Category: Jesus

Living Gratitude

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Creation, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi
October 4, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/1004-memorial-francis-assisi.cfm

(I chose to offer a reflection on the readings for the Memorial of St. Francis rather than for Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week)

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) , one of the most revered figures in Christianity, an Italian mystic and Catholic friar who founded the Franciscans.

The simple holiness of St. Francis has had an immeasurable effect not only on Christianity but even on secular culture. No matter their religious interest, most people would recognize this humble, medieval itinerant preacher and understand the witness of his life.

from phillyvoice.com

Our current Holy Father, in a surprise move, chose St. Francis as his patron and model:

When the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio went over the 77 votes needed to become pope, he said that his friend Cardinal Hummes “hugged me, kissed me and said, ‘Don’t forget the poor.’”
At the time of his election, Pope Francis told thousands of journalists that he took to heart the words of his friend and chose to be called after St. Francis of Assisi, “the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects creation.”

In our readings today, both the Responsorial Psalm and the Gospel echo a spirituality deeply compatible with the Franciscan spirit.

Francis, who renounced his wealthy lifestyle and inheritance for the riches of Christ, surely found inspiration when he prayed Psalm 16:

You are my inheritance, O Lord.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you.”
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.

I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.

You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.

Most of us reading this reflection have so much in life. We are blessed beyond description with everything we need and even want. Praying in the spirit of St. Francis can help us discern how to honor and use what we have in a way that pleases God.

Keep a clear eye toward life’s end. Do not forget your purpose and destiny as God’s creature. What you are in God’s sight is what you are and nothing more. Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take nothing that you have received…but only what you have given; a full heart enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice, and courage.

Francis of Assisi

Poetry: ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI – A SERMON TO THE BIRDS
Francis made his deep spirituality and radical teaching easily accessible with unpretentious parables like this one. He imitated Jesus himself who taught us how to live by telling simple stories in which we could find ourselves. So let’s learn from this one, my little “birds”. 

My little sisters the birds,
Ye owe much to God, your Creator,
And ye ought to sing his praise at all times and in all places, 
Because he has given you liberty to fly about into all places; 
And though ye neither spin nor sew,
He has given you a twofold and a threefold clothing
For yourselves and for your offspring.
Two of all your species He sent into the Ark with Noah
That you might not be lost to the world;
Besides which, He feeds you, though ye neither sow nor reap.
He has given you fountains and rivers to quench your thirst, 
Mountains and valleys in which to take refuge,
And trees in which to build your nests;
So that your Creator loves you much,
Having thus favored you with such bounties.
Beware, my little sisters, of the sin of ingratitude, 
And study always to give praise to God.” Amen

Music: St. Francis of Assisi by Mendoza Musicals

Toward Jerusalem

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

Tuesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
October 3, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100323.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 87, a Song of Zion which imagines the future Jerusalem as the world’s center of worship.

The foundation upon the holy mountains
    the LORD loves:
The gates of Zion,
    more than any dwelling of Jacob.
Glorious things are said of you,
    O city of God!

Psalm 87: 1-3

For centuries, the Jews had been scattered through many alien countries. Some had lost their ties to their inherited faith. The psalm calls all people “home” to the worship of the one, true God.

Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives by Frederic Edwin Church

Jerusalem is a profoundly unifying symbol for Jews. That is why it is so important for Jesus to “go up to Jerusalem” in order to accomplish our redemption. As today’s Gospel tells us:

When the days for Jesus to be taken up were fulfilled,
he steadfastly turned his face to Jerusalem.

Luke 9:51

Praying with these passages may seem difficult for Christians if we have no emotional ties to the city of Jerusalem. But for us too, the concept of “Jerusalem” serves as a symbol of that stable and committed faith that allows us to live our lives in the pattern of Jesus.

We journey too, as Jesus did toward the fullness of life in God. Our journey takes singular steadfastness, just as his did, a commitment rooted in faith and grace.

Together in faith, we form a New Jerusalem, glorious in each one of us through our Baptism into Christ.

Poetry: A Sonnet – Malcolm Guite

Now to the gate of my Jerusalem,
The seething holy city of my heart,
The saviour comes. But will I welcome him?
Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start;
They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing,
And think the battle won. Too soon they’ll find
The challenge, the reversal he is bringing
Changes their tune. I know what lies behind
The surface flourish that so quickly fades;
Self-interest, and fearful guardedness,
The hardness of the heart, its barricades,
And at the core, the dreadful emptiness
Of a perverted temple. Jesus  come
Break my resistance and make me your home.

Music: Jerusalem, My Destiny – Rory Cooney

God’s Will?

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Hope, Jesus, spirituality, suffering3 Comments

Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 1, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100123.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 25, set perfectly in the midst of a few readings that speak to us about, among other things , “the Father’s Will”.

I think there is no greater spiritual mystery than the meaning of  “God’s Will”, (and not wanting to show up Thomas Aquinas, I’ll resist explaining it here. 😂🧐)

But we’ve all heard attempts at explaining it, haven’t we, especially as it relates to suffering— as in:

  • everything that happens is God’s Will, so we must accept it
  • God wills our suffering to test us
  • if God wills that we suffer, He will give us the strength to endure it

I just don’t think so … not the God I love and Who loves me.

But these attempts to explain suffering are understandable because we want to rationalize the things we fear. Most of us, I think, struggle with the problem of evil and suffering in the world. We want to know what to do when, as Rabbi Kushner wrote, “… Bad Things Happen to Good People”.

Our first reading from Ezekiel shows us that even the ancient peoples met this struggle. The prophet seems to suggest that if you’re bad, you’ll suffer. If you repent, you won’t. Well, we all know that’s not quite the reality! But nice try, Ezekiel.

Our psalm gently leads to another way of facing suffering as the psalmist prays for wisdom, compassion and divine guidance. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus himself prayed like this as he confronted his impending suffering.

In our second reading, Paul places before us the example of Jesus who, in the face of suffering, was transformed by love:

Praying with these readings, each one of us must come to our own peace with the mystery of suffering. What we can be sure of is this: God’s Will is always for our wholeness and joy as so simply taught to us when we were little children:

God made me to know, love, and serve God, 
and to be happy with God in this world and forever.

Our Gospel tells us that such happiness comes through faith and loving service, through responding to “the Father’s Will”.  May we have the insight, the love, and the courage!

Poetry: Of Being by Denise Levertov 

I know this happiness is provisional:
the looming presences
— great suffering, great fear—
withdraw only into peripheral vision:
but ineluctable this shimmering of wind
in the blue leaves: this flood of stillness
widening the lake of sky:
this need to dance,
this need to kneel:
this mystery:

Music: To You, O Lord (Psalm 25) Graham Kendrick

Breathers of Hope

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality4 Comments

Monday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
September 25, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092523.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we begin three weeks of readings from some of the lesser known prophets and reformers in ancient Israel:

  • Ezra: instrumental in restoring the Jewish scriptures and religion to the people after the return from the Babylonian Captivity and is a highly respected figure in Judaism.
  • Nehemiah: his book describes his work in rebuilding Jerusalem during the Second Temple period.
  • Haggai: a Hebrew prophet during the building of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and one of the twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. He is known for his prophecy in 520 BCE, commanding the Jews to rebuild the Temple
  • Zechariah: His greatest concern was with the building of the Second Temple
  • Baruch: the prophet Jeremiah’s scribe who is mentioned at Baruch 1:1. The book is a reflection of a late Jewish writer on the circumstances of Jewish exiles from Babylon
  • Malachi: Malachi describes a priesthood that is forgetful of its duties, a Temple that is underfunded because the people have lost interest in it, and a society in which Jewish men divorce their Jewish wives to marry out of the faith. (W. Gunther Plaut)
  • Joel: delivers a message of warning and repentance to the southern kingdom of Judah after the nation was divided.
  • Jonah: prophesied the destruction of Nineveh, but attempts to escape his divine mission.

Now some of my readers who are scripture geeks like me may have been interested in the above list. The rest of you skipped down to this paragraph to see if I had anything at all interesting to say about today’s readings. 😉

How about this? While Israel’s prophets and reformers speak to a certain time in history, their themes speak powerfully to our own times and culture as well:

Walter Brueggemann describes the prophets’ two primary themes:

  • First, they are very sure that political economic arrangements that contradict the purpose of God cannot be sustained.
  • Second, the prophets are voices of hope that affirm that God is a future-creating agent who keeps promises and who, against all odds, creates a new world reality that is distinct from present power arrangements.

Walter Brueggemann: From Judgment to Hope

The prophets remind us that, beyond any purely temporal interpretation of life, God is real and intimately involved in the unfolding of both our personal and global histories. When we pray with the prophets, we are strengthened in courage to engage our world, and to act in hope for the redemption of our culture.

In today’s reading, the reformer Ezra speaks a word of liberating alternative hope to a people who had been decimated by the Babylonian Captivity. Many of them thought they had lost their soul in Babylon. Ezra, by the power of God, breathes it back into them.

Therefore, whoever among you belongs to any part of his people,
let him go up, and may his God be with them!
Let everyone who has survived, in whatever place they may have dwelt,
be assisted by the people of that place
with silver, gold, goods, and cattle,
together with free-will offerings
for the house of God in Jerusalem

Ezra 1:3-4

As we consider our own times, our “breathers of hope” may come to mind: Pope Francis working to rebuild the Church, and Martin Luther King inspiring a vision of equity, respect and inclusion. We may think of voices like St. Oscar Romero, Venerable Catherine McAuley, Simone Weil, St. Edith Stein, Greta Thunberg, Servant of God Dorothy Day, or Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Each one has spoken selflessly for peace, mercy, justice, and wholeness in a fragmented, sinfully distracted society.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus, Divine Daystar of every prophet’s hope, calls each one of us to the work of hope-filled prophecy, and faith-filled listening:

Jesus said to the crowd:
“No one who lights a lamp conceals it with a vessel
or sets it under a bed;
rather, he places it on a lampstand
so that those who enter may see the light.
For there is nothing hidden that will not become visible,
and nothing secret that will not be known and come to light.
Take care, then, how you hear.
To anyone who has, more will be given,
and from the one who has not,
even what he seems to have will be taken away.”

Matthew 5:1-6

Poetry: Advice to a Prophet – Richard Wilbur

When you come, as you soon must, to the streets of our city,
Mad-eyed from stating the obvious,
Not proclaiming our fall but begging us
In God’s name to have self-pity,
Spare us all word of the weapons, their force and range,
The long numbers that rocket the mind;
Our slow, unreckoning hearts will be left behind,
Unable to fear what is too strange.
Nor shall you scare us with talk of the death of the race.
How should we dream of this place without us?—
The sun mere fire, the leaves untroubled about us,
A stone look on the stone’s face?
Speak of the world’s own change. Though we cannot conceive
Of an undreamt thing, we know to our cost
How the dreamt cloud crumbles, the vines are blackened by frost,
How the view alters. We could believe,
If you told us so, that the white-tailed deer will slip
Into perfect shade, grown perfectly shy,
The lark avoid the reaches of our eye,
The jack-pine lose its knuckled grip
On the cold ledge, and every torrent burn
As Xanthus once, its gliding trout
Stunned in a twinkling. What should we be without
The dolphin’s arc, the dove’s return,
These things in which we have seen ourselves and spoken?
Ask us, prophet, how we shall call
Our natures forth when that live tongue is all
Dispelled, that glass obscured or broken
In which we have said the rose of our love and the clean
Horse of our courage, in which beheld
The singing locust of the soul unshelled,
And all we mean or wish to mean.
Ask us, ask us whether with the worldless rose
Our hearts shall fail us; come demanding
Whether there shall be lofty or long-standing
When the bronze annals of the oak tree close.

Music: Daystar – Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir (Lyrics below)

Lily of the Valley, let your sweet aroma fill my life
Rose of Sharon show me how to grow in beauty in God's sight
Fairest of ten thousand make me a reflection of your light
Daystar shine down on me let your love shine through me in the night

Lead me Lord, I'll follow. Anywhere you open up the door
Let your word speak to me, show me what I've never seen before
Lord I want to be your witness, you can take what's wrong and make it right
Daystar shine down on me, let your love shine through me in the night

Lord I've seen a world that's dying wounded by the master of deceit
Groping in the darkness, haunted by the years of past defeat
But when I see you standing near me shining with compassion in your eyes
I pray Jesus shine down on me let your love shine through me in the night

Lead me Lord, I'll follow anywhere you open up the door
Let your word speak to me, show me what I've never seen before
Lord I want to be your witness, you can take what's wrong and make it right
Daystar shine down on me, let your love shine through me in the night

Invisible

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Faith, holiness, Hope, Jesus, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saint Pius of Pietrelcina, Priest
Saturday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
September 23, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092323.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we have our final reading from 1 Timothy. In the closing words of this letter, Paul pleads with Timothy, and with the community Timothy shepherds, to stay faithful. Paul encourages them to do this even though the Power they believe in is invisible.

… keep the commandment without stain or reproach
until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ
that the blessed and only ruler
will make manifest at the proper time,
the King of kings and Lord of lords,
who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light,
and whom no human being has seen or can see.
To him be honor and eternal power. Amen.

1 Timothy 6:14-16

In our Gospel today, Jesus describes the Word of God aa a seed that falls upon the human heart with varying results. It is a parable we are familiar with and we get it. If we don’t have a ready heart, plowed and furrowed with faith and charity, that lonely seed is going to die.

The problem is that even when that seed falls into our very faithful hearts, we don’t always SEE the results. The work of faith is a work with invisible powers. It is a work with hope, with trust, with perseverance, with courage – much like the work in any garden.

I hear really good people, whose lives are beautiful witnesses to faith, still question themselves and their goodness. Because their lives are threaded with challenges and disappointments, they think their lack of faith might be the cause. Because the world at large may appear to be a mess, they wonder if the God they believe in is really there!

Indeed, even though the seed of God’s Word is alive, still it is buried in the realities of our lives. And we wait in sometimes doubtful anticipation for its flowering.

Paul knew that Timothy would encounter these roadblocks just as we all do. That is why his letters to Timothy are a powerful source of encouragement to us all as we strive to live a holy life. As we close these letters today, don’t put them on a shelf forever. I go back to Timothy often just to grab a few verses for light in a shadowy time. I encourage you to do the same.

The final verses of 1 Timothy struck me with a smile as I read them today. They follow just after today’s reading:

O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you.
Avoid profane babbling
and the absurdities of so-called knowledge.
By professing it,
some people have deviated from the faith.

Poetic Prose: Rainer Maria Rilke

When I think of the Paul’s letters to young Timothy, I am reminded of Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. Here is a favorite passage:

You are so young; you stand before beginnings… 
have patience with everything that 
remains unsolved in your heart. 
Try to love the questions themselves, 
like locked rooms and like 
books written in a foreign language. 
Do not now look for the answers. 
They cannot now be given to you 
because you could not live them. 
It is a question of experiencing everything. 
At present you need to live the question. 
Perhaps you will gradually, 
without even noticing it, 
find yourself experiencing the answer,
 some distant day.

Music: Invisible Spirit – by Anandra

Worthy of the Call

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Conversion, Discipleship, Jesus, spirituality3 Comments

Feast of Saint Matthew, Apostle and evangelist
September 21, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092123.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Paul and Matthew that we may deepen our reverence for the call we have received.

I, a prisoner for the Lord,
urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received,
with all humility and gentleness, with patience,
bearing with one another through love,
striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit
through the bond of peace:
one Body and one Spirit,
as you were also called to the one hope of your call;
one Lord, one faith, one baptism;
one God and Father of all,
who is over all and through all and in all.

But grace was given to each of us
according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 

Ephesians 4:1-7

Many of us think of a “call” as a one-time event, for example, the moment we say “yes” to a marriage proposal, or the profession of vows in religious commitment.

Our Gospel describes such a life call for Matthew:

As Jesus passed by,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed him.

Matthew 9:9

But we can be certain that this was not Matthew’s only and final call. Jesus kept calling Matthew every day of his life to move deeper and deeper into the heart of God.

Like Matthew, we are all sitting at the table of life sometimes unaware of God’s power passing right in front of us. Matthew looked up from his tax sheets just in time to see Jesus’s all-knowing, all-loving glance. And that moment changed everything for Matthew. The call, crystalized in that sacred moment, had unfolded for years and would continue to unfold throughout Matthew’s life.

Maybe we spend a lot of our time fiddling with life’s calculations like Matthew did. We need to make our checkbooks balance, our calendars synchronize, our recipes succeed, our bills resolve. Sometimes we have so much ciphering going on that we don’t even glance up to see real Life passing by.

Jesus teaches that the underlying calculus of our lives must be mercy. He wants us to see where mercy is needed and to spend ourselves in its name. When Matthew’s buddies criticized him for following his call, Jesus confronted them with their own call, “Go and learn…”

The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples,
“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
He heard this and said,
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
Go and learn the meaning of the words,
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Matthew 9:11-13

I hope those pharisaical critics listened. I hope I do too.

Poetry: The Calling of St. Matthew – James Lasdun

This beautiful, thought-provoking poem by James Ladsun suggests that Matthew had prepared himself, over many years and through many choices, to hear the call when it finally came. The poet imagines that Matthew had completed a slow emptying of his life in charity and thus left the space for God’s voice.

Lasdun wrote the poem referencing a painting of the same name by Caravaggio. ‘The painting was completed in 1599–1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in the church of the French congregation, San Luigi dei Francesi in Rome, where it remains. This painting, by the way, is a favorite of Pope Francis. He has said he went often to contemplate it on his earlier visits to Rome. 

Not the abrupt way, frozen
In the one glance of a painter’s frame
Christ in the doorway pointing. Matthew’s face
Bright with perplexity, the glaze
Of a lifetime at the countinghouse
Cracked in the split second’s bolt of being chosen.

But over the years, slowly,
Hinted at, an invisible curve;
Persistent bias always favoring
Backwardly the relinquished thing
Over the kept, the gold signet ring
Dropped in a beggar’s bowl, the eye not fully

Comprehending the hand, not yet;
Heirloom damask thrust in a passing
Stranger’s hand, the ceremonial saddle
(Looped coins, crushed clouds of inline pearl)
Given on an irresistible
impulse to a servant. Where it sat

A saddle-shaped emptiness
Briefly, obscurely brimming … Flagons
Cellars of wine, then as impulse steadied
into habit, habit to need,
Need to compulsion, the whole vineyard
The land itself, graves, herds, the ancestral house,

Given away, each object’s
Hollowed-out void successively
More vivid in him than the thing itself,
As if renouncing merely gave
Density to having; as if
He’s glimpsed in nothingness a derelict’s

Secret of unabated,
Inverse possession … And only then,
Almost superfluous, does the figure
Step softly to the shelter door;
Casual, foreknown, almost familiar,
Calmly received, like someone long awaited.

Music: The Call – Vaughan Williams

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
Such a Life, as killeth death

Come, My Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a Light, as shows a feast:
Such a Feast, as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joys in love

Eternal Compassion

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

Tuesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
September 19, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/tuesday-twenty-fourth-week-ordinary-time

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Paul gives the Church a job description for bishops. Obviously, there was a time when the worshipping community had significant input into the choice of its spiritual leaders. Therefore, Paul counsels the community to look for appointees who are well-balanced at:

  • the family level
  • the ministry level
  • the societal level

While directed toward bishops and deacons, Paul’s words could serve as an examen for anyone who professes to minister in God’s name.

nain

However, it is the Gospel story of the widow of Nain where my prayer rests today. Reading it, I remember standing by a large walkway window at the Louisville Airport on a sweltering July day nearly twenty years ago.

Down on the heat-softened tarmac, a small bevy of soldiers stood at attention. Slowly, a flag-draped casket was lowered into their waiting arms. Just to the side, a huddled family waited as well. Two children clung to either side of their young mother. An older couple stood behind her, hands gentled on her shoulders.

At the window with me, several other travelers gathered in silence. A few teenage boys removed their inverted baseball caps when they noticed a distinguished older gentleman stand tall and hold a salute.

No one who witnessed that brief ceremony will ever forget it. The grief, reverence and astonishment at life’s fragility emblazoned the moment on every witnessing heart.

When Jesus passed the gates of Nain on that ancient morning, he had a like experience. He saw this “only son of a widowed mother”. Once again, shaken to his roots with compassion –splancha– he pulled heaven down to heal heart-breaking loss.

How I wished Jesus were flying out of Louisville that day in 2005! But then I realized He was there. The miracle was hidden, but still real. The Divine Compassion flowed through me, through the reverent gathering beside me, through the soldiers’ honoring arms, through the long prayerful memory we would all forever share.

That young man from Nain was raised from the dead… but only for a while. He, like all of us, eventually died. The miracle was not about him and the restoration of his life. The miracle was the visible sign of God’s infinite compassion for his mother, and for all of us – God’s “feeling-with-us” in all our experiences. That compassion, whether miraculously visible or not, is always with us.

It just took a different form that day in Louisville.

military funeral

Poetry: First Born Sons and the Widow of Main by Irene Zimmerman, OSF

Jesus halted on the road outside Nain
where a woman’s wailing drenched the air.
Out of the gates poured a somber procession
of dark-shawled women, hushed children,
young men bearing a litter that held
a body swathed in burial clothes,
and the woman, walking alone. 
A widow then—another bundle 
of begging rags at the city gates. 
A bruised reed! 
Her loud grief labored and churned in him till
“Halt!” he shouted.
The crowd, the woman, the dead man stopped.
Dust, raised by sandaled feet,
settled down again on the sandy road.
Insects waited in shocked silence. 
He walked to the litter, grasped a dead hand.
“Young man,” he called
in a voice that shook the walls of Sheol,
“I command you, rise!” 
The linens stirred.
Two firstborn sons from Nazareth and Nain
met, eye to eye. 
He placed the pulsing hand into hers.
“Woman, behold your son,” he smiled.

Music:  I was reminded of this consoling country song for today’s prayer. Like much country music, it hits the heart where it matters, even if the theology is a little frayed.

God Only Cries – written by Tim Johnson, sung here by Diamond Rio
Lyrics below

On an icy road one night
A young man loses his life
They marked the shoulder with a cross
An’ his family gathers round
On a piece of Hallowed ground
Their hearts are heavy with their loss
As the tears fall from their eyes
There’s one who’ll always sympathise

God only cries for the living
‘Cause it’s the living that are left to carry on
An’ all the angels up in Heaven
They’re not grieving because they’re gone
There’s a smile on their faces
‘Cause they’re in a better place than…
They’ve ever known.

God only cries for the living
‘Cause it’s the living that are so far from home

It still makes me sad
When I think of my Grand-dad
I miss him each and every day
But I know the time will come
When my own grandson
Wonders why I went away
Maybe we’re not meant to understand
Till we meet up in the Promised Land

Her Joys and Her Sorrows

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

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows
September 15, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091523.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, as we pray with Our Mother of Sorrows, we follow the liturgical cycle and return to Paul’s letter to Timothy for our first reading. However, we break from the cycle to honor Mary, Mother of Sorrows for our Gospel and Sequence.

What a solemn title this is for Mary! It is so much more comforting to think of her as the young, lively mother of Jesus, or the exuberant girl who happily visited her cousin Elizabeth.

But today, the Church remembers Mary’s suffering by which she intimately shared in Jesus’s redemption of the world.

At the cross her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
Through her heart, his sorrow sharing,
All his bitter anguish bearing,
Now at length the sword had passed.

Mary’s life was full of both mind-blowing and heart-wrenching experiences!

  • Just imagine what it felt like to find an angel in one’s living room with an invitation to star in salvation history.
  • Imagine Mary’s pride, and perhaps frightened astonishment, at Cana when she tasted that “wine-formerly-known-as-water.”
  • Imagine how she fought the urge to slow Jesus down, to call him back to the comfort, safety and anonymity of their Nazareth home.
  • Imagine the utter bereavement of mind, heart, and spirit Mary suffered at the foot of the Cross.

Mary’s life was so full of joys and sorrows that there could be little in our lives she would not fully understand. Let’s be with her in prayer today, turning over our own blessings and difficulties with her – and those of our world – asking for her counsel and care.

Poetry: Mother of God – W. B. Yeats

The threefold terror of love; a fallen flare
Through the hollow of an ear;
Wings beating about the room;
The terror of all terrors that I bore
The Heavens in my womb.
Had I not found content among the shows
Every common woman knows,
Chimney corner, garden walk,
Or rocky cistern where we tread the clothes
And gather all the talk?
What is this flesh I purchased with my pains,
This fallen star my milk sustains,
This love that makes my heart’s blood stop
Or strikes a Sudden chill into my bones
And bids my hair stand up?

Music: Mary’s Heart – Danielle Rose

Oh Mary
Mother of Jesus
Give me your heart
That I might receive Jesus
Give me your heart
So beautiful, so pure
So immaculate, so full
Of love and humanity

Oh Mary
Mother of Jesus
Give me your heart
That I might receive Jesus
Give me your heart
To love him as you loved him
And serve him as you served him
In the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor

Oh Mary
Mother of Jesus
Give me your heart
That I might receive Jesus
In the bread of life
In the poorest of the poor
In distressing disguise
In Christ our Lord
In the bread of life
In the poorest of the poor
In distressing disguise
In Christ our Lord

Oh Mary
Mother of Jesus
Give me your heart
That I might receive Jesus
Jesus

We Adore You, O Christ

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Cross, Faith, Jesus, spiritualityLeave a comment

Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
September 14, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091423.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 78 which commands us:

Do not forget the works of the Lord!

The psalm, in its entirety, is a recital of God’s faithfulness to Israel over time, culminating in the triumph of David/Jerusalem/Temple.

God chose David his servant,
took him from the sheepfolds.
From tending ewes God brought him,
to shepherd Jacob, the people,
Israel, God’s heritage.
He shepherded them with a pure heart;
with skilled hands he guided them.

Psalm 78: 70-73

David foreshadows Jesus, the Good Shepherd who not only tends the sheep but becomes the Lamb of God. Jesus completes our salvation by his death on the Cross. In him, the long journey of Psalm 78 is ultimately fulfilled.

Philippians’ exquisite hymn captures the profound nature of that fulfillment:

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God,
    did not regard equality with God something to be grasped.
    Rather, he emptied himself,
    taking the form of a slave,
    coming in human likeness;
    and found human in appearance,
    he humbled himself,
    becoming obedient to death,
    even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5-8

Each of our lives reflects, in its own way, the salvation journey we find in scripture. We experience the same kind of twists and turns, highs and lows as those described in Psalm 78.

In each of these moments, we are held in the mystery of the Cross wherein Christ transforms all suffering to grace:

Because of this, God greatly exalted him
    and bestowed on him the name
    that is above every name,
    that at the name of Jesus
    every knee should bend,
    of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
    and every tongue confess that
    Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:9-11

Poetry: Good Friday – Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

Am I a stone and not a sheep 
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross, 
To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss, 
And yet not weep?
Not so those women loved 
Who with exceeding grief lamented thee; 
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly; 
Not so the thief was moved;
Not so the sun and moon 
Which hid their faces in a starless sky, 
A horror of great darkness at broad noon— 
I, only I.
Yet give not o’er, 
But seek thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock; 
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more 
And smite a rock.

Music: Adoramus Te, Christe

Uncompromising Faith

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

Memorial of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist
August 29, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082923.cfm

John the Baptist – Titian (1540)

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we honor John the Baptist under the title of his “Passion”. The memorial used to be called “the Beheading of John the Baptist”, a title that more referenced the act of the criminal rather than the perseverance of the martyr.

The Gospel narrative is gripping, as is much of the history of John the Baptist. He was no smoldering wick. Rather, John was on fire with the Truth of the Messiah and he never compromised.

Herod was the one who had John the Baptist arrested and bound in prison
on account of Herodias,
the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married.
John had said to Herod,
“It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.”
Herodias harbored a grudge against him
and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.

Mark 6: 17-19

In a commentary on this Gospel, Pope Francis described the central players like this: There are four characters:

  • King Herod “corrupt and indecisive”
  • Herodias, the wife of the king’s brother who “knew only how to hate”
  • Salome, “the vain ballerina”,
  • the “prophet, decapitated and alone in his cell”.

Pope Francis continued:

John had pointed Jesus out to His first disciples, indicating that He was the Light of the world. He, instead, gave his life little by little, to the point of being extinguished in the darkness of a prison cell.
Life has value only when we give it; when it is given in love, in truth; when we give it to others, in daily life, in our families. It should always be given. If someone grasps his or her life in order to keep it, like the king by his corruption, or the woman with her hatred, or the child, the young girl with her vanity that was that of an adolescent, naive, life dies, life ends up withered, it is useless”

Homily of Pope Francis, Santa Marta, 8 February 2019

Pope Benedict XVI also offered some compelling thoughts on the Passion of John the Baptist:
 “Celebrating the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist also reminds us – Christians in our own times – that we cannot give into compromise when it comes to our love for Christ, for his Word, for his Truth. The Truth is the Truth; there is no compromise. The Christian life requires, as it were, the ‘martyrdom’ of daily fidelity to the Gospel; the courage, that is, to allow Christ to increase in us and to direct our thoughts and actions.”

Francis and Benedict give us plenty to think about as we celebrate this solemn feast. Let us pray for the courage to live our faith wholeheartedly, inspired by the unswerving fidelity of St. John the Baptist.

Poetry: from “Saint John the Baptist” by Thomas Merton

St. John, strong Baptist,
Angel before the face of the Messiah
Desert-dweller, knowing the solitudes that lie
Beyond anxiety and doubt,
Eagle whose flight is higher than our atmosphere
Of hesitation and surmise,
You are the first Cistercian and the greatest Trappist:
Never abandon us, your few but faithful children,
For we remember your amazing life,
Where you laid down for us the form and pattern of
Our love for Christ,
Being so close to Him you were His twin.
Oh buy us, by your intercession, in your mighty heaven,
Not your great name, St. John, or ministry,
But oh, your solitude and death:
And most of all, gain us your great command of graces,
Making our poor hands also fountains full of life and wonder
Spending, in endless rivers, to the universe,
Christ, in secret, and His Father, and His sanctifying Spirit.

Music: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring – J.S. Bach – This beautiful hymn befits John’s great love and devotion to Jesus.