Category: Mercy

Decant the New Wine

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, inclusivity, Jesus, Love, Mercy, peace, spirituality1 Comment

Friday, September 7, 2019

       Reading: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QbJaM_EneMw

Today, in Mercy, Jesus offers the Pharisees “new wine”, the freedom of his law of love over their accustomed law of requirements.

Lk5_38 Wine

Have you ever found yourself in circumstances where you’re saying or hearing things like this:

  • It’s the law
  • That’s the way we’ve always done it
  • Sorry. They’re the rules.
  • Doesn’t matter. No exceptions.

In such situations, we are experiencing a code of limitations where we are defined either by what we must do or must not do. 

The Pharisaical law had become such a code, its spirit and freedom worn away by ages of control, authoritarianism, and brittle institutionalization.

Jesus preaches the new law of love, which can sound a little squishy and self-indulgent at first, because our navel-gazing culture has so eviscerated the meaning of love.

But real Christian love is the hardest “code” we will ever practice. Patterned on Jesus’ life, it is a discipline of mercy, self-sacrifice, radical inclusivity, non-violence, and forgiveness. Such a love will die for the sake of the beloved’s life in God.

Drinking this “new wine” brings us a profound freedom in God Who loves us like this — but infinitely.

Music: New Wine – Hillsong

Our Breath within God’s Own

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, Mercy, spirituality, Thanksgiving3 Comments

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

          Readings:  http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/090418.cfm

Ps145_kindJPG

Today, in Mercy, we have an awesome first reading from Corinthians in which Paul assures us:

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.

What joy to realize that God’s own Spirit dwells within us making us one with God, breath within Breath. We have that intimate comfort of knowing God as our dearest Friend, Confidant, and Lover.

Nothing in our lives falls outside God’s embrace and compassion. God’s kindness, graciousness and lavish mercy sustain and inspire us always to believe, to hope, and to love.

In thanksgiving, we pray today’s most fitting Psalm 145.

Music: The Lord Is Kind and Merciful – Jeanne Cotter; David Haas

Faithful Servant

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Community, Courage, Faith, Love, Mercy, Prayer4 Comments

Thursday, August 30, 2018

     Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/083018.cfm

Mt. 24_25 faithful servant

Today, in Mercy, Jesus describes the faithful and prudent servant – the one who has devotedly overseen the master’s holdings in his absence. This faithful servant will have administered according to the master’s own example, and not for a moment divert into his own pursuits and entertainments.

Paul, in our first reading, offers a sublime prayer of thanksgiving for such servants in Corinth:

I give thanks to my God always on your account
for the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ Jesus…
so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift.
He will keep you firm to the end,
irreproachable on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is faithful, and by him you were called.

I am moved this morning to pray this prayer for our beloved Pope Francis, who is sorely tested by the sins and rivalries of the Church he cherishes. 

May God give our brother Francis the strength to lead according to Christ’s own example, keeping him strong and confident in God’s faithfulness. May each of us, too, shoulder our part in building up the Body of Christ in mutual love, mercy and justice.

Music: Great is Thy Faithfulness – sung by Chris Rice

A Stony Heart

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Faith, Mercy, repentance, spirituality2 Comments

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082318.cfm

Ez36_26 stone

Petrified! We’ve all been there:

  • an unexplained sound in the house at night
  • the suggestion of a traumatic diagnosis
  • a threat delivered by natural or human power

These are just some of the circumstances that come into our lives, causing us to freeze – to be unable to respond.

But there are internal forces too that immobilize us:

  • indecision
  • buried anger or pain
  • depression 
  • envy and jealousy 
  • self-doubt
  • addiction
  • all the seven “deadlies” in their multiple disguises

These conditions of the spirit have their root in fear – fear of making the wrong decision, of engaging someone who angers us, of not being successful or popular, of looking foolish, of confronting pain, of losing the things we have no hold on anyway, of being different, alone, or abandoned.

These immobilizers suck the life out of us, rendering us but a stony outline of the full and glorious spirit God intends us to be. They ensnare us and blind us to the depth and power of our hearts. Faith, hope and charity become brittle in us. We fragment, rather than thrive, in the normal challenges of living.

This happened to Israel as they yielded their allegiance to idols and sin. But our ever-merciful God says he is going to wash these numbing poisons out of their hearts, giving them new hearts to love and serve him.

Sometimes we are so used to our dysfunctions that we don’t even see all the petrified spots in our relationships and behaviors. Maybe today, trusting God’s promise of a new heart, we might be willing to examine ourselves for signs of stoniness toward God, Creation, and Self.

Music: Heart of Stone ~ David Bilborough

A Clean Heart

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Eternal Life, Mercy, Prayer, repentance2 Comments

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081818.cfm

Ps51_clean heart

Today, in Mercy, God tells Ezekiel that each person will be judged according to her/his own ways – not according to the deeds of our parents, family or friends.

In the Gospel, Jesus blesses the innocent children and says that those in the Kingdom of Heaven must be like them.

Most of us are a long way from innocence. We have our agendas, our politics, our status, our possessions, our grudges, our prejudices that often come between us and a spiritually pure heart.

If we want to be different, today’s Psalm 51 allows us to lay it all on the heart of Jesus.   Create in me a clean heart, O Lord.

(I hope you enjoy this gentle rendering of the psalm in Hebrew.)

Music: Choneni Elohim, from Psalm 51 (Be Gracious to me O G-d) ~ Christine Jackman

Is God Angry?

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Faith, Mercy, repentance, suffering3 Comments

Thursday, August 16, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081618.cfm

Mt 18_34 Angry

Today, in Mercy, our readings leave us wondering, “Can God get angry?” It’s hard for us, who think of God as Lavish Mercy, to imagine that God would be irrevocably angry with us.

Today’s readings are examples of the ways in which both the Hebrew prophets and Jesus tried to describe the Indescribable God in words we might understand. Sometimes in scripture we find an angry God, an impatient God, a frustrated God, a vengeful God- even a bullying God. All these stories make God seem very human. But God is not like us, just as many other scripture passages assure us.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9

What we do know for certain is that God is Love, because only Love could have breathed forth Creation. All the other descriptions are our imaginative struggles to comprehend how God might react to our human situation.

Today, as the news describes the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report on over 300 abusive priests, I cannot imagine how God is not heartbroken and angry. Can there be a greater sacrilege than the savaging of innocence by those proclaiming to sanctify it?

Let us pray for Mercy today for victims and survivors, that they may find some healing in the telling of their tragedies and the affirmation of their courage. 

Let us pray for ourselves, a broken Church, where an idolatrous “priesthood” has killed the image of Christ it was thought to represent, where the façade of trust lies dissolved in the tears of children, and the hope of transformation is elusive.

Let our spirits weep with the God of Love, and ask for Mercy to show us the way back to the pure heart of our faith.

Music: Mercy ~ Matthew Redman

I Will Carry You

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, Mercy, Prayer7 Comments

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Memorial of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Priest and Martyr

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081418.cfm

Today, in Mercy, Jesus tells us that he wants none of us to be lost. He wants that so much that he would leave the whole flock just to find us. That’s how precious we are to God.

Mt 18_14lamb

We’ve all felt lost to God at times – maybe through sorrow, depression, doubt, anger, distraction, self-absorption, laziness or a thousand other kinds of paralyses and sins.

We hear people – maybe ourselves – say, “I just can’t pray” or “I don’t have time to pray” or, “I’m too angry with God to pray.” Or, probably the most common excuse, “I’ll pray just as soon as I get everything else done.” Of course, we never get everything else done!

I think that sometimes we stray from God because we are afraid:

  • that our faith is not strong enough to receive God’s answer
  • that we are not good enough for God to love us
  • that we cannot measure up to honest relationship with the God of Truth

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us to get past our excuses and fears. He says, “Get up here on my shoulders and let me carry you. I already know all about your excuses and fears – and I love you beyond them. Let’s go home to God’s heart.”

Music: I Will Carry You ~ Sean Clive

The Scripture of Our Lives

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, Love, Mercy, spirituality2 Comments

Monday, August 13, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/081318.cfm

Ez1 boing

Today, in Mercy,  in our first reading, Ezekiel signals that something really important has happened. He does this by means of a prophetic word formula – repeated and patterned phrases found throughout the Bible. 

One pattern that we’re accustomed to is, “Amen, Amen, I say to you..” Jesus used it to say, “Listen up! Important info to follow!”

Another pattern is the specific setting of time and place to mark an event as pivotal. One such beloved phrase: “It came to pass in those days, that Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.

Ezekiel’s formulaic phrase is a marker in his spiritual life: 

On the fifth day of the fourth month of the fifth year,
that is, of King Jehoiachin’s exile,
The word of the LORD came to the priest Ezekiel…

If we look back over our own lives, we will remember moments when God clearly entered our experience. We may not have realized it until long after. We may be surprised to remember a point in time as the opportunity God took to embrace us. But through reflective prayer, we begin to see that God is with us, even in our darkest moments, bringing the revelation of God’s infinite Love and Mercy.

What if we filled in the blanks in Ezekiel’s formula with our own life markers? What if we thanked God for each of them, dark or light – asking for the grace to understand their revelation?

Each of our lives is its own scripture, telling the story of God’s love and presence. Spend time with yours today.

Music: God of All My Days ~ Casting Crowns

This Ancient Love

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

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/080818.cfm

Today, in Mercy,  our readings focus on the infinite mercy of God — the Lavish Mercy of God.

ancient love Jer 31_3

Jeremiah speaks God’s voice to the ancient Israelites, forgiving them, consoling them, encouraging them. He promises that, delivered from their captivity, they will rejoice and “come streaming into the Lord’s blessings”.

In our Gospel, even an outcast woman receives the mercy of Jesus. She received this for two reasons: her faith was both extraordinary and unrelenting for her daughter.

Both Israel and the Canaanite woman are in desolate situations. They are bereft of nearly everything but hope and faith. We may have felt like that sometimes. Certainly there are people throughout our world who feel like that today.

As we pray today, we can place any desolation we are carrying, and the desolation of suffering people across the world, into the open arms of God. God has and will always love us and, even though unseen, is guiding us to the fullness of life. May our faith be extraordinary and unrelenting.

Music: This Ancient Love ~ Carolyn McDade

Grandparents

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Faith, joy, Mercy, Uncategorized3 Comments

July 26, 2018 – Memorial of Sts. Anne and Joachim, Parents of Mary

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/072618.cfm

Today, in Mercy, we celebrate the grandparents of Jesus. Nothing is known of them from the Bible, but there are references in an apocryphal piece called the Gospel of James. There are also many legends surrounding this holy couple. But the fact is that we know little or nothing, for certain about them.

Ps36_ Anne _Joachim

We shape our conception of Anne and Joachim from what we know about their daughter, a woman of such profound goodness that she was the means for God to become one of us. We give them honor and devotion because of what we know about their grandson, Jesus.

Anne and Joachim, together with Mary and Joseph, formed the first, loving nuclear community that fostered the life of Jesus. Like all newborns, Jesus was given over by God into these human hands. What an awesome responsibility and privilege!

Let us pray today for all young children that they may be blessed with caring parents and grandparents. Let us pray especially for grandparents who carry a special kind of love to their grands, one filled with a generational wisdom, generous fidelity, and tempered mercy so necessary for a joyful life.

And, children, listen to your grands.  They really have seen it all, ridden the big waves of time.. really did – ahem – walk to school with the snow above their ears! They can be a fount of wisdom and love. Trust them! Respect them! Enjoy them!

Music: a children’s song, especially for the Grands among us. May Anne and Joachim bless you today!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=n2rZkvilaE0