Category: Jesus

God Finds Us

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, spirituality, Conversion, Jesus, Gospel, Discipleship, ScriptureLeave a comment

Feast of St. Bartholomew
August 24, 2026

Today, we celebrate the feast of the Apostle, Bartholomew. Many believe that Bartholomew is the same person as Nathaniel – in fact, Nathaniel bar Talmai, (Talmai meaning “farmer” or “son of the furrows”).

Praying with today’s Gospel, I picture Nathaniel leaning back into his ancient fig tree, his fingers burrowing into the fertile earth around him. What might have been his ponderings as he dissolved into the fig tree’s generous shade?

Nathaniel Under the Fig Tree
James Tissot

Knowing Psalm 145 by heart (today’s Responsorial), perhaps Nathaniel prayed it in his own very personal words:

Make me your loyal friend, O Lord.
I see your glory in all Creation.
Let me help others see that glory,
see themselves as a precious part of You.

Maybe Nathaniel had retreated to that tree because the noise around him didn’t hold an answer to his longing. He needed silence to remember that God will always find a way to bring our holy desires to fruition – just like the nearly sweet, unripe figs dancing just over Nathaniel’s ruminating head:

The LORD is just in all his ways
and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
to all who call upon him in truth.

Psalm 145:17

Nathaniel found his truth, his answer that day. It walked right up to him in the form of his buddy Philip:

Philip found Nathanael and told him,
“We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law,
and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”

John 1:45

Nathaniel, his head and belly still full of figs, takes a little while to get the full picture. But when he does, he gets it completely, unreservedly, and forever:

Rabbi, you are the Son of God;
you are the King of Israel….

John 1:49

The beautiful thing for Nathaniel is that Jesus was waiting for him too.

Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.

John 1:48

Oh, what secrets does that revelation hold!

We’re all under some kind of shadow at times, longing to hear God’s invitation. Nathaniel’s story assures us that the call will come through our hopeful prayer and deep desire for God’s glory — and perhaps a good friend who knows where we’re hiding and calls us to the light.

Poetry:  Joy and Peace in Believing by William Cowper, an English poet and hymnodist. One of the most popular poets of his time, Cowper changed the direction of 18th-century nature poetry by writing of everyday life and scenes of the English countryside.

Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord who rises
With healing on His wings;
When comforts are declining,
He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining,
To cheer it after rain.

In holy contemplation
We sweetly then pursue
The theme of God’s salvation,
And find it ever new;
Set free from present sorrow,
We cheerfully can say,
E’en let the unknown to-morrow
Bring with it what it may!

It can bring with it nothing,
But He will bear us through;
Who gives the lilies clothing,
Will clothe His people too;
Beneath the spreading heavens
No creature but is fed;
And He who feeds the ravens
Will give His children bread.
Though vine nor fig tree neither
Their wonted fruit shall bear,

Though all the field should wither,
Nor flocks nor herds be there:
Yet God the same abiding,
His praise shall tune my voice;
For, while in Him confiding,
I cannot but rejoice.

Music: Yet Will I Praise Thee – Kent Henry

Listen

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Creation, Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, Love, spirituality1 Comment

Feast of the Transfiguration
August 6, 2026

Do you have a few favorite scripture stories?

I love passages like the Widow of Nain, Zacchaeus in the tree, Mary Magdalen and her “Rabboni.” These favorites, and many others, reveal Jesus’ deep compassion in the face of the human condition. They allow me to feel close to him and to trust his mercy even for my own life.

But some other passages are not on my favorites list. They don’t move me in the same way. The story of the Transfiguration — though it may transcend many others in significance — has never been one of my top ten. And perhaps that’s because I struggle to engage its otherworldly transcendence.

Over many years of praying with this Gospel, I have entered it through Peter’s eyes. At other times, I have wondered what Jesus was thinking. Sometimes I have asked Moses or Elijah for an insight. But somehow, I never quite reached the heart of this astonishing revelation of Who Jesus truly is.

My favorite Gospel stories invite me to imitate Jesus within the familiar contours of human life: to comfort the grieving as he did, to seek Jesus with reckless longing as Zacchaeus did, to cherish the way God speaks my name as Mary Magdalen did.

So what have I been missing in the Transfiguration?

Maybe this.

Have you ever had an unexpected grace that lifted you, just for a moment, out of your circumstances? The grace silenced you, whispered that the moment was more than it appeared, and that within it, God was calling you to a deeper intimacy. More than a wake-up moment, such an experience changes us in deeply spiritual and inexplicable ways.

These spiritual encounters can come in the simplest of forms. On a warm October afternoon many years ago, I stretched out on a park bench, exhausted from co-hosting a teenage retreat. Before closing my eyes for a little nap, I glanced up toward the sky into the glory of a golden sugar maple. The tree was so vibrant that it exuded a life beyond itself, offering that vibrancy to me. In the numinous silence, I experienced an intimate sign of God’s Presence and Love – at one with me, and with Creation. That single, beautiful tree has stayed with me for over fifty years.

I think that is the kind of moment we encounter in the Transfiguration.

Peter, James, and John — and perhaps even Jesus in his humanity — are lifted beyond ordinary time into the otherwise hidden radiance of God. For one breathtaking instant, the practical and apparent world gives way to an infinitely enduring reality.

The Divine Voice affirms that our lives are curtained by time, and that we truly exist in a dimension beyond our ordinary comprehension – Eternal Life. Jesus’ mission is to reveal that Truth to us and give us the courage to pursue it in imitation of him – even unto death. As the Voice commands, we must listen to him!

The gift of Transfiguration is a Divine Promise branded on our hearts, grounding us against any cross to come by convincing us of Resurrection.

Today, praying with this powerful scripture passage, I ask God for the courage to listen!

Music: Transfiguration – Carey Landry

Suggested Scripture: 2 Peter 1:16-19

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?

Mary Magdalen: Spiritual Sfumato

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

July 22, 2026

Of the many techniques an artist might use in painting, among the most alluring is Sfumato.

Sfumato refers to a painting technique that blends one tone into another rather than using a clear outline. The word derives from the Italian sfumare, meaning “to evaporate,” and is related to the Italian word for smoke (fumo). Like smoke, a form rendered in sfumato tends to evaporate or disappear into the air surrounding it. Leonardo da Vinci used the term to describe how the edges of the Mona Lisa seem to blend into the surrounding shadows.
(from merriam-webster.com)

Today is the Feast of St. Mary Magdalen, a woman painted in sfumato across salvation history’s canvas. 

She is mentioned by name fourteen times in the New Testament across all four Gospels. She is explicitly identified as a key follower of Jesus who supported his ministry, witnessed his crucifixion, visited the empty tomb, was the first to see the risen Christ, and to proclaim the Resurrection. 

Nevertheless, other than her hometown of Magdala, the outlines of Mary’s life remain mysterious. Who were her parents, her siblings? Was she married? Who were her friends?

We know about Peter. He was married, had a mother-in-law, and was a fisherman from a family of fishermen.

We know about the feisty brothers, John and James. Their father was Zebedee, their mother Salome. They were “the Sons of Thunder”.

We know that Andrew, Philip, and Nathaniel were neighborhood friends.

But we have no such scriptural colors to paint our picture of Mary Magdalen.

What we know about Mary is her passion for God, a passion that allowed her to be released from seven devils and to radically bond her heart to the heart of Jesus.

Yes, the “seven devils”, those undefined spiritual hindrances that caused Pope Gregory to mistakenly connect Mary to the sinful woman of Luke, chapter 7.

The number seven is interesting, and might lead one to consider the seven deadly sins against which we all struggle in our lives: pride, envy, wrath, gluttony, lust, sloth, and greed. Might it be that Mary, so captured by the sacred magnetism of Jesus, was freed of these inclinations and sanctified in a unique way for the Gospel mission? Might it be that this “ultra-Baptism” prepared her to be the Apostle to the Apostles, first witness and proclaimer of the Resurrection?

Albert Edelfelt

As I pray with Mary Magdalen today, I remember a quote once shared with me. It is the response of an octogenarian nun when asked about her spiritual life:

I am in Love now. 
I have entered the Fire. 
I am one with the Flame.

She seems to have perfectly described the “spiritual Sfumato” for which Mary Magdalen is an inspiring icon.

Poem: The Magdalen, a Garden and This by Kathleen O’Toole

She who is known by myth and association 

as sinful, penitent, voluptuous perhaps…

but faithful to the last and then beyond.

A disciple for sure, confused often with Mary,

sister of Lazarus, or the woman caught

in adultery, or she who angered the men

by anointing Jesus with expensive oils.

She was the one from whom he cast out seven

demons—she’s named in that account.

Strip all else away and we know only

that she was grateful, that she found her way

to the cross, and that she returned

to the tomb, to the garden nearby, and there,

weeping at her loss, was recognized,

became known in the tender invocation

of her name. Mary: breathed by one

whom she mistook for the gardener, he

who in an instant brought her back to herself—

gave her in two syllables a life beloved,

gave me the only sure thing I’ll believe

of heaven, that if it be, it will consist

in this: the one unmistakable

rendering of your name.

Music: You Know My Name – by The Holy Studio (lyrics below)

I sit in rooms
Where no one asks
How long I’ve stayed
Behind the glass
My hands grow tired
My voice grows thin
I wonder if
You’ve noticed me

I don’t have to be loud
To be known
I don’t have to prove
I’m here

You know my name
You know my name
Before I speak
Before I break
You know my name
I don’t have to earn
Your gaze
You see me whole
You know my name

The world moves fast
It doesn’t wait
For tired bones
Or quiet faith
I scroll through faces
None are mine
I set the table
Just for one

I am not invisible
To You
I am not strange
For feeling small

You know my name
You know my name
Not for the things
That I have done
But for the way
You chose to stay
You see my face
You know my name

And every night
I wasn’t seen
You were the one
Still watching me
Every word
I didn’t say
You heard them all
You know my name
You know my name
You know my name

You know my name
You know my name
I don’t have to be
Interesting to be kept
I don’t have to shine
To be held
You called me Yours
Before I knew
You know my name
That is enough

Suggested Scripture: John 20:11-16

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?

What Can Love Do

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Love, spiritualityLeave a comment

May 31, 2026
Trinity Sunday

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity.
We pray, within this Loving Mystery,
to our Creator, Redeemer, and Abiding Spirit.
In each Divine Expression, may we praise and thank our generous God.

The Quaker Meetinghouse that William Penn attended is just a short distance from my home. I pass it frequently and read the Penn quote posted above its entrance, “Let us see what love can do.”

Trinity Sunday is a day to see what love can do. We contemplate the mystery of God, Who is Uncontainable Love, Who progenerates in Infinite Creation, Redemption, and Sanctification.

This is a beyond-big mystery that defies human comprehension. So how am I supposed to pray with it, one might ask!

First off, the Mystery of the Trinity can’t be analyzed or solved. Only problems can be addressed in that way. Like cathedrals of the soul, mysteries must be entered, revered, and embraced as they are. In today’s readings, Moses, Paul, and John share their experience of praying within the mystery of the Trinity.

In our first reading, Moses meets the Creator. He bows in profound awe, then comfortably welcomes God’s company. The passage invites us to an unexpected intimacy with Omnipotence. Love wants to be with us. Love wants to create through us.

Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship.
Then he said, “If I find favor with you, O Lord,
do come along in our company.
This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins,
and receive us as your own.”

Exodus 34:8-9

In our Second Reading from Corinthians, Paul instructs that the Redeemer abides with us through our joy, mutual encouragement, and peaceful co-existence. Like the Creator’s kiss that gives us life, the holy kiss of Christian community nurtures the timeless vitality of the Gospel.

Brothers and sisters, rejoice.
Mend your ways, encourage one another,
agree with one another, live in peace,
and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the holy ones greet you.

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

That Redemption, given in the gift of God’s Son for us, imbues us with a share in eternal life – the Holy Spirit living within our redeemed hearts. We ourselves become the vessels where the Trinity chooses to abide eternally.

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.

John 3:16

So what might this Sacred Mystery mean for me today?

I think it shows us what God Who is Love can do:

Love can create life.
Love can redeem life.
Love can abide for life.

When you feel overwhelmed by a seemingly lifeless situation, remember what Creative Love can do.

When you encounter someone or something that seems irrevocably lost, remember what Redemptive Love can do.

When you are tested to abandon faith, hope, or charity, remember what Abiding Love can do.

Music: Hildegard of Bingen: De Spiritu Sancto (Holy Spirit, The Quickener Of Life) – sung by St. Stanislav Girls’ Choir

Suggested Scripture: John 3:16-18

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?

Don’t Be Confused

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Courage, Gospel, Jesus, justice, spirituality5 Comments

April 16, 2026

When political reality invades my prayer, I am moved to speak.

Yesterday, in an AP report from Bill Barrow and Emilie Megnien, I read:

A day before coming to Georgia, Vance tried to laugh off the meme (of Trump as Christ) as a joke that “a lot of people weren’t understanding.” The vice president also seemed to echo Trump’s assertion that Leo should concentrate less on global affairs.

“It would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of what’s going on in the Catholic church and let the president of the United States stick to dictating American public policy,” Vance said in a Fox News interview.

AP reporters BILL BARROW and EMILIE MEGNIEN
Updated Wed, April 15, 2026 at 12:03 AM EDT

————

Each night before retiring, I prepare for the next morning’s meditation by reading the assigned scriptures. But too often, the noise of the day intrudes. Last night was one of those nights. Instead of stillness, my thoughts were preoccupied by this deeply disturbing report on Mr. Vance that echoes earlier comments by Mr. Trump.

I also drifted back to a seemingly inconsequential clip from the 6:00 PM news. A reporter had stopped a woman on the street and asked her opinion about the latest clash between the President and the Pope.

“It’s unfortunate,” she said. “I think the church should stay out of politics.”

However casual and uninformed, her answer lingered into my late evening. Beneath it lies a confusion that is anything but casual: the failure to distinguish between politics and morality. Hearing her, motivated me to examine my own conscience with this prayer:

Dear God, don’t let me be confused.

  • Help me see clearly the difference between politics and morality, yet their critical interdependence.
  • Let me honor and attend to the Pope as he courageously calls us to moral honesty.
  • Let me have the personal courage to name the moral corruption consuming our current politics.
  • Let me have the clarity to look beyond confusing, political explanations to see the greed, hatred, and moral weakness infesting our public life.
  • Let me not question the Pope’s mischaracterized “politics” as he raises a moral voice for the innocent, for the likes of those little school girls massacred with the click of a distant computer button.
  • Let me not characterize Pope Leo’s challenge as an unqualified intrusion but as a beacon of truth in a cacophony of self-serving excuses and outright lies.
  • Deliver me from the audacious ignorance that would condemn the Pope’s theology with the apparent limitations of my own subjective vainglorious creed.
  • Let me not doubt that when the destruction of a civilization is threatened, the Pope is impelled to speak, that he is inspirited to lead when other leadership so ignominiously fails.

Perhaps it was coincidence, or perhaps not, that the scripture readings for this week echo the same tension. The apostles, proclaiming the truth, are challenged and condemned by pharisaical politicians. Christ himself is rejected, not for lack of authority, but for the discomfort of what he reveals.

It has always been easier to label truth as disruptive than to respond to it.

So the question is not whether the Church should “enter politics.” The question is whether we are willing to hear a moral voice at all.

May we have the clarity—and the courage—to answer Pope Leo’s prophetic call.

Fall in Love Again

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Discipleship, Eastertide, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spiritualityLeave a comment

Easter Sunday
April 5, 2026

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In God’s great mercy, we have been given new birth into a living hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.

1 Peter 1:3-4

They woke up one morning beside each other as they had for fifteen years. The scent of last night’s acrid argument lingered in the corners of the room. After a few moments, he turned to her and said, “We need to learn how to love each other again. Can we try?”

Over the course of long-term relationships, the parties change. Phil and Judy wanted to remain committed to their marriage, but they found themselves strangled by years of unpruned misunderstandings. All heart commitments meet similar challenges. All dreams fray a little on their way to fulfillment.

We have followed Jesus through Holy Week on such a road. Passover Sunday filled his spirit with the fresh scent of palms and possibilities. But as the week waned, the Father led Jesus in a daunting direction. He asked his Son to give the ultimate price for love.

Our lives too will teach us this: every ride on a palm-strewn road meets a fork toward Gethsemane. There is no true love without sacrifice. But the road does not end at the foot of the cross. Loving sacrifice lifts us to see this morning’s Easter sunrise. The life that had lain hidden in darkness now rises triumphant in our hearts. Today, we are offered the grace to live this mystery on our own journeys. Amazingly, Easter invites us to fall in love again with God and to begin our lives anew

Music: Love Is Come Again (Now the Green Blade Riseth)

Suggested Reading: John 20:1-9

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?

Awesome Expectations

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Cross, Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, spirituality, sufferingLeave a comment

Holy Saturday
April 4, 2026

We expect things, don’t we? Things as simple as rain. Things as complex as babies. We expect to wake up tomorrow, to have a safe drive home from work, to complete the to-do lists stuffed in our pockets. We expect life. We even expect death. We expect much of the in-between.

But it is the things we don’t expect that profoundly change our lives. These things shatter our routine and make a passageway for extraordinary grace. You have had such moments. During them, you were like the ancient Jews standing at the fracture of the Red Sea. Your soul was in a battle between fear and awe.

These moments came to you in various disguises: tragedy, surprise, celebration, disappointment, betrayal, or forgiveness. From the vantage point of time, you may be able to see how these moments freed you, redeemed you. Or, now within such a moment, you may still be struggling to discover its Divine Potential.

The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb by Hans Holbein (c. 1522)

We are not unlike the disciples experiencing the Passover of Jesus’s life. They, even He, may not have expected the Thursday of Transubstantiation – the giving of his body into the eternal bread and wine. They did not expect the cleavage of their sacred world by an unholy crucifixion. They did not expect a dislodged stone to yield a golden resurrection.

All that they did not expect we now call “Easter” – a rebirth in the steadfast assurance that God’s life ever triumphs. May we all be broken and blessed by this astounding and unexpected grace!

Spend some time today considering your hopes. Look for the things yet hidden behind the stone of expectation. Are they worthy of the awesome soul God gave you, and the immense invitation within the Paschal Mystery? Are we looking into an empty tomb, expecting new life? Or, on this hollow and hallow Saturday, are we quietly listening for whatever unexpected grace Easter will offer us?

Music: Exsultet – setting by Ryan Clouse

(And yes, I was annoyed by what I thought was a misspelling of “Exultet”. However, I did some research and this is an acceptable, though archaic, version of the word. There is an unfortunate ad near rhe end. Hit “skip” in lower right to view end of video. It’s worth it.

Suggested Scripture: Isaiah 53:1-12

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 Sacred Passage

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Cross, dying, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, spiritualityLeave a comment

Good Friday
April 3, 2026

All life is about journey and passage.

At some time in each of our lives, we yearn to pass:

  • from emptiness to abundance
  • from loneliness to love
  • from exhaustion to renewal
  • from anxiety to peace
  • from burden to freedom
  • from confusion to understanding
  • from bitterness to forgiveness
  • from pain to healing
  • from mourning to remembrance

The sacred mystery of Good Friday assures us that God accompanies us in our torturous journeys. But we must name whatever darkness surrounds us, and reach through it to the hand of God outstretched from the Cross. Like a parent leading a child in from the storm, the God of Resurrection longs to bring our hearts home with Him to Easter joy.

Music: When I Remember – Kevin Kern

Suggested Scripture: John 14:2-3

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?

Love Anoints Us

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn dying, Faith, Forgiveness, friendship, Jesus, Lent, Mercy, spirituality4 Comments

March 29, 2026
Palm Sunday

Purity of heart is to be without guile, hidden agendas.
It is to be honestly intentioned in our actions and words.

During Holy Week, a fundamental question comes before us. How should the precious oil be used – tenderly poured out or reasonably saved? It is a question that challenges us to balance justice with mercy, reality with hope, law with passion, to be pure of heart. How are we being asked to open our alabaster jar?

After Peg’s father died, she rummaged through parts of his house preparing it for sale. When Peg was a child, the bottom drawer of the china closet was always her dad’s exclusive domain. She prepared to open it now like a priest approaching the sacred altar. Inside, Peg found the normal treasures stored against a rainy day: rubber bands, expired coupons, Band-aids, and a Swiss Army knife.

In an old wallet, she discovered a forgotten twenty-dollar bill and a creased, browning paper. Unfolded, the note revealed a 1960’s Christmas shopping list. Beside Peg’s name was scribbled “skates, pajamas and Slinky.” Beside her mother’s name, there was a single phrase: “Chanel N°5.”

Peg’s middle class family avoided extravagance. With four children, they could not afford it. Her father’s one excursion into luxury was to anoint her mother with this prized perfume. The annual act released a balm of silent devotion between them redeeming any of the year’s frayed misunderstandings.

During Holy Week, we see Mary anoint Jesus’s feet with costly aromatic nard. We watch Jesus kneel to pour a sacred blessing over his disciples’ feet. We experience God’s lavish mercy wash over us in blood and water, in sacrament and sacrifice. These acts draw us into God’s infinite, unquenchable love.

Our names have been folded eternally into God’s heart. An extravagant mercy has been given for us. This week, walking with Jesus from the supper table, through the garden and on to Calvary, may we embrace the deep anointing of God’s Passion for us. May it redeem us and open us to full Easter joy!

Music: Agnus Dei – Monks of the Abbey of Notre Dame

Suggested Scripture: Philippians 2:1-11

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?

Candlemas: A Seasonal Anchor

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Christmastide, Courage, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Forgiveness, Jesus, Mary, Seasons, spiritualityLeave a comment

Feast of the Presentation
February 2, 2026

Candlemas,
also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ,
the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
or the Feast of the Holy Encounter,
is a Christian feast day commemorating
the presentation of Jesus
at the Temple by Joseph and Mary.
It is based upon the account in
Luke 2:22–40.

How do the great trees die and come to life again? It’s a question we might ponder every winter as the bare, black branches fill with ice. Their stark emptiness seems a place from which there is no return. But we know otherwise. In the relentless cold of every February, our experience whispers the hope for April. Our liturgical year is filled with lynchpins to stabilize and orient us in this hope.

The Feast of Candlemas (February 2), an ancient celebration of hope, is one of the seasonal anchors Medieval people used to ground their faith through its various seasons. The Feast commemorates Mary’s Purification and the Presentation of Christ to the world – thus the candles!

Other ancient and seasonal feasts were:

May 3: Roodmas – celebrating the discovery and veneration of the True Cross (called “Rood” in Middle English)
Aug 1: Lammas – Originating from the Old English hlafmaesse (“loaf-mass”), it involved blessing loaves made from the new crop, signifying gratitude for the summer’s bounty and preparation for the coming winter.
Sept 29 Michealmas – Festival of St. Michael the Archangel, known as the protector against evil and leader of heaven’s armies
Nov 11 Martinmas – a festival celebrated on November 11th, marking the end of the harvest and the start of winter, honoring St. Martin of Tours, a soldier famous for sharing his cloak with a beggar, symbolizing light and charity as days grow shorter
Dec 25 Christmas – the ultimate celebration of hope in the Light of Jesus Christ

Like nature, each one of us has our seasons. Our lives contain the cycles of our youth and aging, birth and death. Our daily experiences turn in both the warm and the chilly intervals of our lives.

  • We have blossomed with the expectant life of spring: a new job, relationship, adventure.
  • We have cultivated love over warm summers of dedication and growth – our faith, families, friends, and ministries.
  • We have reaped the autumnal returns of our efforts, walking away from a red and golden field carrying a well-earned harvest – graduations, anniversaries, promotions, retirements.
  • Certainly, each of us has known our own winters, when cold has threatened and dark has isolated – and yet, like the trees – we have survived.

As we experience the depths of “Winter 2026”, Candlemas seems an opportune time to review the lessons of the season – especially the chapters on deep roots, inner quiet, and a hidden spiritual warmth that defies freezing.

In the winters of our lives, we learn what truly sustains us. We are called to delve into the power of endurance, resilience, forgiveness, honesty, loyalty, and faithfulness. These are the winter virtues that preserve life deep under the surface of any paralyzing storm. These are the salts that keep life’s highways passable, allowing us to stay connected to all that keeps us vibrant.

On any given day of the year, we can experience “winter”. Think of the times you have received (or given) the “cold shoulder”. Remember when your explanations have been given an icy reception? Haven’t there been conversations where you were frozen out? Can’t you still see the frosty stare you got from someone who thought you were beneath them? We have all known some sub-zero responses when we were really looking for a warm word. We have all received some chilly greetings when we needed not to feel like an isolated stranger.

Hospitality is not listed as a Fruit of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, it is the melding of many of them. Hospitality is a radical welcome rooted in God’s love. It is the perfect antidote to all our methods of freezing one another out. It is the human anti-freeze that reminds us that we need one another’s warmth to survive the treacheries of life. It is a virtue to be deeply pondered in this societal age of frigid inhumanity to those we judge to be “alien”.

If there is someone in your life that you have exiled to the Arctic, consider reaching out in hospitality, care, forgiveness, or honesty. This winter, let go of the glacial grudges, silences, and harbored hurts that sometimes freeze our souls and kill our hope of returning life. Listen to the voice of the dark February nights. It is telling us how to move toward spring.

Music: We Are Called to Welcome Strangers – Jubilate

Suggested Scripture: 1 Peter 4:7-11

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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?