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On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Cross, Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, Love, spirituality2 Comments

Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter
May 17, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051724.cfm

After Jesus had revealed himself to his disciples
and eaten breakfast with them, 
he said to Simon Peter,
“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”
Simon Peter answered him, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.”
John 21:15

Perhaps we have spoken or heard these questions as we move through our heart’s life:

  • Do you love me?
  • How much do you love me?
  • Will you always love me?
  • Do you still love me?

But true love is immeasurable. It has shades and intensities, but it doesn’t have limits. True love is all; it’s everything – fidelity, forgiveness, delight, hope, chaos, perseverance, sacrifice, joy and generosity.

Jesus knows Peter possesses all these commitments to Him. But He is asking Peter to test himself before Peter is called to take Christ’s place on earth.

The only “more” that ever touched human love was when Jesus took our flesh to live, die, and rise for all of us. Jesus wants to hear Peter say he has that kind of sacrificial Love.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Jesus knows us too, and how we want to love him well; how we may want to love him “more”. Let’s talk with him about that in our prayer today, asking to not let our chances for loving God slip by without our notice.

Poetry: This Paltry Love – Jessica Powers

I love you, God, with a penny match of love
that I strike when the big and bullying dark of need
chases my startled sunset over the hills
and in the walls of my house small terrors move.
It is the sight of this paltry love that fills
my deepest pits with seething purgatory,
that thus I love you, God—God—who would sow
my heights and depths with recklessness of glory,
who hold back light-oceans straining to spill on me, on me,
stifling here in the dungeon of my ill.
This puny spark I scorn, I who had dreamed
of fire that would race to land’s end, shouting your worth,
of sun that would fall to earth with a mortal wound
and rise and run, streaming with light like blood,
splattering the sky,
soaking the ocean itself, and all the earth.

Music: If I Love You – Rodgers and Hammerstein

Will

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Cross, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Prayer, spirituality, sufferingLeave a comment

Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
May 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051624.cfm

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
“I pray not only for these,
but also for those who will believe in me through their word,
so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.
John 17:20-21

Over several Gospel readings, we have been blessed to pray with the prayers of Jesus. Just before today’s passage, Jesus has consecrated those sitting around him who are his friends. In today’s extraordinary moment, Jesus blesses us – and all those down through the ages – who will to believe in Him.

Of course, faith is a gift we cannot acquire through our own effort. The consolation of faith, the feeling of faith, is something that sometimes evaded even the greatest saints. St. John of the Cross writes extensively about the “dark night of the soul” during which he had no emotional awareness of faith. At times, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Mother Theresa and even Jesus himself suffered a sense of isolation from God:

Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means,
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Matthew 27:46

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Even when we find ourselves in a spiritual desert, we still can will to believe by opening our heart and experience to the grace God offers us – by our trust, our perseverance in prayer, and our patience with our own uncertainty.

Spiritual darkness, received as a gift, can reveal an otherwise undiscovered dimension of God’s Love for us.

Poetry: The Uses of Sorrow – Mary Oliver

Someone I loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.

Music: One Dark Night – John Michael Talbot

In this beautiful music, Talbot recants lines based on the Song of Songs and the writings of St. John of the Cross – poetic imagery that strives to describe encounter with God.

One dark night
Fired with love’s urgent longings
Ah, the sheer grace
In the darkness
I went out unseen
My house being all now still

In the darkness
Secured by love’s secret ladder
Disguised
Oh, the sheer grace
In the darkness
And in my concealment
My house being all now still

On that glad night
In the secret, for no one saw me
Nor did I see any other thing at all
With no other light to guide me
Than the light burning in my heart

And this light guided me
More surely than the light of the noon
To where he lay waiting for me
Waiting for me
Him I knew so well
In a place where no one else appeared

Oh guiding night
A light more lovely than the dawn
A night that has united
Ever now
The Lover now with his beloved
Transforming two now into one

Upon my flowering breast
There he lay sleeping
Which I kept for him alone
And I embraced him
And I caressed him
In a breeze blowing from the forest

And when this breeze blew in from the forest
Blowing back our hair
He wounded my soul
With his gentle hand
Suspending all my senses

I abandoned, forgetting myself
Laying my face on my Beloved
All things ceasing, I went out from myself
To leave cares
Forgotten with the lilies of the field

Consecrate

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, holiness, Holy Spirit, Jesus, spirituality2 Comments

Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
May 15, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051524.cfm

And now I commend you to God
and to that gracious word of his that can build you up
and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated.
Acts 20:32

Consecrate them in the truth.
Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them,
so that they also may be consecrated in truth.
John 17: 17-19

Both our readings today describe the act of consecration. In Acts, Paul blesses the presbyters in Ephesus, anointing them for Gospel ministry. In John 17, Jesus prays to the Father for his disciples – that they may be blessed and confirmed in the Word which is Truth.

At some point in our lives, each one of us has been consecrated in that same Truth. We may have been baptized, confirmed, blessed, ordained, and professed. Through those consecrations, the Holy Spirit has been breathed into our hearts to form us in Truth which is God’s Word.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s gratefully remember the fullness of our consecration. By the grace of God, we embody the Divine Power of truth, love, and mercy. How often do we remember to call on this Power when life threatens to overwhelm or confuse us?

Poetry: A Blessing for Wedding – Jane Hirshfield
While Hirshfield’s poem is directed toward the marriage vow, it is clearly applicable to all consecrations in which God is the sacred partner.

Today when persimmons ripen
Today when fox-kits come out of their den into snow
Today when the spotted egg releases its wren song
Today when the maple sets down its red leaves
Today when windows keep their promise to open
Today when fire keeps its promise to warm
Today when someone you love has died
or someone you never met has died
Today when someone you love has been born
or someone you will not meet has been born
Today when rain leaps to the waiting of roots in their dryness
Today when starlight bends to the roofs of the hungry and tired
Today when someone sits long inside his last sorrow
Today when someone steps into the heat of her first embrace
Today, let this light bless you
With these friends let it bless you
With snow-scent and lavender bless you
Let the vow of this day keep itself wildly and wholly
Spoken and silent, surprise you inside your ears
Sleeping and waking, unfold itself inside your eyes
Let its fierceness and tenderness hold you
Let its vastness be undisguised in all your days

Music: Sanctus – Jessye Norman

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus
Dominus Deus Sabaoth.
Pleni sunt cæli et terra gloria tua.
Hosanna in excelsis.
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini.
Hosanna in excelsis.

Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord:
Hosanna in the highest.

Appointed

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Community, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality2 Comments

Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle
May 14, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051424.cfm

You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another.”
John 15: 14-17

What about Matthias and the story of his emerging role in the spread of the Gospel? He must have been holy and good even to be considered for the office of Apostle. Were there just too many holy people initially to fit him into the biblically magic number of 12? And what about Justus who didn’t make the numerical cut? Was his giftedness lost to the early Church because of a short straw or a muffed coin flip?

In our Gospel, Jesus tells us that we are each “appointed” to bear fruit that will remain. No matter our title or function, we are equally “chosen” to nurture and sustain the life of the community.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s pray with Matthias that, whether recognized or unrecognized, we will be faithful to the Gospel in word and action.

Poetry: Fear of Being Chosen – Sister Natalia, member of Christ the Bridegroom Byzantine Catholic Monastery 

O Matthias, what did you think,
what did you feel,
when you were beckoned forward?
Did your heart race at the idea
of joining ranks with those eleven?
Eleven different types of broken,
all seeking to be whole.

Did you fear the possibility
of secret brokenness revealed?
And did you also feel
the thrill of sure adventure,
after having seen the ups and downs
of the men whose eyes were now on you?

You’d seen their pain, their dying,
and in your heart felt a pull.
One thing you must have known,
known without a doubt
being witness to the resurrection
would mean a life of miracles.

And when you heard your name called out,
and reality sunk in,
did you feel that joyful pain of knowing
that all now know that you are His?

Did your thoughts bounce back and forth
between death and resurrection?
And did you steal one more glance
at Joseph Barsabbas
and wonder, “Why not him?”

Music: Mathias Sanctus – Hildegard von Bingen (chanted by Bella Voce Chicago)

Mathias, sanctus per electionem,
vir preliator per victoriam,
ante sanguinem Agni electionem non habuit,
sed tardus in scientia fuit
quasi homo qui perfecte non vigilat.


Donum Dei illum excitavit,
unde ipse pre gaudio sicut gygas
in viribus suis surrexit,
quia Deus illum previdit
sicut hominem
quem de limo formavit
cum primus angelus cecidit,
qui Deum negavit.

Homo qui electionem vidit –
ve, ve, cecidit!

Boves et arietes habuit,
sed faciem suam ab eis
retrorsum duxit
et illos dimisit.

Unde foveam carbonum invasit,
et desideria sua osculatus
in studio suo,
illa sicut Olimpum erexit.

Tunc Mathias per electionem divinitatis
sicut gygas surrexit,
quia Deus illum posuit
in locum quem perditus homo noluit.

O mirabile miraculum
quod sic in illo resplenduit!

Deus enim ipsum previdit
in miraculis suis
cum nondum haberet meritum operationis,
sed misterium Dei
in illo gaudium habuit,
quod idem per institutionem suam
non habebat.

O gaudium gaudiorum
quod Deus sic operatur,
cum nescienti homini gratiam suam impendit,
ita quod parvulus nescit
ubi magnus volat,
cuius alas Deus parvulo tribuit.

Deus enim gustum in illo habet
qui seipsum nescit,
quia vox eius
ad Deum clamat
sicut Mathias fecit,
qui dixit:
O Deus, Deus meus,
qui me creasti,
omnia opera mea tua sunt.

Nunc ergo gaudeat omnis ecclesia
in Mathia,
quem Deus in foramine columbe
sic elegit.
Amen.

Mathias, a saint through being chosen,
a champion in his victory,
did not know himself chosen before the Lamb’s blood was shed:
he was tardy in knowledge,
like a man who is not perfectly awake.

God’s gift aroused him,
so that for joy he rose like a giant
in his strength:
God foresaw him
as he had foreseen the man
whom he formed of clay
when the first angel,
who denied God, fell.

The man who saw his choice,
alas, alas, he fell!

He had oxen and rams at his bidding,
yet he looked away from them,
turned his back
and abandoned them.

Thus he plunged in the pit of coal
and, kissing his own desires,
in his ardor
he raised them high, like an Olympus.

Then Mathias, divinely chosen,
rose like a giant,
because God set him
in the place that Judas, the lost, rejected:

O wondrous miracle
that shone through him thus!

For God foresaw him
in his miracles,
though he had not yet the merit of accomplishment,
but the mystery of God
had joy in him,
joy that in its original plan
it did not have.

Joy of joys
that God works in this way,
when he lavishes his grace on one who does not know,
so that the child does not know
where the grown man will fly,
whose wings God has given to the child!

For God savors the one
who does not know himself,
because his voice
is crying out to God,
as Mathias cried,
saying:
God, my God,
who created me,
all my works are yours!

So now let all Ecclesia take joy
in Mathias,
he whom God thus chose in the cleft where the dove nestles.
Amen.

Courage

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

Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter
May 13, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051324.cfm

Behold, the hour is coming and has arrived
when each of you will be scattered to his own home
and you will leave me alone.
But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
I have told you this so that you might have peace in me.
In the world you will have trouble,
but take courage, I have conquered the world.
John 16: 32-33

We can fool ourselves about what “courage” really is.

I grew up in a tough inner-city neighborhood. We kids had to have courage to survive the street dynamics our parents were blissfully unaware of. I had a lot of that kind of courage and still do. I’m not even afraid of mice, neighborhood toughs like Big Jimmy (remember him?), nor of monsters hiding under my bed.

But do I have the kind of courage Jesus is talking about?

  • the courage to believe when God seems silent
  • the courage to remain peaceful when spiritual turmoil surrounds me
  • the courage to live truthfully in a culture of lies
  • the courage to be patient with my own limitations
  • the courage to be merciful in the face of repeated affront
  • the courage to love what is not lovable
  • the courage to persevere when circumstances test me
  • the courage to champion and reverence the marginalized
  • the courage to challenge systemic indifference to the vulnerable
  • the courage to say “No” when it is what God would say
  • the courage to live God’s “Yes” in an unreceptive world

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s think about the kind of courage Jesus prayed for in his disciples. Let’s mirror our life against it and ask for more of it where we need it.

Poetry: Courage – Edgar A. Guest (sorry about the non-inclusive language)

Courage isn't a brilliant dash,
A daring deed in a moment's flash;
It isn't an instantaneous thing
Born of despair with a sudden spring
It isn't a creature of flickered hope
Or the final tug at a slipping rope;
But it's something deep in the soul of man
That is working always to serve some plan.
Courage isn't the last resort
In the work of life or the game of sport;
It isn't a thing that a man can call
At some future time when he's apt to fall;
If he hasn't it now, he will have it not
When the strain is great and the pace is hot.
For who would strive for a distant goal
Must always have courage within his soul.
Courage isn't a dazzling light
That flashes and passes away from sight;
It's a slow, unwavering, ingrained trait
With the patience to work and the strength to wait.
It's part of a man when his skies are blue,
It's part of him when he has work to do.
The brave man never is freed of it.
He has it when there is no need of it.
Courage was never designed for show;
It isn't a thing that can come and go;
It's written in victory and defeat
And every trial a man may meet.
It's part of his hours, his days and his years,
Back of his smiles and behind his tears.
Courage is more than a daring deed:
It's the breath of life and a strong man's creed.

Music: Take Courage – Kristine DiMarco

Keep

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, spirituality2 Comments

Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 12, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051224-Sunday.cfm

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying:
“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me,
so that they may be one just as we are one.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,
and I guarded them, and none of them was lost
except the son of destruction,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you.
I speak this in the world
so that they may share my joy completely.
I gave them your word, and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world
but that you keep them from the evil one.
John 17:11-15

In today’s Gospel, Jesus prays with great tenderness for his beloved disciples. He asks the Father to “keep” his friends, the way we keep precious things in our hearts, our prayers, and our memories.

I have prayed like this for the people I love, haven’t you? We ask God to protect them the way we would protect them. We don’t ask for miracles, but simply that they be delivered from the evils of “this world”.

We want them to have the courage to live good lives, and to be blessed by that goodness. We want them to find joy in the immense blessings God offers us, yes, in “this world” as God created it.

This is the prayer Jesus offers for his disciples … and for each one of us.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Rest in Jesus’s prayer for those who love him that we may be one with him in Trinitarian Love. Let it convince your heart of the joy, hope, love, and mercy God has for each of us.

Poetry: May They Be One – Bob Hartman

And Jesus said:

This is my prayer. 
My prayer for the disciples who follow me now. 
And my prayer for all the disciples to come.
One. May they be One.
As I am One with you, Father.
As you are One with me.
May they be One. One with us.
So the world will believe that you have sent me.
One. May they be One.
For you have given me your glory,
and that's why I have passed it on to them.
That they might be like you and me.
That they might be One.
One. May they be One.
Completely One.
I in them.
You in me.
One.
So the world will know you sent me,
and that you love them,
just like you love me…

Music: We Are One – Three O’Clock Session

Joy

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, joy, spirituality1 Comment

Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter
May 10, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/051024.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples: 
“Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn,
while the world rejoices;
you will grieve, but your grief will become joy…

… So you also are now in anguish.
But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy away from you.
On that day you will not question me about anything.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.”
John 16:20

Jesus understands that life can be hard, and the Christian life even harder. His followers will face the grief of losing his physical presence, the scorn of their persecutors, and the sorrows inextricably woven into every human life. Their equanimity may break like a fragile eggshell under the press of these burdens.

But Jesus leaves them with a glorious promise. In him, their grief will be transformed to joy. They “will see him again”, not just in some distant parousia, They will see him in life itself as they learn to live it in the Father as Jesus has lived it.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We ask for the grace to believe Jesus’s promise, and to see God in our lives as they have been given to us. We pray for the courage to use that blessed assurance in a ministry of love and mercy to the world.

Poetry: Joy and Peace in Believing – John Newton (1725 – 1807), author of Amazing Grace

Sometimes a light surprises
The Christian while he sings;
It is the Lord who rises
With healing in 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 th' 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: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – Johann Sebastian Bach

Ascend

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

Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter – Ascension
May 9, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050924.cfm

When they had gathered together they asked him,
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, “Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Acts 1: 6-12

Our Gospel today recounts how Jesus ultimately left his disciples to reassume his fullest self in heaven. There are many lessons in this reading but one strikes me particularly on this Ascension Thursday.

Just as Jesus returned to heaven so will each of us – to assume the fullness of ourselves as we were created to be; to be folded completely into the Eternal Love of the Trinity.

In the meantime, like the disciples, we have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit to become Christ’s witnesses in our time.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We stand beside those who love Jesus as he ascends from their midst. We feel their sadness, joy, amazement, anxiety, and hope. We feel their confidence that, in the power of the Holy Spirit, all good things are possible in their yet uncharted future.

Let’s talk to Jesus about this special moment, and what graces it might waken in our own hearts.

Poetry: At Burgos – Arthur Symons

On Ascension Day, Symons reflects at the beautiful St. Mary’s Cathedral in Burgos, Spain

Miraculous silver-work in stone
Against the blue miraculous skies,
The belfry towers and turrets rise
Out of the arches that enthrone
That airy wonder of the skies.

Softly against the burning sun
The great cathedral spreads its wings;
High up, the lyric belfry sings.

Behold Ascension Day begun
Under the shadow of those wings!

Music: The Ascension by Robert W. Smith

Truth

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Eternal Life, spirituality, Truth, Conversion, Jesus, Holy Spirit1 Comment

Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
May 8, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050824.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.
He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears,
and will declare to you the things that are coming.
John 16:12-13

In this passage, Jesus indicates that the “Truth” can be overwhelming. He tells the disciples that they cannot bear it all just now. But the Holy Spirit will guide them to receive the Truth.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Isn’t that a fact for all of us? Don’t we need to grow into the Truth rather than comprehend it all at once?

At best, we live in a world of appearances and, at worst, a world of fabrication. We may be tempted to judge reality based on these thin and misleading surfaces.

To respond to the deep truths of life, we need to prayerfully follow the Spirit – to be gradually strengthened in our capacity to see the world as God sees it, to respond to the world as God would respond. – in Truth.

Poetry: Witness – Denise Levertov 

Sometimes the mountain
is hidden from me in veils
of cloud, sometimes
I am hidden from the mountain
in veils of inattention, apathy, fatique,
when I forget or refuse to go
down to the shore or a few yards
up the road, on a clear day,
to reconfirm
that witnessing presence.

Music: Holy Spirit, Truth Divine – David Eck

Love

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Eternal Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Love, spirituality4 Comments

Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 5, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050524.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples:
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.

“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you
and your joy might be complete.
John 15:9-11

What would it be like if we loved as the Creator loves – eternal life flowing out from Trinitarian Love to sustain all of us for always?

Jesus says that this is how the Father loves, and how Jesus loves all of us. He says that we abide in this Love when we indeed love God above all and our Neighbor as ourselves.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Honestly, can there be a more ubiquitous word than “Love”, and yet we find so little of its true practice in our increasingly self-absorbed and violent culture!

If, when we “love”, it does not strengthen sacred life in another or in the world, then we have not truly loved. We may have desired, admired, adulated, or ingratiated, but we have not loved as God loves.

Let’s pray to be open and responsive to the gift of God’s Love flowing into our hearts.

Prose: from Embodied Love in John of the Cross – Richard P. Hardy, Ph.D.

For John of the Cross, being wholly converted into divine love means actually living God's own life:
The soul lives the life of God.
And the will, which previously loved in a base and deadly way with only its natural affection, is now changed into the life of divine love, for it loves in a lofty way with divine affection, moved by the strength of the Holy Spirit in which it now lives the life of love. By means of this union God's will and the soul's will are now one.
Finally all the movements, operations, and inclinations the soul had previously from the principle and strength of its natural life are now in this union dead to what they formerly were, changed into divine movements, and alive to God.

Music: Amazing Love – Peggy Duquesnel