Category: Hope

A Sabbatical of Hope

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Hope, Mercy, justice, Community, spirituality, Creation, inclusivity, Courage, Prayer2 Comments

Independence Day
July 4, 2026

On this glorious Independence Day, the United States marks its 250th birthday. Such an anniversary invites celebration, certainly — fireworks, parades, songs, patriotic speeches, and a good old-fashioned baseball game. 

But the celebration also invites a question: What birthday gift could we possibly offer our country to foster its future blessings and to ensure its deserved endurance?

Most of us are familiar with the word “sabbatical” which comes from the Hebrew shabbāth: to cease, or to pause. A sabbatical is a time to rest after long contribution, to replenish oneself for the continuing journey. It is a time to herald all that has succeeded, and to find the courage for all that must change. Our 250th anniversary prompts us to consider such a powerful and reflective pause and to act on its fruits.

For a country, as well as for each citizen, complexity and demand can accumulate over time, draining both our physical and spiritual resources. Sabbatical is a time of rediscovery, remembering, and renovation. In many ways, it is also a time of repentance. Might a 250th sabbatical move us to acknowledge the damaging self-interests, to quiet the divisive rhetoric, and to reclaim mutual trust based on respectful honesty and compassionate justice?

We, the people, are capable of such courage. We inherited it from the patriots who pledged “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor” in 1776. We have seen it in generations of immigrants who arrived with hope stronger than fear; in pioneers and laborers who built difficult lives from nothing but their dreams. We have been inspired to it by self-sacrificing parents, caring communities, and altruistic peace-seekers.

And we have been held to its account by Native Peoples and formerly enslaved persons who would not excuse America’s failures nor allow it to rest comfortably inside its contradictions.

Sitting Bull was known for embodying the Lakota virtues of bravery, fortitude, generosity, and wisdom. He remains an enduring figure of pride, honored for his defense of Indigenous rights and his efforts to maintain a traditional way of life. (Wiki)

Sojourner Truth was an American abolitionist and activist for African-American civil rights, women’s rights. MissTruth was born into slavery but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man. (Wiki)

Perhaps the gift we can give America and ourselves is a time to step back from who we have become – to examine and measure ourselves against who we first wanted to be – to bless all that has been good – to reclaim all that has wandered from our first hope.

Where shall we find the inspiration for such renewal?

Recently, Pope Leo XIV referred to the Blessed Virgin Mary as “an icon of hope.” Under the title of the Immaculate Conception, Mary has long been patroness of the United States, a designation formally entrusted by the American bishops in 1846. Mary is indeed the icon who shows us the compelling power of a heart centered on truth, humility, trust, courage, and mercy.

As people of faith and hope, we are being called again to place this nation consciously within her care.

America’s first centuries have been marked by striving, expansion, and increasing geopolitical influence. This Semiquincentennial calls us to a deeper, humbler appreciation of our responsibility to actualize these words for all our sisters and brothers:

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, 
that all Men are created equal, 
that they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain unalienable Rights,
 that among these are 
Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness…

On this auspicious Independence Day, let us commit to prayer for our beloved country and for the rededication of its strength, integrity, and moral witness within the world community.

(For my dear readers from countries other than the United States, please keep us in your prayers.)

Music: The Sound of a Nation

Suggested Scripture: Proverbs 14:25-35

Click for Scripture

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Apostles

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, Hope, inclusivity, Mary, spiritualityLeave a comment

June 29, 2026
Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles

St. Paul’s in Rome
St Peters Basilica in Rome

Peter and Paul – names that embody the foundation of Catholic magisterium, those who offered initial inspiration and counsel to the early life of the Gospel. The celebration of their feast today engenders deep reflection on the themes of faith, and of authority and tradition in the Church.

That reflection is intended to give believers confidence in all that the Apostles’ Creed proclaims: the Trinity, Incarnation, Paschal Mystery, Baptismal Salvation, and Eternal Life – and of its pristine transmission through the millennia.

Over the course of 2000 years, this confidence has been enshrined in cathedrals and encyclicals, in the declaration of saints and the condemnation of heretics. It has been studied in Scripture and edited in the candlelit scriptoria of the Middle Ages.

It is a living confidence that ever struggles against the mumification of theological reactionaries and misspellings of semi-literate interpreters. It is a confidence that, while hallowed and foundational, bears the taint of uncontested patriarchy and obdurate dogmatism.

For some of us, particularly women, who deeply love the Church, today’s feast can be a source of discomforting reflection.

  • What if the deposit of faith had been predominantly sourced and interpreted, not only through men like Peter and Paul, but through the experience of Mary, Mother of Jesus and First of the Apostles? Or of Mary Magdalen, Apostle to the Apostles on Easter morning?
  • What if the women who quietly nurtured the work of the Gospel, who gathered and sustained the churches of the first Christian millennium, had not had their insights disappear in a flood of masculine ink?
  • What if another four evangelists had been Mary, Mary Magdalen, the woman at the Well and the deacon Phoebe?
  • What if rampant patriarchy had not been inextricably threaded through Catholic tradition?

How would the Church be different today if any of those things had happened?

Of course, they didn’t happen. But how would the Church be different today if those who held influence had included these testimonies? What if Peter and Paul had demanded that the only true apostolic succession came through Peter, Paul, … and Mary?

Hats off to the great Saints Peter and Paul! And wistful hearts raised to our “Marys”!

Music: What Wondrous Thing – Jann Aldredge Clanton

What wondrous thing is happening here
where minds and souls are opening?
The scales fall off our blinded eyes;
new sight arouses hoping.

A new thing springs forth on the earth
with blessing, hope, and healing;
the power of woman saves all life,
Sophia-Christ revealing.

Epiphany surrounds us now,
as we reclaim our wholeness;
Sophia-Christ within us all
inspires us with new boldness.

Refrain:
Look, look, for She is here;
Her wisdom words have long been near.
Now, now, behold Her grace,
Divinity in Her image.

Suggested Scripture: Romans 16:1-16

Click for Scripture

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Solstice (Spanish Version)

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Creation, Faith, Holy Spirit, Hope, spiritualityLeave a comment

21 de junio de 2026

La luz de la fe nos guía y nos sostiene
a lo largo de las etapas de nuestra vida.

A mediados de junio de 2015, el querido Papa Francisco publicó su encíclica emblemática, «Laudato Si’». El documento, erudito y práctico, transmite la voz del Espíritu Santo. Más que informativo, es transformador en su capacidad de despertar, inspirar, cambiar y confirmar a quienes oran con él.

Al haberse publicado tan cerca del solsticio de junio, la carta también encarna la voz de la Tierra, que nos llama a hacer una pausa, reflexionar y elegir de manera informada y reverente. Toda la Creación sabe practicar esta pausa respetuosa. Lo hace cada año en sus retiros semestrales conocidos como «solsticio» y «equinoccio».

Hoy, solsticio de junio de 2026, nos invita a hacer lo mismo.
Les ofrezco dos bendiciones para elegir, según su hemisferio. Que este día sagrado nos traiga a todos las bendiciones de amor que el Papa Francisco anhelaba con tanto fervor:

Todo el universo material habla del amor de Dios, de su cariño infinito por nosotros. La tierra, el agua, las montañas: todo es, por así decirlo, una caricia de Dios.

Laudatory Si’: 84

Music: Winter by Antonio Vivaldi (arr. Sergio Ercole)

Solstice

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Creation, Faith, healing, Holy Spirit, Hope, spiritualityLeave a comment

June 21, 2026

In mid-June 2015, beloved Pope Francis published his landmark encyclical, “Laudato Si”. The document, erudite and practical, carries the voice of the Holy Spirit. More than informative, it is transformative in its power to awaken, inspire, change, and confirm those who pray with it.

Published so close to the June solstice, the letter also embodies Earth’s voice, calling us to pause, reflect, and choose in an informed and reverent manner. All Creation knows how to practice such a deferent pause. It does so every year in its semi-annual retreats known as “solstice” and “equinox”. Today, June Solstice 2026, invites us to do the same.

I offer you two blessings to choose from, depending on your hemisphere. May this sacred day bring all of us the blessings of love Pope Francis so earnestly hoped for:

“The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God.”

Laudato Si’: 84

Music: Summer by Vivaldi (Guitar) arr. Sergio Ercole

Juneteenth

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Conversion, Courage, Faith, Hope, inclusivity, justice, spiritualityLeave a comment

June 19, 2026

Like me, some of you may have thought that the Emancipation Proclamation was a “one-and-done” event. It wasn’t, and it isn’t. Like its companions in American history ( the Constitution,the Bill of Rights), the document – and its dynamism – is a complex living reality that, even now, continues to unfold among us.

The Emancipation Declaration was first issued on January 1, 1863, freeing enslaved African Americans in the Confederate States. There were many states, notably some in the North, to which the new law did not immediately apply (border states of Delaware and Kentucky). However, the 13th Amendment, ratified on December 6, 1865, made slavery universally unconstitutional throughout the United States.

During the intervening time period, enforcement of the new law rolled out slowly through the post-Confederate South, especially in far western regions like Galveston, Texas. It was not until June 19th, two years later, that freedom reached that resistant enclave:

On the morning of June 19, 1865, Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island of Galveston to take command of the more than 2,000 federal troops recently landed in the department of Texas to enforce the emancipation of its enslaved population and oversee Reconstruction, nullifying all laws passed within Texas during the war by Confederate lawmakers. The order informed all Texans that, in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all enslaved people were free. (Wikipedia)

Wanting to learn more about the Juneteenth holiday, I purchased a beautifully illustrated children’s book, Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free. I wanted to share it with my grand-nephews and niece when they visit because this history belongs to all of us. We all need to learn from it.

Ms. Lee, who is approaching her 100th birthday in October, has suffered personally from racist terrorists. She grew up in Texas, where her family’s home was burned down by white rioters when she was twelve years old. Resilient and brave, she eventually pursued an extensive education and became a teacher, community leader, and activist. She lobbied particularly for the recognition of Juneteenth as a Holiday, believing it was crucial to the story of African American freedom.

President Joe Biden talks with Opal Lee after signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act Bill, Thursday, June 17, 2021, in the East Room of the White House.
(Official White House Photo by Chandler West)

In June 2021, at the age of 94, her efforts succeeded as a bill to make Juneteenth a federal holiday was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden. She was an honored guest at the bill signing ceremony, receiving the first of many pens the President used to sign the document. As she sat in the front row, she received a standing ovation, and President Biden got down on one knee to greet her. (Wikipedia)

Music: Lift Every Voice and Sing (The Black National Anthem) – sung by Wintley Phipps

Suggested Scripture: Galatians 3:23-29

Click for Scripture

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Thanksgiving for Life and Friendship

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Creation, Faith, friendship, Hope, spirituality1 Comment

April 19, 2026

As in the prayer of petition, every event and need can become an offering of thanksgiving. The letters of St. Paul often begin and end with thanksgiving, and the Lord Jesus is always present in it: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you”; “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
~ from The Catechism of the Catholic church

In the 1980s, when we worked together at Misericordia Hospital, my friend Jude and I had an annual custom that we practiced for a few years. On each of our birthdays, we accompanied the other to the Free Library of Philadelphia, a magnificent Beaux-Arts building on Logan Circle, reminiscent of Place de Concorde in Paris. Both our birthdays occur in the early spring, so the trip was particularly lovely on the beautifully landscaped Ben Franklin Parkway.

Inside the vast building, we climbed the impressive marble staircase to the newspapers and microfiche center that used to be tucked in a balcony upstairs. Our objective was to find the newspaper of the celebrant’s actual birth day, and to marvel at the world in which our lives began.

I have often reflected on that delightful ritual and the multidimensional meaning it held for me.

  • It allowed me to see myself as a particular part of history – to recognize a past beginning, a present reality, and a future hope for my existence.
  • It gave me an awareness of the world my mother carried with her to the maternity ward, and into which she hopefully and protectively welcomed me.
  • It allowed me to honor time as an energy that offers not only unsolicited change, but the opportunity for chosen growth and depth.
  • It reinforced the mutuality Jude and I shared in being grateful for one another’s birth and friendship.

Of course, a birthday requires a bit more frivolity in celebration, so there was a second essential part to our annual outing.  We finished up the day by going “all-Philly” at the renowned Reading Terminal Market with a stop at some of our favorite vendors: Pearl’s Oyster Bar, Bassett’s Ice Cream, Termini’s Bakery, or a Pennsylvania Dutch pretzel and a Yuengling beer.

One’s birthday is a sacred juncture in the long unfolding of time. It is the moment when God imagined us and the power of our lives into being – the moment when God’s hope was given our face, our soul. It is a miracle that summons humble awe and reflective gratitude.

Psalm 139 offers an apt thanksgiving on any morning, but especially on one’s birthday. These verses capture the essence of that prayer. (BTW, I turned 81 today. A birthday prayer would be greatly appreciated.)

For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
    How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
    they would outnumber the grains of sand—
    when I awake, I am still with you.

Music: For the Beauty of the Earth – John Rutter, performed by Gracias Choir

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Come Home to Faith, Hope, and Love

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Faith, Hope, Lent, Love, spirituality4 Comments

March 8, 2026
Third Sunday of Lent

The theological virtues are faith, hope, and love (charity).
These are considered supernatural gifts from God
that cannot be earned through human effort alone,
but are received at Baptism
and help guide a person’s moral life
by directing them toward God.

In our readings during this third week of Lent, we travel the distances between despair and hope, hard-heartedness and repentance, law and mercy. We enter the experience of Hosea as he longs for the return of grace, of the courageous woman at the well, of Peter as he matures in faith, of the Pharisee and tax collector at prayer. Again and again, we are offered the threads of repentance, mercy, and hope that knit us into God’s heart and eternal imagination for us.

During Philadelphia’s harsh winter, Joe lived on a steam grate in center city. George had met him there while volunteering with a homeless outreach program. Joe, articulate and engaging, was easy to befriend. Nevertheless, he was afraid to come in to the shelter.

One morning, on his way to a downtown meeting, George stopped to pick up coffee. He decided it would be nice to take a cup to Joe on his way. Sitting down on Joe’s grate, George offered him the steaming coffee. “Oh, thanks anyway, but I only drink tea,” Joe said. George burst out laughing at his noble mistake. “You didn’t think homeless people had choices, did you?” Joe countered. George, a good-hearted, generous man, learned a lesson that day about the human dignity often hidden under accretions of poverty, neglect and disenfranchisement.

Jesus made no such mistake when he met the woman at the well. Instead, he peeled through her accretions by respectful engagement and questioning. The woman, heartened by him, responded wholeheartedly.

This week, God invites us to strip away any pretense or fear keeping us from coming home to Mercy. The readings remind us to hear, observe, and teach the Divine Law. They encourage us to soften our hearts for God’s voice.

God knows our brokenness and hard-heartedness. Yet, God invites us to repent and to believe that we are not far from the kingdom. This week is a good time to seek God’s feedback on our lives by a sincere examination of conscience and a fearless request for healing. It is a perfect time to come home to Love.

Music: Hosea – Gregory Norbet

Suggested Scripture: Romans 5:1-8

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Joel’s Invitation

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Eternal Life, Faith, Forgiveness, Hope, Lent, spirituality5 Comments

Ash Wednesday
February 18, 2026

Contrition is an act of the will, not just an emotion,
involving grief for past sins and a desire to regain God’s friendship.
There are two types:
perfect contrition, motivated by a love for God, and
imperfect contrition, motivated by a fear of punishment or hatred of sin.

“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart,
with fasting and weeping and mourning.”
Rend your heart and not your garments.
Return to the LORD your God Who is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and abounding in love, Who relents from overwhelming us.

Joel 2:12-13

“Even now…” – two of the most powerful words in scripture. Picture yourself saying them to a long-lost friend, or that friend to you. Even now – after all these years, after all you took for granted, after all your ingratitude, forgetfulness, pretense, indifference. Even now, I love and forgive you.

With the touch of sacred ashes, God reiterates that assurance to us … Even now, God waits and wants to restore us to wholeness, as in this story where you might even find yourself.

She had arranged to visit with an old college friend. They had been separated too long by the distancing choices that life often demands. She wanted to reconnect to that rare experience of shared transparency found just once or twice in a lifetime – the gift of a real friend.

They sat on a porch overlooking a gentle pond. The day was bright, the coffee hot, the chairs comfortable. But the magic was gone. Only half her friend had arrived for the cherished conversation. The other half – joy, adventure and the excess of youthful hope – had been lost. Somewhere in the intervening years, her friend had suffered a wound she did not share. This one afternoon would be too short a time to give that wound a name.

The ministry of healing requires time, whether it is to our own soul or to another’s that we bring the sweet ointment of restoration. It requires the quiet listening of a loving spirit. It requires the honest naming of wounds and the ardent desire to be made new.

As we begin our Lenten experience, God is waiting to receive us. God already knows the wounds we will bring to the conversation, already sees where our heart’s light has dimmed. God holds our half-heartedness next to his own heart and yearns to heal us.

Can we hear God’s unique invitation to us in this Lenten season? Can we confidently expose to the Divine gaze the depth of our need for grace and transformation? Can we journey with Christ, through his passion and death, to the wholeness we are called to?

Music: Parce Domine – 6th-century Latin antiphony sung here by A Capella Catholic Choir

Suggested Reading: Joel 2:12-17

Click for Scripture

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

The Invitation – It is almost time!

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Advent, Eternal Life, Hope, spirituality2 Comments

Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 21, 2025

Have you ever been told not to get your hopes too high? The kind admonisher is trying to protect you. But you, like all human beings, still hope for everything, no matter the odds!

What would it be like if someone told us instead, “Hope for everything! The fulfillment of your hope is guaranteed!”

This is the jubilant assurance carried to us by the Word of God in the fourth week of Advent.
• Luke tells us that God has indeed remembered his promise of mercy.
• The eloquent Song of Songs guarantees us that the winter is past; that the rains are over and gone.
• The psalmist encourages us to lift up our heads and see. Our salvation is near at hand.

After our prayerful Advent, we now stand at the threshold of the sacred, transforming Nativity. As we lift our eyes to behold this glorious God, what shall we see – a miracle, a change in the world around us?

Marianne Williamson, spiritual teacher and author, says this: “A miracle is just a shift in perception from fear to love.” The transformative change is within us, not around us.

As we open our hearts for the coming of Jesus, might we be surprised to see that nothing, yet everything is changed? Will we see Him now in the beggar we bypassed just a month ago? Will we sit gratefully beside Him now in the church where we had ignored our neighbors? Will we recognize Him fully now in an aging parent, a distressed spouse, a demanding child? Will we meet him now in our own peaceful silence where before we had obliterated him in a flurry of distractions?

“Behold your God!” is clearly an invitation to bask – awestruck – in Christ, the fulfillment of our hope. It is also a profound invitation to free ourselves of any graceless complacency which hides the ever-incarnate God from our daily sight.

Music: O Come – The Porter’s Gate

[Verse 1]
For those who walk in darkness
The sun is rising… rising, rising
The shadow dies
Our anguish flies
From dawn on high
Oh, Lord Jesus, come!

Oh, come!
Oh, come!

[Verse 2]
The yoke upon our shoulders
Is finally breaking… breaking, breaking
Our burdens gone
In that bright dawn
When He has come
Oh, Lord Jesus, come!

Oh, come!
Oh, come!
Oh, come!

[Verse 3]
The Son to us is given
And we are waiting… waiting, waiting
Emmanuel
Oh Wonderful!
Your peace to tell
Oh, Lord Jesus, come!

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture:

Click for Scripture

Extraordinary Days

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Advent, Hope, joy, Love, Mercy, Prayer, spirituality1 Comment

November 20, 2025

As we draw close to the Holy Season that will close our year, let’s welcome each final day as an extraordinary gift, grateful for the faith, hope, and love that sustain our lives.

Music: “Your Love” from “Once Upon A Time in the West” ” – by Ennio Morricone – performed by Hauser

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Reading: Lamentations 3:22-23

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