Category: joy

Joyous Angels

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Advent, joy, Mary, spirituality1 Comment

Third Sunday of Advent
December 14, 2025

Is there a difference between happiness and joy? Walking through the Med-Surge ward, the chaplain juggled that question. He had just left Betty whose test results had proven benign. Her reaction still echoed in his mind. Like someone awaking from a bad dream, she had said, “I am almost afraid to be happy!” But John, just across the corridor, was beyond happiness. In the slow diminishment of a terminal illness, John had told the chaplain, “It seems strange, but I have never been so joyful. In the busyness of my life before this, I had never realized how much I was loved.”

Coming to joy, even in the midst of challenge, is the perfection of the spiritual life. This week’s readings offer a syllabus for that journey. We find two great biblical figures visited by angels. Mary welcomes her angel somewhere within the humble routine of her day. She seems almost to be expecting the visit, already to have prepared a place for the Surprise of God. Presented with astonishing news, she simply asks God’s methods before bowing in graceful accord. Zechariah, on the other hand, receives his angel in the reserved sanctuary of the Temple. This angel disrupts the practiced rituals stabilizing Zechariah’s faith. Zechariah is startled, skeptical – afraid to be happy.

During this week, as we listen to scripture’s angels, may we hear their call to joyous freedom. May we delight in the prophet Zephaniah’s image of God Who, replete with divine joy, sings over us with gladness. Each day, we are visited by angels. Will they find in us the advent-heart of Mary, open to the wonder of the Holy Spirit? Or will they find us petrified in practices and protocols born of fear? The core of all deep healing lies in this: can we help people find their joy? Can we find our own? The answer begins in the recognition that, despite any contradiction of circumstance, we are infinitely loved.

Music: Handel: The Triumph of Time and Truth, HWV 71:
“Guardian Angels, Oh, Protect me”

Guardian angels, oh, protect me,
And in Virtue’s path direct me,
While resign’d to Heav’n above.
Let no more this world deceive me,
Nor let idle passions grieve me,
Strong in faith, in hope, in love.
Guardian angels. . .

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Luke 1:26-38

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Extraordinary Days

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Advent, Hope, joy, Love, Mercy, Prayer, spirituality1 Comment

November 20, 2025

As we draw close to the Holy Season that will close our year, let’s welcome each final day as an extraordinary gift, grateful for the faith, hope, and love that sustain our lives.

Music: “Your Love” from “Once Upon A Time in the West” ” – by Ennio Morricone – performed by Hauser

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Reading: Lamentations 3:22-23

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A New Box of Crayons

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Faith, healing, joy, justice, spirituality4 Comments

September 7, 2025

You were a kid once, right? Well when I was a kid, one of the things I really loved about September was getting a new box of crayons. It was a chance to start fresh. It was an opportunity once more to make my contribution to the design of the world with renewed sharpness and depth. It was a beginning participation in the infinite cycle of experience and revitalization we call “Life”.

Our ability with crayons, like our ability with life, develops in stages. As toddlers, our first box of crayons may have been a small three-pack of the primary colors, thick enough for little fingers to grasp, bright enough to make a mark, and (if Mom was lucky) maybe washable! Like life, each year our box of crayons grew bigger with both vibrant and subtle colors, usually indelible, a lot like life itself.

We learned not only that things are rarely black and white. They are not often really red, blue or yellow. We learned that a wild red rose begins as a shy pink bud, just like some people do. We learned that a true blue friendship doesn’t just happen but has to be proven through many green seasons. We learned that what appears to be a yellow streak may really hide the aqua depths of a courageous peacemaker. Each of our experiences brings us a greater capacity and depth to express the power of our spirit as they add the nuances of color to our understanding of life.

On September 11, 2001, our nation and our world added a bruising violet to our box of crayons. As time passes, we are learning to use that painful color to deepen our capacity for courage, compassion, hope, and resolve. Sometimes we and our leaders do this well; sometimes poorly. Our civic and moral duty is to pursue universal peace and justice for all peoples; to contribute to the well-being of Earth and all who share her riches.

As we continue to color our world with meaning, God, Who holds our hand, renews us in grace. In that grace, we are invited to begin afresh. We have a new chance every day to make our lives and our world better — just as we did in our early Septembers with that new box of crayons.

Let’s pray for and encourage one another — especially as September 11th approaches. Let’s pray for those who were most profoundly wounded by the deep purple shadow that fell over all of us that day. Let’s pray for leaders who have the magnitude of heart and spirit to create a compassionate and just world. And let’s reach out in sincerity to one another every day, like we did as children– sharing the colors of hope, faith, and love.

Music: Colors – Black Puma

This song and video present a moving contradiction. The music is upbeat, suggesting happiness. But in the video, a family struggles with losing their home and living unhoused.
The video invites us to think about the counterbalance between struggle and joy, between justice and reality. Lyrics at end of page.

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Genesis 9:13

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[Verse 1: Eric Burton]
I woke up to the morning sky first
Baby blue, just like we rehearsed
When I get up off this ground, I shake leaves back down
To the brown, brown, brown, brown ’til I’m clean
Then I walked where I’d be shaded by the trees
By a meadow of green
For about a mile
I’m headed to town, town, town in style

[Chorus: Eric Burton with The Soul Supporters]
With all my favorite colors, yes, sir
All my favorite colors, right on
My sisters and my brothers see ’em like no other
All my favorite colors

[Post-Chorus: Eric Burton with The Soul Supporters]
It’s a good day to be, a good day for me
A good day to see my favorite colors, colors
My sisters and my brothers, they see ’em like no other
All my favorite colors

[Verse 2: Eric Burton]
Now take me to the other side
Little bitty blues birds fly
In gray clouds, or white walls, or blue skies
We gon’ fly, feel alright
And we gon’, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, yeah
They sound like ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, yeah
And the least I can say, I anticipate
A homecome parade as we renegade in the morning, right on

Photo by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto on Pexels.com

The Day After Labor Day

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Eternal Life, Faith, joy, Scripture, Seasons, spiritualityLeave a comment

September 2, 2025


On the day after Labor Day, our spirits change clothes. Maybe it’s because we all went to school for so long, but today we feel ready for challenging routine, daily discipline, studied preparation, and a chance to start fresh at the most important possibilities of our lives

This “psychological change of season” is an ancient and enduring reality. The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes, who lived 2500 years ago, tells us, “To everything there is a season…”.
Think of your inner seasons that change despite the calendar.

Winter and spring may indeed come to us in the same day, with a birth announcement in the mail and a death notice in the newspaper. Summer and autumn coexist with a Saturday afternoon pick-up basketball game and a strained muscle that reminds us of our age.

The great challenge of our lives is to live all our seasons with faith. They are a reflection of God’s own Nature which is ever ancient, ever new.

So these days, as the kids (and some of us!) start back to school, and the air cools ever so slightly, it might be a good time to ask God the questions that will help us “season” in grace:

  • What is it You are teaching me in this season of my life?
  • How can I reflect Your love by the way I live my winters and springs, my summers and autumns?

Music: Turn, Turn, Turn – Pete Seeger

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8

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Fresh Ground Pepper

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Hope, joy, Mercy, Seasons, spiritualityLeave a comment

September 1, 2025

September has barely poked its nose through the door, but already we see signs of Autumn. A slight gold shimmers on the trees. Geese gather in noisy expectation. Early morning sheds its night veil in slower layers of magenta and blue. There have even been a few sweet nights when we can open the windows wide and sleep in the suggestively crisp air. All the signs are there — it is a new season – “The Season of Freshness”.

“Fresh” is a powerful word. Who can resist the crisply-aproned waiter suggesting, “Fresh ground pepper?” Who can ignore the aroma of fresh baked bread? Some of us even remember with appreciation the scent of linens fresh from our mother’s clothesline.

Let this beautiful season remind us that each day the Creator shakes out a fresh beginning for every one of us. With every radiant morning, the slate is clear with mercy. The opportunity to re-create the world awaits us. Our lives, our work, our relationships are the fresh bread of God’s hope for us. Within them, we are invited to reveal the powerful grace which runs just under the visibility of the ordinary. It whispers to us, “You are Beloved, and I want your life to be a fountain of joy.”

September is for fresh beginnings: a sparkling season, an unmarked semester, a turning of the garden, a clean page. It is nature’s way of saying forgiveness is possible, life is resilient, hope is eternal. Imagine September as the white-aproned waiter inviting you to freshness. At the Creator’s table, the tablecloth is clean and the sacred menu is forgiveness, hope, mercy and renewed beginnings. Don’t miss this opportunity to assess what needs refreshment in your life. Feast on September’s graces! They can be life-changing!

Music: September Song – Alexis Ffrench

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Psalm 92

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A Gold and A Silver Voice

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Hope, joy, Scripture, spirituality7 Comments

July 27, 2025

Silver and Gold from the movie “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”

In the Spring of 2009, the “Voice of Philadelphia” passed away. Harry Kalas, long-time sports announcer for the Phillies and a commentator for NFL films, died suddenly just before the baseball game. Besides having a golden mellifluous voice, Harry was a good man. The outpouring of love and respect for him was huge.

At the same time, but on a much lighter note, Susan Boyle, a matronly, unassuming woman from a small Scottish village, blew the world away with her soul-stirring singing voice, debuted on Britain’s version of “American Idol”. Her voice is not just good – it is molten silver against the cold darkness. It is a rich and powerful contradiction to the whining nasality of so many willowy stars. It is a victorious testimony to the truism that you can’t tell a book by its cover.

I remember that these events left me thinking about the gift of our voices. This gift, like many others, is one we tend to take for granted. It is only when a voice we love is silenced that we truly appreciate how we had loved to hear it.

Six or seven years after my mother died, my brother Jim and I were playing some old videos of his kids, looking for clips for a graduation tribute. Unexpectedly, my mother appeared in one of the videos, talking to the children in her gentle, grandmotherly tones. Jim and I hadn’t heard that precious voice since Mom had died. We were stunned to tears with the sweet memory and the poignant loss.

The human voice is one of the clearest expressions of God’s Power. It can lift people into the light of hope and reassurance, or it can push them to the edge of despair. It can set someone on the path to self-worth, or it can crush them under the weight of a hasty, intolerant word. It can carve someone a way out of loneliness, or it can imprison them in their own exaggerated sense of difference. The voice can bless or it can curse.

We are powerful people who are sometimes wrapped in a paralysis of unawareness. Often, we don’t realize the power of our words or the force of our silence. Such powers demand and deserve our attention. Our words may never be repeated in tribute like Harry’s and Susan’s have been. But our words can rest forever in the recesses of someone’s heart. Someday — when they draw up that memory, the way my brother and I did — let them be holding silver and gold.

Music: Two songs for your enjoyment, certainly of different musical merit, but both very moving. Enjoy!

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Ephesians 5:19-20

Scripture

Life’s Slide

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Hope, joy, spirituality3 Comments

July 20, 2025

The old Hancock playground was a city kid’s oasis in a macadam desert.

When it opened in the 1950s, we flocked to it like thirsty birds. It allowed us to fly in new ways: long-chained swings that soared to eight feet at a strong clip; sturdy monkey bars that invited real acrobatic skills; a big, well-oiled roundabout and – best of all, a shiny metal sliding board.

The wonder of that equipment was that it responded to each child’s challenge and skill. A little boy could swing gently; a big girl could pump those long chains until they thrummed like yo-yo strings.

But the sliding board offered the most subtle and sometimes sinister challenges. Was it really a 10-foot climb to the top, or was I just that little? And did that shiny metal, on a hot July day, actually fry my skin?

On that steaming giant, there was never “fast enough”. We invented all kinds of formulae to increase slide speed: head first, legs up, jack-knifed. Some of us even carried a pocketful of mom’s waxed paper, polishing the incline to a cutthroat slipperiness. It was pure joy at its dumbest best and it was only God’s kindness that we didn’t kill ourselves!

As we live our lives, part of us never leaves the playground. At times, we are still a little child, barely moving on the swing. At times, we are the convoluted acrobat, struggling to complete the challenge. Sometimes, our lives whirl at a dizzying pace. And sometimes we get burned and bruised in our attempts.

Life of course, as the years pass, demands wiser approaches to its “ playground”. It’s called “maturity”. As I age, I find myself more cautious in both good and not-so-good ways. Certainly, I won’t be doing any sliding boards if I can help it. But what about the adventure of new thinking, new relationships, new generosities that build my community belonging?

What about the neglected reconciliations, forgivenesses, and repented procrastinations that will free my spirit for unexpected joy?

As I drove past the refurbished, plasticized Hancock today, that hot metal slide shone like a star in my memory. And I decided to put some waxed paper in my pocket– just as a reminder to still take a measure of abandoned fun on life’s slide.

Music: The Slide – The Rhythm Rockets

A Golden Oldie from the 50-60s to get the spirit moving today!

I got a dance that I’m doin’ today
It’s called The Slide
I saw ’em dancin’ in the down the road hideaway
This dance The Slide
It makes you hop, jump, feel okay
If you dance The Slide

Mm-mm-mm, slide, baby slide
Oh-oh-oh, I mean The Slide

The music picks you up and puts you low down
Makes you hop, jump, shake around
You don’t need to play big and bright
Better to do it in the cool of the night

Mm-mm-mm, slide, baby slide
Oh-oh-oh, I mean The Slide

There’s the guitar takin’ speed
Gives you some idea what you’re doin’ to me
The drum will follow and make that sound
Make you hop, shake and rock around

Mm-mm-mm, slide, baby slide
Oh-oh-oh, I mean The Slide

The music picks you up and puts you low down
Makes you hop, jump, shake around
You don’t need to play big and bright
Better to do it in the cool of the night

Mm-mm-mm, slide, baby slide
Oh-oh-oh, I mean The Slide

Mm-mm-mm, slide, baby slide
Oh-oh-oh, I mean The Slide

For Your Reflection

Although this is a somewhat lighthearted reflection, I hope it will touch something life-giving in your heart. It’s so important to retain our capacity to think “young”, to be childlike in our hope, to enjoy life without prejudice or fear, to “slide” with spiritual trust when a great opportunity presents itself!

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Mark 10:13-16

Scripture

Summer Nights

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, healing, Hope, joy, spirituality2 Comments

June 15, 2025

Summer Nights – Tom Barabas

A perfect summer night is a treasure, isn’t it? … the kind you remember from when you were a kid:
• cool enough to play for hours without sweat and exhaustion…
• the long light lingering until almost nine o’clock…
• the jingle of the ice cream truck tantalizing in the distance….

It would have been fine with me if those nights had lasted forever. But like childhood, such summer nights do not last.

The challenge is this: can we retain the spirit of those nights in the heat or chill that follows In the long seasons of our adult responsibilities and choices, can we invoke our free and joyful inner child?

I remember one June Saturday a few years ago. I sat concentrating by my open window as a warm breeze drifted in. The street outside bustled with the sounds of the busy inner city. Inside, my mind bustled with all the work I had to accomplish in the short weekend.

Suddenly, like gentle bells amid the noise, children’s laughter threaded into my seriousness. Their roller skates softly clacked across the hard concrete of my sidewalk and my awareness. I thought to myself, “When was the last time you experienced pure, childlike joy and freedom? — AND what are you going to do about it?”

There are a few tender summer nights left in 2025. Turn the TV off and go out to your patio or front step. Play with your children. Listen for the ice cream truck. Sit on the porch with someone you enjoy and just talk. Or sit alone in the grateful stillness with our Creator Whose best gift to us is joyful freedom – Whose own playful heart created the zebra, the giraffe, the flamingo, the Blue-footed Booby … and, yes, even us 🙂

We know all too well that we were created to work. Let’s remind ourselves that we were also created to play with the simplicity and sincerity of our remembered childhood.

Music: Like a Child

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Psalm 131

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Pimple Balls

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Creation, Faith, friendship, inclusivity, joy, peace, spirituality9 Comments

June 8, 2025

David Lanz – Return to the Heart

The neighborhoods of my youth were safe playgrounds. On a summer morning, a score of sparkling kids would tumble out onto the bricks like polished marbles rolling to their sparsely equipped games. Occasionally, some kid would have a new pimple ball, prompting an hours-long boxball game, guttered corners serving as bases.

When, over the weeks, that ball grew smooth and airless, we cut it in half, grabbed a doctored broomstick, and hit the halfball up over the electric wires fringing our city street. Top one wire, a single; top two, a double. Lose it on the roof and you had to find a four-inch length of hose to replace it. This until the next kid lost a tooth, got a dime from the tooth fairy, and contributed a new ball.

On those afternoons, the surrounding porches and stoops were dotted with grandparents in folding chairs, escaping the swelter of the unairconditioned houses. They served to arbitrate any particularly sticky play, precursors of instant replay. Behind the houses, our mothers held council together over their billowing clotheslines.

By the time our dads came home, carrying their empty black lunch pails, we shiny kids were dusty with city soot. The beach-chaired elders had solved all the problems of world affairs and our moms had rendered the house ready for the daily family dinner liturgy.

These were such simple times, so simple that they may seem even naïve in today’s complex society. But their symbols assure me that, though things change, they remain the same. The shared play, the community of conversation, the neighborly support group, the evening gathering to home – these were the holy anchors that fed our spirits and honed our souls.

The outline of these sacramentals may look different today, but their substance must remain if we are ever to be happy people – people who live in the world as playmates, neighbors, friends, and family. That, dear friends, is what we were created to be.

Music: Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Mark 12:28-29

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Happy?

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, joy, spirituality3 Comments

June 1, 2025

There was a quote floating around the internet some time ago. It was a loose translation from the classic poem “The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”. The quote, popularized through the film “Unfaithful”, goes like this:

“Be happy for this moment.
This moment is your life.”

There are so many ways to interpret this quote! We might see it as a cheap excuse to ignore the responsibilities of life and live in a fantasyland (along the lines of that famous song, “Don’t Worry. Be Happy”). We might see the quote as a failure to acknowledge the suffering and difficulty life sometimes brings us. Or we may see it as an invitation to let nothing in life destroy our joy.

How we interpret this saying has a lot to do with our personal definition of the word “happy.” If we think of happiness as freedom from any sorrow, burden, or difficulty, then the quote is unattainable. But if we view happiness as a deep, abiding peace and self-confidence, steadfast in the face of challenge, then the quote can open up a rich world of application.

With this deeper view of what it means to be happy, the quote invites us to live in our “now”. This particular moment is all that we really have. We can no longer influence the past, and the future is beyond our grasp. This moment is where we have the power to create possibility. In the action of this moment, we shape our world. Most of us won’t ever make the newspaper headlines or history books. Simple things – the things we need to pay attention to in our everyday lives – will make our mark on the world.

Each day, there seem to be so many realities asking for our attention. Certainly our families, our work, our communities are all seeking our focus. But other inanimate things call us as well: that undiagnosed knock in our car engine, the leak in the basement, the bad weather forecast, the unpaid bills on the kitchen table. All of these call on our attention, and can block us from living in the moment fully and joyously. But with discipline, it is possible.

We’ve all been around people who live in the deep moment. They pay exquisite attention to us, and to the life we share with all Creation. They seem able to peel away what is unimportant and to re-focus us on the essentials. They don’t do a lot of talking, but they do a lot of quality listening. When they speak, their words plant themselves inside us and create a sheltering shade for our decisions.

How do these “deep moment” people do that? The secret may lie in a few simple intentional choices:
• know to whom your life belongs and trust that Creator to sustain you no matter what happens.
• build some time – no matter how brief – into each day to acknowledge and connect to that Abiding Presence in your life.
• continually choose to see every person and every encounter as an opportunity for grace and possibility.

Living in such a way is simple but it is not easy. It requires the commitment of a spiritual athlete whose goal is to fully engage life. But look at it this way. Wouldn’t it be sad to come to the end of this one precious life and to realize that we had missed the whole point!

Music: Jesu, Joy of Our Desiring – J. S. Bach (New Age version by Lanfranco Perini)

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-9

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