Category: healing

Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eastertide, Faith, healing, Prayer, PsalmsLeave a comment

May 11, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 138, a prayer of tender, personal thanksgiving for deliverance.

The psalmist has had a tough experience:

On the day I cried out, you answered;
you strengthened my spirit.

Psalm 138:3

We can all relate to days like this. Maybe it’s not today, but sometime in our lives we’ve just cried out to God for help. And God has responded, perhaps not with the specific answer we prayed for, but with even more – the strength to find God’s Name and Promise hidden in our experience:

Because of your kindness and your truth,
    you have made great above all things
    your name and your promise.
When I called, you answered me;
    you built up strength within me.

Psalm 138:2-3

Today might be a good day to gratefully remember those experiences in our prayer, or to bring our present need before our God who is always faithful:

Your right hand saves me.
What God has begun on me, God will complete;
    your kindness, O LORD, endures forever;
    forsake not the work of your hands.

Psalm 138:7-8

May our prayer raise up
deep thanksgiving and love
in our hearts.

Poetry: Psalm 138 – transliteration by Christine Robinson

I give thanks to you, O God, with my whole heart.
Wherever I find you, I sing your praise.
I notice nature’s intricacy,
I ponder your stirrings in my heart.
I see your Way lure the world
towards peace, justice, and love.
You care for the lowly
You keep me safe when I walk through troubles and turmoil.
I live your Way, for your love endures forever.

Music: With All My Heart – sung by Nancy Sebastian Meyer

A Psalm from Jeremiah

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Cross, Discipleship, dying, Faith, healing, Jesus, LentLeave a comment

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent

March 27, 2021

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray a responsorial from the Book of Jeremiah:

The Lord will guard us, as a shepherd guards the flock.

The psalm today, with the first reading, brings assurance that God remains with us through suffering and will heal and make us whole again.

That reassurance is needed as we hear the Gospel’s tone darken. After the raising of Lazarus, the whole nation waits to see what will happen to Jesus as Passover nears.

I think, in some ways, impending doom is almost worse than doom itself. Picture the part in a movie where the attacker waits in the dark while the victim tiptoes into lurking danger.

That frightening music they always play! Sometimes the tension heightens to the point that I have to hit the mute or close my eyes!

Entry of Christ into Jerusalem, a 1617 oil painting by Flemish Baroque painter Anthony van Dyck

This is what all surrounding Jerusalem felt like in today’s Gospel. The dark edge of evil hangs in inevitable threat.

But for Jesus, who walked in the hidden light of the Father, the moment brought more than threatening shadows. It was time to fulfill an ancient promise. It was time to offer the greatest act of Love.

Hear the word of the LORD, O nations,
    proclaim it on distant isles, and say:
He who scattered Israel, now gathers them together,
    he guards them as a shepherd his flock.
The LORD shall ransom Jacob,
    he shall redeem him from the hand of his conqueror.

Jeremiah 31: 10-12

As Jesus went off alone to Ephraim to prepare his heart and soul for this ultimate fulfillment, perhaps a prayer from Jeremiah strengthened him, a remembered promise from Ezekiel focused him.

Let us pray with Jesus today as he asks the Father to “shepherd” him. With Jesus, may we find our own strengths and understandings in these ancient prophets.

Poetry: Redemption by George Herbert (1593-1633)who was a Welsh-born poet, orator, and priest of the Church of England. His poetry is associated with the writings of the metaphysical poets, and he is recognised as “one of the foremost British devotional lyricists.”

Having been tenant long to a rich lord, 
    Not thriving, I resolvèd to be bold, 
    And make a suit unto him, to afford 
A new small-rented lease, and cancel th’ old. 

In heaven at his manor I him sought; 
    They told me there that he was lately gone 
    About some land, which he had dearly bought 
Long since on earth, to take possessiòn. 

I straight returned, and knowing his great birth, 
    Sought him accordingly in great resorts; 
    In cities, theaters, gardens, parks, and courts; 

At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth 
    Of thieves and murderers; there I him espied, 
    Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died.

Music: Like a Shepherd – St. Louis Jesuits