to them,
“Why were you looking for me?
Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”
But they did not understand what he said to them.
He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was obedient to them;
and his mother kept all these things in her heart.
Luke 2: 48-51

Mary’s heart is formed in the image of the God who was her child. She, our Mother and Sister, conveys to us in human tenderness, the Divine Compassion that may sometimes seem inaccessible to our imperfect faith.

She was just a young girl when God espoused her for the purpose of our redemption. Still her utter “Fiat” opened her soul to the transformation that only sacrificial love can accomplish.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We reflect on Mary’s immutable alignment to the heart of Jesus, begun in the womb, confirmed on Calvary. We ask her guidance in patterning our hearts to Jesus as we meet him in the Gospel.

Prose: Caryll Houselander – The Reed of God

In this great fiat of the little girl Mary,
the strength and foundation of our life
of contemplation is grounded,
for it means absolute trust in God,
trust which will not set us free from suffering
but will set us free from anxiety, hesitation,
and above all from the fear of suffering.
Trust which makes us willing to be
what God wants us to be,
however great or however little that may prove.
Trust which accepts God as illimitable Love.

Music: Salve Regina