Category: Jesus

Abundance

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Gospel, healing, Hope, Jesus, Mercy, spirituality1 Comment

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 28, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072824.cfm

Jesus said, “Have the people recline.”
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
“Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted.”
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves
that had been more than they could eat.
John 6:10-13

Today’s readings are about being fed – not only in a physical sense, but also in a spiritual sense. Jesus’s miracle with the loaves and fishes fed a lot of hungry people, but it more importantly opened their eyes to his power to redeem them. It gave them hope, the spiritual food for which we all hunger.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We realize that the same Lavish Mercy which fed those on the ancient hillside feeds and transforms us throughout our lives. As Paul indicates in the second reading, it makes us one in the infinite abundance of God’s grace and call.

May we therefore “live in a manner worthy of the call we have received.”

Poetry: When a Little Was Enough – Irene Zimmerman, OSF

“Send the people away from this deserted place
to find food and lodgings,” the
twelve urged Jesus,
“for the day is advanced and it is almost evening.”

Jesus looked at the crowd (there were about five thousand)
and looked at his disciples, still excited and tired
from their first mission journey.

What had they learned from
the villagers of Galilee
who shared bread and sheltered
them from cold night
winds?
What had they learned of human coldness
on the way?

He remembered the pain in his mother’s voice
as she told of his birth night when
they found no room
in all of Bethlehem, House of Bread.

 “You give them something to eat!” he said.

“We have only five loaves and two
fish!” they protested.
“How can we feed so many with so little?”
He understood their incredulity.

They had yet to learn that a little was enough
when it was all they had—
that God could turn these very stones to bread.

“Have the crowd sit down in
groups of fifty,” he said.
Jesus took the food and looked up to heaven.
He blessed it, broke it, gave it to the disciples
to distribute to the new-formed churches.

Afterwards, when everyone was satisfied,
 the twelve filled twelve baskets
of bread left over—
as faith stirred like yeast within them.

Music: I Am – by Finding Favor

While you were sleeping
While the whole world was dreaming
I never left your side
And I can promise I won’t be leaving

I watch you breathing
And I hear you singing
I feel your heart beat and I know every pain
That you’re feeling

And I am the comfort when you are afraid
I am the refuge when you call my name
I was, I’ll be, I am

I know you’re broken
You’re busted wide open
You’ve fallen to pieces and you feel there’s nothing left
You can hope in

But I’ll hold you together
We’ll stand the weather
Cause I paid the price for you
And I won’t let you go, no never

And I am the comfort when you are afraid
I am the refuge when you call my name
I was, I’ll be, I am

And I am the future, and I am the past
I am the first and I am the last
I was, I’ll be, I am

I am the Father, I am the Son
I am the Spirit, I am the One
I was, I’ll be, I am

And I wore the thorns and I took the nails
I am love, and love never fails
I was, I’ll be, I am
I am, I am, I am

Sought

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

Feast of Saint Mary Magdalene
July 22, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072224.cfm

The Bride says:
On my bed at night I sought him
whom my heart loves–
I sought him but I did not find him.
I will rise then and go about the city;
in the streets and crossings I will seek
Him whom my heart loves.
I sought him but I did not find him.
The watchmen came upon me,
as they made their rounds of the city:
Have you seen him whom my heart loves?
I had hardly left them
when I found him whom my heart loves.
Song of Songs 3:1-48

This exquisite poem from the Song of Songs captures the spirit of Mary Magdalen who, throughout her life, sought a deep and transformative relationship with God.

When she anointed his feet, when she relentlessly sought him at the tomb, Mary longed for the Presence of Jesus. When she found Him whom she had sought, this premier Apostle of the Resurrection preached the first Easter news to her companions.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We honor Mary Magdalen, so long mischaracterized in Church history. We ask to be inspired by her deep love of Jesus and resolute desire to be united with him.

Poetry: The Magdalen, a Garden, and This – Kathleen O’Toole

She who is known by myth and association
as sinful, penitent, voluptuous perhaps…
but faithful to the last and then beyond.

A disciple for sure, confused often with Mary,
sister of Lazarus, or the woman caught
in adultery, or she who angered the men

by anointing Jesus with expensive oils.
She was the one from whom he cast out seven
demons-she’s named in that account.

Strip all else away and we know only
that she was grateful, that she found her way
to the cross, and that she returned

to the tomb, to the garden nearby, and there,
weeping at her loss, was recognized,
became known in the tender invocation

of her name. Mary: breathed by one
whom she mistook for the gardener, he
who in an instant brought her back to herself-

gave her in two syllables a life beloved,
gave me the only sure thing I’ll believe
of heaven, that if it be, it will consist

in this: the one unmistakable
rendering of your name.

Music: I Know That My Redeemer Liveth – G. F. Handel

Shepherd

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

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 21, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072124.cfm

Today’s Alleluia Verse encapsulates the theme of all the readings:

My sheep hear my voice, says the Lord;
I know them, and they follow me.

John 10:27

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We LISTEN – one of the hardest things to do in life. Really listen – to what we hear with our ears, but more importantly, what we hear with our hearts. God is always speaking to us. May we listen.

Poetry: You, Neighbor God – Ranier Maria Rilkë

You, neighbor god, if sometimes in the night
I rouse you with loud knocking, I do so
only because I seldom hear you breathe
and know: you are alone.
And should you need a drink, no one is there
to reach it to you, groping in the dark.
Always I hearken. Give but a small sign.
I am quite near.

Between us there is but a narrow wall,
and by sheer chance; for it would take
merely a call from your lips or from mine
to break it down,
and that without a sound.

The wall is builded of your images.

They stand before you hiding you like names.
And when the light within me blazes high
that in my inmost soul I know you by,
the radiance is squandered on their frames.

And then my senses, which too soon grow lame,
exiled from you, must go their homeless ways.

Music: The Lonely Shepherd – Gheorghe Zamfir

Reed

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Mercy, spirituality2 Comments

Saturday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 20, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072024.cfm

Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved in whom I delight;
I shall place my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.
He will not contend or cry out,
nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.
A bruised reed he will not break,
a smoldering wick he will not quench,
until he brings justice to victory.
And in his name the Gentiles will hope.
Matthew 12:18-21 (cited from Isaiah 42:1-4

This beautiful passage, that focuses on the gentleness of the Messiah, comforts our spirits. But it also calls us to imitate that gentleness with those most in need of it.

The example Jesus offers us is not popular in our often violent world. It is hard to live in its courageous imitation. But it matters that we do.

“The modern world’s feverish struggle
for unbridled, often unlicensed, freedom
is answered by the bound, enclosed
helplessness and dependence of Christ—
Christ in the womb,
Christ in the Host,
Christ in the tomb.”

― Caryll Houselander, The Reed of God

Poetry: A Bruised Reed Shall He Not Break – Christina Rossetti

I will accept thy will to do and be,
Thy hatred and intolerance of sin,
Thy will at least to love, that burns within
And thirsteth after Me:
So will I render fruitful, blessing still,
The germs and small beginnings in thy heart,
Because thy will cleaves to the better part.—
Alas, I cannot will.
Dost not thou will, poor soul? Yet I receive
The inner unseen longings of the soul,
I guide them turning towards Me; I control
And charm hearts till they grieve:
If thou desire, it yet shall come to pass,
Though thou but wish indeed to choose My love;
For I have power in earth and heaven above.—
I cannot wish, alas!
What, neither choose nor wish to choose? and yet
I still must strive to win thee and constrain:
For thee I hung upon the cross in pain,
How then can I forget?
If thou as yet dost neither love, nor hate,
Nor choose, nor wish,—resign thyself, be still
Till I infuse love, hatred, longing, will.—
I do not deprecate.

Music: A Bruised Reed by Charlie and Jill LeBlanc

Beautiful images despite a somewhat monotonous melody.

Woe

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

Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071624.cfm

Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
Matthew 11:20-21

Chorazin and Bethsaida were privileged. They had been blessed to see God’s power miraculously displayed in Jesus. And yet they failed to believe! How can that be? Hard-heartedness? Stupidity?

I think that, more likely, it was fear – the woeful condition that holds us back from giving ourselves to the truth. What would be required of them if they believed? What changes would they have to make in their lives? How would their comfortable world be turned upside-down?

Repentance: that would be the fruit of faith in Jesus. Many of them just couldn’t face it.

Today in God’s Lavish Mercy:

How committed is my faith? How is the Truth of Jesus alive in my life? What repentance, large or small, do I need to offer God?

Poetry: Savior – Maya Angelou

Petulant priests, greedy
centurions, and one million
incensed gestures stand
between your love and me.

Your agape sacrifice
is reduced to colored glass,
vapid penance, and the
tedium of ritual.

Your footprints yet
mark the crest of
billowing seas but
your joy
fades upon the tablets
of ordained prophets.

Visit us again, Savior.
Your children, burdened with
disbelief, blinded by a patina
of wisdom,
carom down this vale of
fear. We cry for you
although we have lost
your name.

Music: Calling – Masako, Ackerman, Eaton

Peace

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Cross, Discipleship, Gospel, Jesus, justice, Mercy, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
July 15, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071524.cfm

Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.
Matthew 10:34-36

I would not have liked hearing these words from Jesus, would you? The last thing I would have ever wanted was to be set against my precious mother! So WHAT is Jesus talking about?

These words are central to Christ’s mandate to his disciples. He is telling them that they will inevitably meet painful conflict while living out his mission. Sometimes the conflict will even be within their families and among their friends.

This is because God’s Peace is not quiet indifference but the striving for just equanimity for all people. This is the sword of discipleship – we must cut ourselves away from anything that turns us from a just and merciful God.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy,
We pray for graced insight that we may see where the sword is pointing in our lives, and for courage that we may do the necessary cutting to be worthy disciples and build an honest peace in our world.

Poetry: Swords Into Plowshares – Daniel Berrigan, SJ
This poem was written in response to the conviction of the Plowshares Eight, of whom Berrigan was a member, for their civil disobedience against nuclear war.

Everything enhances, everything
gives glory—everything!

Between bark and bite
Judge Salus’s undermined soul
betrays him, mutters
very alleluias.

The iron cells—
Row on row of rose trellised
Mansions, bridal chambers!

Curses, vans, keys, guards—behold
the imperial lions of our vast acres!

And when hammers come down
and our years are tossed to four winds—

why, flowers blind the eye, the saints
pelt us with flowers!

For every hour
scant with discomfort
(the mastiff’s baleful eye,
the bailiff’s mastery)—

see, the Lord’s hands heap
eon upon eon,
like fruit bowls at a feast.

Music: Go Light Your World – Chris Rice

Mystery

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Love, spirituality2 Comments

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 14, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071424.cfm

In all wisdom and insight, God has made known to us
the mystery of the Divine Will in accord with the favor
set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of times,
to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.
Ephesians 1:9-10

In this tiny passage from Ephesians, Paul describes infinite realities – that our Creator has shared with us a Divine Mystery that we will never fully understand in this life. The Mystery has been embodied in the life and Person of Jesus Christ so that we may see and imitate what Divine Love looks like. That alignment with Love is the Will of our God for us.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We ask that our simple faith may open itself to the Mystery of God’s Love. God is not a problem to be solved. Nor are God’s ways fully comprehensible to us. But Jesus has lived Love in our midst so that we can see the only thing we need to understand.

Poetry: Love’s Choice – Malcolm Guite

This bread is light, dissolving, almost air,
A little visitation on my tongue,
A wafer-thin sensation, hardly there.
This taste of wine is brief in flavour, flung
A moment to the palate’s roof and fled,
Even its aftertaste a memory.
Yet this is how He comes. 
Through wine and bread
Love chooses to be emptied into me.
He does not come in unimagined light
Too bright to be denied, too absolute
For consciousness, too strong for sight,
Leaving the seer blind, the poet mute;
Chooses instead to seep into each sense,
To dye himself into experience.

Music: The Mystery – Michael Card and John Michael Talbot

Could you be findin’ the mystery
You have been lookin’ for
A kingdom where servants will come to be kings
Are you lookin’ for
And you’ll know
That the sweet paradoxes unfold
And the mystery will clearly show
And you’ll know
And you’ll know

Jesus, paint my life
(Could you be findin’ the mystery)
Jesus, paint my life
(Could you be findin’ the mystery)
Jesus, paint my life
(Could you be findin’ the mystery)

And we know You are the Master of painters
Comin’ the true Prince of Peace
And we know You are the Tue Creator
Comin’ the King of kings

Jesus, paint my life with charity
Paint my life with mercy
Paint my life

Can you be the light of the world
Can you be the light
Then take the light that’s given to you
Can you be the light

Can you give your love to the world
Can you give your love
Take the love that’s given to you
Can you give your love

Jesus, paint my life with charity
Paint my life with mercy
Paint my life
Paint my life

At Hand

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Mercy, spirituality4 Comments

Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 10, 2024

Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation:
‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
Matthew 10: 5-7

In this passage, Jesus is concerned with those who were offered faith in One God but have lost touch with it — “lost sheep of the house of Israel”. He wants these lost believers to be given the message, “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

While the message conveys a sense of urgency (Hurry up and get your act together), it also offers a calming security. When something is “at hand”, we can touch it. We can hold on to it for balance. We can feel support and accompaniment as we we hold hands with a Loving Presence.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We may hear Jesus’s words either as a warning or an invitation to intimacy. Love is at hand for us, even if our faith has become distracted and our direction “lost”. We are invited to reach out to the God Who waits for us.

Poetry:

“The Beloved is with you in the midst of your seeking!
God holds your hand wherever you wander.

Rumi

Music: Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand – Jennie Bain Wilson (1857) Sung here by Lynda Randle

Time is filled with swift transition,
Naught of earth unmoved can stand,
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

Refrain:
Hold to God’s unchanging hand,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand;
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.


Trust in Him who will not leave you,
Whatsoever years may bring,
If by earthly friends forsaken
Still more closely to Him cling.

When your journey is completed,
If to God you have been true,
Fair and bright the home in glory
Your enraptured soul will view.

Splancha

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Forgiveness, healing, Jesus, Love, Mercy, spirituality2 Comments

Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 9, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070924.cfm

Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness.
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 9:32-38

Have you ever felt your heart constrict or your belly drop in the face of deep sadness or shock? If so, you have felt “splancha”, the Greek word for that profound compassion that wells up from our innards for the sake of a suffering person.

Matthew tells us that Jesus felt “splancha” for the crowds because they were troubled and abandoned. They had lost their way to God and had no one to help them find it. Thus he reaches out to heal and teach them about God’s Lavish Mercy.

Today, in that same Lavish Mercy:
By the grace of God may we,
and all who are in need of grace,
be healed of trouble and abandonment
to find our way to God
through the Mercy of Jesus.

Poetry: Mercy by John F. Dean

Unholy we sang this morning, and prayed
as if we were not broken, crooked
the Christ-figure hung, splayed
on bloodied beams above us;
devious God, dweller in shadows,
mercy on us;
immortal, cross-shattered Christ—
your gentling grace down upon us.

Music: Merciful God – The Gettys and Stuart Townend

Fresh

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

Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070624.cfm

The disciples of John approached Jesus and said,
“Why do we and the Pharisees fast much,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn
as long as the bridegroom is with them?
The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast.
No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth,
for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.
People do not put new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.
Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.”
Matthew 9:14-17

Jesus tells the Baptist’s questioning disciples that his is a new world. The confines of the Old Law will no longer contain the new grace of the Paschal Mystery and the Gospel.

Old wineskins become brittle with overuse. The analogy is applicable to many realities in life. Often, as time passes, we pay less attention to some important things or people. We may take them for granted, over-depend on their effectiveness, fail to effectively communicate, surrender to that famous “contemptuous familiarity”.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Immobilizing constriction can affect our faith too. Jesus encourages us to keep faith “fresh” by prayer, communal reflection, and practice. Neither our personal nor our communal faith is static. Grace offers us the invitation to become ever deeper in our understanding of God. The current Synodal process within the Catholic Church is a wonderful example of openness to fresh, new “wineskins” for our faith.

Poetry: Wine Skins – Evelyn McNulta
This is a simple poem with devout sentiments, but what struck me most about it is where I found it – in a public newspaper, The Atlanta Chronicle.
The poem reminded me of a poet some of my older local readers might remember – James Metcalfe. His “Daily Poem Portraits” were published in The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin during the 1950s. They were a great favorite of my Dad.

My hands are uplifted in homage to Him,
They're not empty.
They hold loosely those sins that cause separation
of His spirit and mine.

Dear Father, take them and fill me with new wine.
The wine skins of my life are brittle and hard,
They can't hold your new wine because they are marred.
Please replace them with supple new skins

That can be distended again and again.
These wine skins are vessels that hold Your concerns,
Help me remember the things I have learned.
The more I am emptied of selfish desires,

The more You can cleanse me with Your cleansing fire.
You'll burn away malice, ill-temper and greed,
And open my eyes to Your people in need.
You'll put unforgiveness also in Your fire,

And fill my heart with the burning desire
To worship, to honor, to praise Your dear name.
Your new wine remakes hearts, they're never the same.
Take mine, Holy Father, change what you will,

I'm nothing without You, I need You to fill
Each crevice, and corner and nook of my heart.
There's much to be changed, I'm asking, please start.

Music: Fall Afresh on Me