Category: Jesus

Holy Spirit

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

Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church
September 3, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090324.cfm

The Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.
Among men, who knows what pertains to the man
except his spirit that is within?
Similarly, no one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God.
We have not received the spirit of the world
but the Spirit who is from God,
so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.
And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom,
but with words taught by the Spirit,
describing spiritual realities in spiritual terms.
1 Corinthians 2:10-13

When Jesus lived, God was present to us in the flesh. With Pentecost, God became present to us in the Spirit. But we who are bodily may be challenged to perceive the invisible Spirit. The Spirit becomes visible only in our works of mercy, justice, and love.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask that we may grow in our relationship with the Holy Spirit, and that we may allow God’s Omnipotent Power to work through us for the continued sanctification of the world.

Poetry: In Whom We Live and Move and Have Our Being – Denise Levertov

Birds afloat in air's current,
sacred breath? No, not breath of God,
it seems, but God
the air enveloping the whole
globe of being.
It's we who breathe, in, out, in, in the sacred,
leaves astir, our wings
rising, ruffled -- but only the saints
take flight. We cower
in cliff-crevice or edge out gingerly
on branches close to the nest. The wind
marks the passage of holy ones riding
that ocean of air. Slowly their wake
reaches us, rocks us.
But storms or still,
numb or poised in attention,
we inhale, exhale, inhale,
encompassed, encompassed.

Music: Hymn to the Holy Spirit – Nicholas Echeveria, OSA

Lyrics are taken from a prayer attributed to St. Augustine

Jesus Christ

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

Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
September 2, 2024

today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090224.cfm

When I came to you, brothers and sisters,
proclaiming the mystery of God,
I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you
except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
1 Corinthians 2:1-2

Paul gets it, and he wants to give it to his listeners. Jesus Christ is the First and the Last Word. When Paul was given the gift of faith, he embraced the whole mystery of Christ, Passion, Death, and Resurrection.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Who is the Christ that I believe in? Only a God of personal prosperity and abundance? Or a God Who continues to take flesh, suffer, and rise in my life and the lives of my sisters and brothers?

Prose: from Henri Nouwen

Suffering invites us
to place our hurts in larger hands.
In Christ we see God suffering – for us.
And calling us to share in
God’s suffering love for a hurting world.
The small and even overpowering pains of our lives
are intimately connected with
the greater pains of Christ.
Our daily sorrows are anchored
in a greater sorrow
and therefore a larger hope.

Music: Gabriel’s Oboe – Ennio Morricone

Pure

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Gospel, holiness, Jesus, Love, Mercy, spirituality1 Comment

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 1, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090124.cfm

Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.

Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:
to care for orphans and widows in their affliction
and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
James 1:21-22;27

In his epistle, James is reiterating some strong words from Jesus.

In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees are all whipped up about hand-washing. They have succumbed to the temptation to live a religion of appearances. Jesus basically tells them that no one ever gained eternal life by washing their hands.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Jesus tells us, and so does James, how we stay clean and pure in God’s sight. Let’s take a look in the mirror to see how squeaky clean we look.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this:
to care for orphans and widows in their affliction
and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
James 1:21-22;27

Poetry: from Rumi

If you will be observant and vigilant,
you will see at every moment
the response to your action.

Be observant if you wouldst have a pure heart,
for something is born to you
in consequence of every action.

Music: Salvation – Michael Hoppé, Martin Tillman & Tim Wheater

To Whom?

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

Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 25, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082524.cfm

Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him. 
And he said,
“For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father.”

As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer accompanied him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” 
Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? 
You have the words of eternal life. 
We have come to believe
and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”
John 6:64-69

In the name of the disciples, Peter proclaims their absolute faith in Jesus as the Messiah. It is a challenge to ask ourselves if our faith is absolute or conditional. Do we believe only when things work out as we wish? Or can God depend on us, and we depend on God, no matter the “weather”?

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray for an ever stronger faith and give thanks for its gift to us.

Poetry: Prayer – Jessica Powers

Prayer is the trapdoor out of sin.
Prayer is a mystic entering in
to secret places full of light.
It is a passage through the night.
Heaven is reached, the blessed say,
by prayer and by no other way.
One may kneel down and make a plea
with words from book or breviary,
or one may enter in and find
a homemade message in the mind.
But true prayer travels further still,
to seek God’s presence and God’s will. 

To pray can be to push a door
and snatch some crumbs of evermore,
or (likelier by far) to wait,
head bowed, before a fastened gate,
helpless and miserable and dumb,
yet hopeful that the Lord will come.
Here is the prayer of grace and good
most proper to our creaturehood.
God’s window shows his humble one
more to the likeness of His Son.
He sees, though thought and senses stray,
the will is resolute to stay
and feed, in weathers sweet or grim,
on any word that speaks of Him. 

He beams on the humility
that keeps its peace in misery
and, save for glimmerings, never knows
how beautiful with light it grows.
He smiles on faith that seems to know
it has no other place to go. 

But some day, hidden by His will,
if this meek child is waiting still,
God will take out His mercy-key
and open up felicity,
where saltiest tears are given right
to seas where sapphire marries light,
where by each woe the soul can span
new orbits for the utter man,
where even the flesh, so seldom prized,
would blind the less than divinized.

Music: To Whom Shall We Go – Carolyn Arends

Guileless

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Faith, friendship, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality5 Comments

Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle
August 24, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/082424.cfm

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him,
“Here is a true child of Israel.
There is no guile in him.”
Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” 
Jesus answered and said to him,
“Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.”
Nathanael answered him,
“Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”
John 1:47-49

I’m sure Jesus loved all his disciples, but I think he loved Nathaniel in a special way. Nathaniel was a WYSIWYG person – “what you see is what you get“. Jesus never had to second-guess Nathaniel. His faith and longing for holiness were clear. When he had doubts and reservations he brought them openly and humbly to God.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask to be guileless, without duplicity with God, with ourselves, and with our companions. May we burn with a sincerity of heart lit by faith, hope, and charity.

Poetry: The Glance – George Herbert (1593-1633)

As he comes from under the fig tree, Nathaniel’s life is changed and consecrated by his first glance of Jesus.

The Glance

When first thy sweet and gracious eye
Vouchsaf’d ev’n in the midst of youth and night
To look upon me, who before did lie
Weltring in sinne;
I felt a sugred strange delight,
Passing all cordials made by any art,
Bedew, embalme, and overrunne my heart,
And take it in.

Since that time many a bitter storm
My soul hath felt, ev’n able to destroy,
Had the malicious and ill-meaning harm
His swing and sway:
But still thy sweet originall joy,
Sprung from thine eye, did work within my soul,
And surging griefs, when they grew bold, controll,
And got the day.

If thy first glance so powerfull be,
A mirth but open’d and seal’d up again;
What wonders shall we feel, when we shall see
Thy full-ey’d love!
When thou shalt look us out of pain,
And one aspect of thine spend in delight
More then a thousand sunnes dispurse in light,
In heav'n above.

Music: Hymn to St. Bartholomew (also known as Nathaniel) – Fr. Ricardo Arriola

Wisdom

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

Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 18, 2024

Today’s Reading:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081824.cfm

Wisdom has built her house,
she has set up her seven columns;
she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,
yes, she has spread her table.
She has sent out her maidens; she calls
from the heights out over the city:
“Let whoever is simple turn in here;
To the one who lacks understanding, she says,
Come, eat of my food,
and drink of the wine I have mixed!
Forsake foolishness that you may live;
advance in the way of understanding.”
Proverbs 9:1-6

Proverbs offers us the beautiful image of Divine Wisdom setting a table of grace for our nourishment.

In our Gospel, Jesus tells us that he is the divine nourishment foretold in Proverbs. Some resist Jesus’s invitation. Their faith languishes even while there is sacred food before them.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We give thanks for the Bread of Life given to us in Eucharist, Gospel, Creation, community, and merciful action. We ask for the grace to see God’s nourishing Presence right before us in our daily lives.

Poetry: I Am the Bread of Life – Malcolm Guite

Where to get bread? An ever-pressing question
That trembles on the lips of anxious mothers,
Bread for their families, bread for all these others;
A whole world on the margin of exhaustion.
And where that hunger has been satisfied
Where to get bread? The question still returns
In our abundance something starves and yearns
We crave fulfillment, crave and are denied.

And then comes One who speaks into our needs
Who opens out the secret hopes we cherish
Whose presence calls our hidden hearts to flourish
Whose words unfold in us like living seeds
Come to me, broken, hungry, incomplete,
I Am the Bread of Life, break Me and eat.

Music: Bread of Life – Bernadette Farrell

Clean

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

Saturday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 17, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081724.cfm

A clean heart create for me, O God;
and a steadfast spirit renew within me.
Cast me not out from your presence,
and your Holy Spirit take not from me.
Give me back the joy of your salvation,
and a willing spirit sustain in me.
Psalm 51:12-14

Today’s familiar and beloved Responsorial Psalm repeats yesterday’s heartfelt plea for spiritual innocence.

Jesus blesses such innocence in our Gospel by saying:

Jesus said,
“Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them;
for the Kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray for that deep trust in God which yields spiritual innocence. Such innocence is not naïve or childish. Rather it has discovered the profound wisdom that gives everything to God.

Poetry: Mary Oliver from House of Light

Still, what I want in my life is to be willing to be dazzled 
— to cast aside the weight of facts 
and maybe even to float a little 
above this difficult world. 

I want to believe I am looking 
into the white fire of a great mystery. 
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing 
— that the light is everything 
— that it is more than the sum 
of each flawed blossom rising and falling. 
And I do. 

Music: Innocence – Jonas Kvarnström

Tested

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

Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081624.cfm

Some Pharisees approached Jesus,
and tested him, saying,
“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife
for any cause whatever?”

Matthew 19:3

The Pharisees miss the whole point of the Presence of Jesus. Think of it: here they have the Messiah they have longed for right in their midst. They can talk to him, touch him, listen to him. Instead, they are strangled in rationalizations which prevent them from believing.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We ask for a clear and innocent faith, one not caught in the need for proofs and signs. May we hold nothing back from God in our practice of faith.

Poetry: Two Went Up Into the Temple to Pray – Richard Crashaw

Two went to pray? O rather say
  One went to brag, th’ other to pray:

   One stands up close and treads on high,
  Where th’ other dares not send his eye.

   One nearer to God’s altar trod,
  The other to the altar’s God.

Music: The Pharisee in Me – Temitope

Firstfruits

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Gospel, holiness, Jesus, Mary, spirituality1 Comment

Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
August 15, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081524-Day.cfm

Christ has been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Corinthians 15:20

We celebrate Mary because of who she is in Christ, the firstfruits of a new and redeemed Creation. Mary is the one who bore these sacred firstfruits. Mothering Christ, she mothers too the gift of our Redemption.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We honor Mary whose simple life was translucent with faith. From that light, God took flesh and so redeemed us.

Poetry: The Assumption – Joachim Smet O.Carm

No painter ever caught the magic other going--
This was a matter of an inward growing,
Simple and imperceptible as thought.
It was no pageant wrought
Of sounding splendor, welter of gold bars
Of molten day, mad stars,
Flurry of quick angels' winging,
Bursts of their laughter ringing
In wild bliss.
The simple fact is this:
Love conquered at long last.
Her eager soul fled fast
With a great gladness like a song
Unto to her Spouse above,
And her pure flesh would not be parted long
For sheer love.

Music: Assumpta Est Maria

Latin Text

Assumpta est Maria in caelum,
gaudent angeli, laudantes benedicunt Dominum.
Gaudete et exsultate omnes recti corde.
Quia hodie Maria virgo cum Christo regnat in aeternum.

Quae est ista, quae progreditur
quasi aurora consurgens,
pulchra ut luna, electa ut sol,
terribilis ut castrorum acies ordinata?
Gaudete et exsultate omnes recti corde.
Quia hodie Maria virgo cum Christo regnat in aeternum.

ENGLSIH TEXT
Mary has been received into Heaven:
the angels rejoice with praises and bless the Lord.
Let all rejoice and be glad with righteous heart,
for today the Virgin Mary reigns with Christ for evermore.

Who is she that cometh forth
as the morning rising,
fair as the moon, bright as the sun,
terrible as an army set in array ?
Let all rejoice and be glad with righteous heart,
for today the Virgin Mary reigns with Christ for evermore.

Coin

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

Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 12, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081224.cfm

When he came into the house, before he had time to speak,
Jesus asked him, “What is your opinion, Simon?
From whom do the kings of the earth take tolls or census tax?
From their subjects or from foreigners?”
When he said, “From foreigners,” Jesus said to him,
“Then the subjects are exempt.
But that we may not offend them, go to the sea, drop in a hook,
and take the first fish that comes up.
Open its mouth and you will find a coin worth twice the temple tax.
Give that to them for me and for you.”
Matthew 17:25-27

Can you see Peter shaking the little fish until the coin popped out in his hand? Can you see his astounded face at this magical miracle? As we picture the scene, we may realize that there are miracles hidden in all Creation, in all experience if we can trust and seek the truth.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Jesus wants to teach us too, just as he taught Peter and encouraged his faith. We need to look around our lives and to seek the hidden miracles in our daily experience. Jesus may smile at our grateful astonishment, just as he smiled at Peter.

Poetry: The Temple Tax – William Merriman

I have the taste of money in my mouth.
The metallic tang covers my tongue,
As my throat unslackens and unlooses
Prayers, praises, verses, songs
With one hand raised to the altar,
And the other in my pocket.

You who drew the fish from the water
And withdrew the coins of copper 
From its consuming, biting teeth
To pay the price of entry—
Kill this mammon greed,
And, instead, Lord, enter me. 

Music: some lovely music as you think about spiritual “fishing”