Category: Jesus

Truth

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Eternal Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, Jesus, spirituality, Truth1 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

… Then

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Cross, Discipleship, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality1 Comment

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter
May 4, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050424.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
and I have chosen you out of the world,
the world hates you.
Remember the word I spoke to you,
‘No slave is greater than his master.’
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
And they will do all these things to you on account of my name,
because they do not know the one who sent me.”
John 15: 18-21

I have written about the word “if” several times in past reflections. There are a lot more “ifs” in today’s Gospel – and each of them has a very important “then”.

Thinking about the “if – then” syllogism, I remember one of my favorite professors. Florence Fay taught us Logic when we were young enough not to have practiced it much. She was a wonderful teacher, and building on this basic conditional argument, she led us through the labyrinths of logic.

Jesus seems to be doing the same thing for his disciples. He invites them to recognize that the “thens” of their lives are directly dependent on the “ifs”. He asks them to receive that interdependence without fear because in doing so, they imitate him.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We ask for the courage to live a life balanced on faith so that the “if-then”s of our lives lead us to holiness, not away from it.

Poetry: I See His Blood – Joseph Plunkett

I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.
I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice—and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.
All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.

Music – Adora Te Devote – Juliano Ravanello

Gospel

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

Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles
May 3, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050324.cfm

I am reminding you, brothers and sisters,
of the Gospel I preached to you,
which you indeed received and in which you also stand.
Through it you are also being saved,
if you hold fast to the word I preached to you,
unless you believed in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:1-2

In today’s passage, Paul describes the Gospel as a gift, given through his preaching, and received by his listeners.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Think of the most precious gift that has ever been placed in your hands – how carefully and tenderly you received it, handled it, cared for it. I think of the times the newborns of our family have been handed to me, and how I cherished them and vigilantly held them.

Paul, and our early leaders such as Philip and James, have handed on to us the precious Gospel as they received from Christ himself. It is the key to our eternal life. How we should treasure it, learn from it, stand in it, and hold fast to it, as Paul encourages us to do!

Prose: from John Calvin, Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life

“The Gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. 
It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, 
but it is fully understood when it possesses the whole soul 
and penetrates to the inner recesses of the heart.”

Music: Verbum Dei (Word of God) – by Voices Thules

Vocal ensemble Voces Thules was founded in 1992 and has established itself as a leading ensemble for performance and research on Icelandic medieval and traditional music in Iceland. Voces Thules perform both sacred and secular music either a-cappella or with Medieval period instruments.

Joy

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

Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
May 2, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050224.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 might be in you and
your joy might be complete.”
John 15: 9-11

What a joy to hear someone say, “I love you.”! What a gift to be invited to “remain” in another’s heart!

Jesus wants his disciples, and he wants us, to have that joy. He wants it so much that his own joy depends on it!

God wants our love. God wants us to remain in God’s heart!

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let yourself just sink into that amazing revelation, Beloved of God! Jesus’s declaration and invitation are specifically made to YOU!

Poetry: The Madness of Love – Hadewijch Of Antwerp

The madness of love
Is a blessed fate;
And if we understood this
We would seek no other:
It brings into unity
What was divided,
And this is the truth:
Bitterness it makes sweet,
It makes the stranger a neighbor,
And what was lowly it raises on high.

Music: Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony

1 Joyful, joyful, we adore You,
God of glory, Lord of love;
Hearts unfold like flow’rs before You, Op’ning to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day!

2 All Your works with joy surround You, Earth and heav’n reflect Your rays,
Stars and angels sing around You,
Center of unbroken praise;
Field and forest, vale and mountain, Flow’ry meadow, flashing sea,
Chanting bird and flowing fountain Praising You eternally!		3 Always giving and forgiving,
Ever blessing, ever blest,
Well-spring of the joy of living,
Ocean-depth of happy rest!
Loving Father, Christ our Brother,
Let Your light upon us shine;
Teach us how to love each other,
Lift us to the joy divine.

4 Mortals, join the mighty chorus,
Which the morning stars began; 
God’s own love is reigning o’er us, 
Joining people hand in hand.
Ever singing, march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife;
Joyful music leads us sunward
In the triumph song of life.

Remain

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, Jesus, spirituality3 Comments

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
May 1, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/050124.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples:
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you.
John 15: 1-4

What a tender and comforting passage! When we are invited to “remain” somewhere ( as in, “Please stay for dinner.”), it indicates that we have already arrived into that inviting presence.

Jesus tells us that we are already living in God’s Presence and that he wants us to always remain there in God’s Love. He tells us that we are established in that Presence – that we are already “pruned” for God.

We don’t realize how holy we are. I live with almost 100 spiritually noble women. I have the joy of knowing Mercy Associates, dear family, and personal friends who enrich my life by their desire to live in God’s Light! They would probably never describe themselves as “holy”.

But they are. They have spent their lives steeping themselves in the things of God, and God has delighted in them – invited them to “remain” in Love.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s take time to think about our holiness, not in pride but in humble thanks for the gift God has given us. Each of our lives has “pruned” us in a particular way to reflect God’s glory. Let’s remain – let’s linger – in that blessing as we pray today.

Poetry: To Live with the Spirit of God – Jessica Powers

To live with the Spirit of God is to be a listener.
It is to keep the vigil of mystery,
earthless and still.
One leans to catch the stirring of the Spirit,
strange as the wind’s will. 

The soul that walks where the wind of the Spirit blows
turns like a wandering weather vane toward love.
It may lament like Job or Jeremiah,
echo the wounded hart, the mateless dove.
It may rejoice in spaciousness of meadow
that emulates the freedom of the sky.
Always it walks in waylessness, unknowing;
it has cast down forever from its hand
the compass of the whither and the why. 

To live with the Spirit of God is to be a lover.
It is becoming love, and like to Him
toward Whom we strain with metaphors of creatures:
fire-sweep and water-rush and the wind’s whim.
The soul is all activity, all silence;
and though it surges Godward to its goal,
it holds, as moving earth holds sleeping noonday,
the peace that is the listening of the soul.

Music: Return to the Heart – David Lanz

Show

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, holiness, Jesus, spirituality1 Comment

Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter
April 27, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042724.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you know me, then you will also know my Father.
From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to Jesus,
“Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time
and you still do not know me, Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

Philip is like a lot of us. He is more comfortable with knowledge than with faith. He wants to be shown the Father, the way we might ask to be shown the facts, the details, the plan for something. But faith can’t be boiled down to facts and blueprints. Faith can’t be described or detailed in a presentation or an image.

Jesus challenges Philip to give himself fully to relationship with Jesus. In that shared love, wisdom, trust, and acceptance, Philip already knows the Father. Jesus is the human revelation of the Infinite Love, Wisdom, and Goodness of the Trinity.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We pray for the spiritual freedom to release our hearts from any doubt or reservation in our faith. We ask for the grace to trust the Presence of God in our lives and to respond in love to that ineffable Loving Presence.

Prayer: from Julian of Norwich

God, of thy goodness, give me Thyself;
for Thou art enough for me,
and I can ask for nothing less
that can be full honor to Thee.
And if I ask anything that is less,
ever Shall I be in want,
for only in Thee have I all.

Music: Expecting Miracles – Velma Frye and Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB

Midnight moon, let your soft light fall gently,
Gently upon all that has grown dim in our lives.
Midnight moon, pour yourself into places
Where we are weary,
Midnight moon, refresh our bodies
And our hearts.
Let us watch throughout the long night as ones,
As ones expecting miracles.

Morning sun, let your soft light fall gently,
Gently upon all that has grown dim in our lives.
Morning sun, pour yourself into places
Where we are weary,
Morning sun, refresh our bodies and our hearts.
Let us step into this new day as ones,
As ones expecting miracles.

May we live this day
With the presence of disciples of joy!

One

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Eastertide, Faith, inclusivity, Jesus, Love, spirituality2 Comments

Second Sunday of Easter 
Sunday of Divine Mercy
April 7, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040724.cfm

The community of believers was of one heart and mind,
and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they had everything in common.
With great power the apostles bore witness
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great favor was accorded them all.

Acts 4: 32-33

In this passage from Acts, community is noted as an essential aspect of life in Christ. We were not created to be alone. We are created to find God in the love of our sisters and brothers. That merciful and generous love, imitative of Jesus, makes us one with Him in the Trinity, that primordial Community of Generative Love.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We pray to understand that our capacity for community deepens in relationship to our generous and merciful love for each person. As we widen our circle of mercy and caring mutuality, the face of God becomes clearer in our lives.

Poetry: When Someone Deeply Listens to You – John Fox

When someone deeply listens to you
it is like holding out a dented cup
you’ve had since childhood
and watching it fill up with
cold, fresh water.
When it balances on top of the brim,
you are understood.
When it overflows and touches your skin,
you are loved.
When someone deeply listens to you
the room where you stay
starts a new life
and the place where you wrote
your first poem
begins to glow in your mind’s eye.
It is as if gold has been discovered.
When someone deeply listens to you
your barefeet are on the earth
and a beloved land that seemed distant
is now at home within you.

Music: In Christ There Is No East or West – Choir and Congregation, St. Martin in the Fields, London

Companions

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

Saturday in the Octave of Easter
April 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040624.cfm

Observing the boldness of Peter and John
and perceiving them to be uneducated, ordinary men,
the leaders, elders, and scribes were amazed,
and they recognized them as the companions of Jesus.

Acts 4:11

When Jesus had risen, early on the first day of the week,
he appeared first to Mary Magdalene,
out of whom he had driven seven demons.
She went and told his companions who were mourning and weeping.
When they heard that he was alive
and had been seen by her, they did not believe.

Mark 16:9-11

Think of it! Jesus had companions – people he depended on and who depended on him. Like all companions, they had a common bond – their faith and mission.

It was this shared faith and mission that made them recognizable even when they were not standing side by side.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

How wonderful to be so invested in the faith and mission of the Gospel that we are recognizable as companions of Jesus!

Poetry: The Companion – John N. Morris

I shall begin
To appear too often.
You will not recall
When first you saw me.
I shall arrive
At the light beside you.
Catching a plane
You will observe me.
I will never speak.
I will never ignore you.
I shall open a door.
You will pass before me.
I will stand
In a line behind you. Whatever you do
I will be the same.
Nobody else
Will ever believe you.
Soon you will find
You are looking for me. 
The day will come, 
It is getting closer, 
When I shall stand
At every corner. 
Then you will know 
That you deserve me
And there will be
No more excuses.

Music: Companion – Tom Motterhead

Breakfast

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Eastertide, Faith, friendship, Jesus, peace, spirituality4 Comments

Friday in the Octave of Easter
April 5, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040524.cfm

When they climbed out on shore,
they saw a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread.
Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you just caught.”
So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore
full of one hundred fifty-three large fish.
Even though there were so many, the net was not torn.
Jesus said to them, “Come, have breakfast.”
And none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?”
because they realized it was the Lord.

John 21: 9-12

Table Stock photos by Vecteezy

Have you ever eaten breakfast on a quiet morning beach?

When each of my nieces and nephew was about three years old, I would take her or him to the beach with me in the early morning. It was like an initiation. We would sit quietly at water’s edge as I taught them to hum or sing a morning hymn. After a little while, my dear sister-in-law, their mother, would arrive with a full pot of coffee and two cups. The praying child would be released to play while Mare and I took up the morning silence, stringing it with occasional words.

It was a time of wonderful love and ease among us, a time of unforgettable blessing. This is the gift Jesus gives his disciples in today’s reading. He offers us the same blessing too, if we can find a little space for him in our morning. Just a minute or two will do. Remember, Jesus can do a lot with just a word — just think about those 153 fish!

Poetry: Jesus Makes Breakfast: A Poem about John 21:1-14
– by Carol Penner, Mennonite pastor currently teaching theology at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario.

I could smell that charcoal fire a long way off
while we were still rowing far from shore.
As we got closer I could smell the fish cooking,
I imagined I could hear it sizzling.
When you’re hungry, your mind works that way.
When the man by the fire called out asking us about our catch,
we held up the empty nets.
And his advice to throw the nets in once more
is something we might have ignored,
except for the smell of cooking fish…
this guy must know something about catching fish!
The catch took our breath away;
never in my life have we pulled so many in one heave.
I was concentrating on the catch,
but John wasn’t even paying attention,
he was staring at the shore
as if his life depended on it.
Then he clutched my shoulder, crying,
“It is the Lord!”
Suddenly, everything came into focus,
the man, the catch, the voice,
and nothing could stop me,
I had to be with the Master.
There were no words at breakfast,
beyond, “Pass the fish,”
or “I’ll have a bit more bread.”
We sat there, eating our fill,
basking in the sunrise.
We didn’t have to say anything.
Jesus just smiled and served.

Music: Whispering Sea – Tony O’Connor