Category: Poetry
Psalm 130: The Depths
Friday of the First Week of Lent
February 26, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 130, the De Profundis. This is a transformative prayer whose power we may not fully realize.
Have you ever been disappointed with God? Have you ever let God know it in your prayer?
Psalm 130 is the psalmist’s complaint to God that things are as bad as they can get and God doesn’t appear to care. It is a plea – even a demand- for God to pay attention and do something. (See my poem, sent a little later, called “These Things”.)
Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
LORD, hear my voice!
Let your ears be attentive
to my voice in supplication.
But Psalm 130 is not just a private complaint. As well as being a penitential psalm, 130 is marked as a “Psalm of Ascent”. This means that it was sung by the community as they went to the Temple to worship.
Psalm 130 carries the tone of a national or global lament. It has the feeling of a deeply bruised people bearing a desperate hope mixed with some bewilderment. It is a feeling we all recognize.
Yesterday in my neighborhood, we had our first hint of spring weather. On a short walk, I met a few people whose winter-weary eyes, above their masks, held a spark of resurrection hope.
With distribution of COVID vaccines, hope for deliverance from the pandemic surfaces like a tentative bud. We are starting the slow ascent from the depths we have all shared. We are on our way to the temple of thanksgiving and praise.
But Psalm 130 reminds that, on that ascent, fully voicing our lament is imperative for true healing. In reference to the pandemic, and to any other devastation we face in life, we must be honest with God about our fear, confusion, sadness, hopelessness, and shaken faith … about our disappointment in God, our splintered expectations which need healing.
If you, O LORD, mark iniquities,
LORD, who can stand?
It is only by asking God how these things – whatever they might be – could be allowed to happen to us, or to any of God’s beloved, that we will open ourselves to the Divine answer – a mystery too deep for words.
I trust you, LORD;
my soul trusts in your word.
My soul waits for you
more than sentinels wait for the dawn.
Let me wait for the LORD.
Such prayer heals, leading us to a deeper, truer relationship with God.
For with the LORD is kindness
and plenteous redemption;
And the Lord will redeem Israel
from all their suffering and sin.
Poetry: Spring – Mary Oliver
Somewhere a black bear has just risen from sleep and is staring down the mountain. All night in the brisk and shallow restlessness of early spring I think of her, her four black fists flicking the gravel, her tongue like a red fire touching the grass, the cold water. There is only one question: how to love this world. I think of her rising like a black and leafy ledge to sharpen her claws against the silence of the trees. Whatever else my life is with its poems and its music and its cities, it is also this dazzling darkness coming down the mountain, breathing and tasting; all day I think of her – her white teeth, her wordlessness, her perfect love.
Music: Pié Jesu – Michael Hoppé
Psalm 23: The Shepherd
Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle
February 22, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, on this Feast of St. Peter we pray with Psalm 23 – the Good Shepherd.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psalm 23
In verdant pastures I am given repose;
Beside restful waters the Lord leads me;
refreshing my soul.
The history and devotion intrinsic to this feast can inspire us to pray especially today for our dear Pope Francis who carries Peter’s grace and burden in our time. He carries, in Primacy, the charge reflected in our first reading:
Tend the flock of God in your midst,
overseeing not by constraint but willingly,
as God would have it, not for shameful profit but eagerly.
Do not lord it over those assigned to you,
but be examples to the flock.
And when the chief Shepherd is revealed,
you will receive the unfading crown of glory.
Pope Francis faces resistances just as Peter did. There are always forces within a community who pull its energy in contradictory directions. When rooted in love and reverent dialogue, that counteraction can generate growth. But when born of selfishness and obstinance, such opposition poisons the whole Body.
Francis needs our prayer. The Church needs our prayer. According to Teresa of Avila, Saint and Doctor of the Church, that prayer should be scriptural:
All the troubles of the Church,
St. Teresa of Avila
all the evils in the world,
flow from this source:
that human beings do not
by clear and sound knowledge
and serious consideration
penetrate into the truths
of Sacred Scripture.
Today, Psalm 23 inspires our prayer for our Pope:
Even in the dark valley
may you fear no evil; for you are at God’s side
Whose rod and staff
give you courage.
May God spread graces before you
in the sight of your troubles;
and anoint your head with oil;
your cup overflowing.
May goodness and kindness follow you
all the days of your life;
May you dwell in the LORD’s sanctuary
for all your days.
Poetry: When I was a boy … (Da ich ein Knabe war …) – Friedrich Hölderlin
Pope Francis’s favorite poet is said to be the German writer Friedrich Hölderlin. Perhaps Francis, composer of the lyrical Laudato Sí and Fratelli Tutti, loves this rhapsodic poem.
When I was a boy Often a god would save me From the shouts and blows of men; I played safely and well With the flowers of the fields And the winds of heaven Played with me. As you make happy The hearts of plants When they extend to you Their delicate tendrils, So you make my heart happy, Father Sun, and like Endymion I was your favorite, Holy Moon! All true and neighborly gods! If only you knew How much I loved you then! True, at that time, I didn’t Know your names, and you Never bothered to name me, like men Who only pretend to know one another. Yet I know you better Than I’ve ever known anyone, I understood the silence of the upper air, But I’ve never understood the words of men. I was raised by the sounds Of the rustling grove And learned to love Among the flowers. I grew up in the arms of the gods.
Music: Psalm 23 with Bach’s Sheep May Safely Graze
Psalm 86: Lean to Me, Lord
Saturday after Ash Wednesday
February 20, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 86, a very personal prayer. The kingdom, the nation, the people are not mentioned. It is a plea from one aching heart to its merciful God.
Each one of us has been that person on occasion. We may not have employed the exact words of Psalm 86, but we have prayed its sentiments in our own way.
For me, that prayer is grounded in two powerful verbs, intimate requests made to a God Who might otherwise seem distant in our times of trouble.
Incline and Harken
Let’s just walk and talk with our listening God today. Feel God bend near to listen. Listen in return.
Poetry: Listen, can you hear it? by Rabindranath Tagore
Listen, can you hear it? God’s bamboo flute speaks the pure language of love. The moon enlightens the trees, the path, the sinuous River. Oblivious of the jasmine's scent I stagger around, disheveled heart bereft of modesty, eyes wet with angst and delight. Tell me, dear friend, say it aloud: is God not my own Dark Lord? Is it not my name God’s flute pours into the empty evening? For eons I longed for God, I yearned to know the Holy One. That's why God has come to me now, deep emerald Lord of my breath. O Lord, whenever your faraway flute thrills through the dark, I say your name, only your name, and will my body to dissolve in your luminous River. Hear me, Lord, in this moment. What's stopping you? The earth drowns in sleep. Let's go. I'll walk with you, talk with you.
Music: O Lord, Hear My Prayer – Taize
Psalm 51: In Accord with Your Merciful Love
Friday after Ash Wednesday
February 19, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 51, that magnificent penitential psalm which is one of only seven among the 150. The psalm, set between two readings that do with fasting, suggests that what we should “fast” from is sin.
Some interpreters attribute the psalm to David, deeply repentant after his treacherous acts toward Uriah and Bathsheba. Others say that this was a subsequent assignation because the psalm so fit the incident.
Whatever the case, Psalm 51 gives of us a picture of someone profoundly aware of failure in faithfulness to God – not just a sin against another human being, but against God.
For I acknowledge my offense,
Psalm 51:5-6
and my sin is before me always:
“Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight.”
Still, coupled with this aching repentance
is the absolute conviction
of God’s superseding Mercy.
Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
Psalm 51: 3-4
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
The psalmist has a large, lyrical notion in mind:
that God should take the scattered, chaotic, failed self that he is,
and out of it form a new, restored self.
The movement from failed self to restored self
is a gift asked of God in confidence.
Walter Brueggemann: From Whom No Secrets Are Hid
Praying with this psalm, the symbol of an arrow came to mind. You might have noticed the symbol recently on Valentines Day, used to describe the power of love to engage the heart.
But if the arrow is broken, how will it be made whole again?
Lord, you will open my lips;
Psalm 51:17-19
and my mouth will proclaim your praise.
For you do not desire sacrifice or I would give it;
a burnt offering you would not accept.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a contrite, humbled heart, O God, you will not scorn.
On this Lenten journey,
may we bring contrite hearts
– our “broken arrows” –
to God,
asking to recognize our failures in love
and to repent sincerely of them.
Poetry: Possible Answers to Prayer by Scott Cairns
Your petitions—though they continue to bear
just the one signature—have been duly recorded.
Your anxieties—despite their constant,
relatively narrow scope and inadvertent
entertainment value—nonetheless serve
to bring your person vividly to mind.
Your repentance—all but obscured beneath
a burgeoning, yellow fog of frankly more
conspicuous resentment—is sufficient.
Your intermittent concern for the sick,
the suffering, the needy poor is sometimes
recognizable to me, if not to them.
Your angers, your zeal, your lipsmackingly
righteous indignation toward the many
whose habits and sympathies offend you—
these must burn away before you’ll apprehend
how near I am, with what fervor I adore
precisely these, the several who rouse your passions.
Music: Broken Arrow – Let God turn your whole world around in this song by Rod Stewart
Who else is gonna bring you a broken arrow Who else is gonna bring you a bottle of rain There he goes moving across the water There he goes turning my whole world around Do you feel what I feel Can we make it so that's part of the deal I gotta hold you in these arms of steel Lay your heart on the line this time I want to breathe when you breathe When you whisper like that hot summer breeze Count the beads of sweat that cover me Didn't you show me a sign this time Who else is gonna bring you a broken arrow Who else is gonna bring you a bottle of rain There he goes moving across the water There he goes turning my whole world around, around Do you feel what I feel Do you feel what I feel Ah can you see what I see Can you cut behind the mystery I will meet you by the witness tree Leave the whole world behind I want to come when you call I'll get to you if I have to crawl They can't hold me with these iron walls We got mountains to climb, to climb Who else is gonna bring you a broken arrow Who else is gonna bring you a bottle of rain There he goes moving across the water There he goes turning my whole world around Turning my whole world around Turning my whole world around
Psalm 1: Aligned to God
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
February 18, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 1, a familiar reminder of what a working relationship with God looks like:
Blessed the one who follows not
Psalm 1:1-2
the counsel of the wicked
Nor walks in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the company of the insolent,
But delights in the law of the LORD
and meditates on God’s law day and night.
The phrases in that little verse are so powerful!
We have seen all too clearly what happens when people “follow the counsel of the wicked”. We know how easily we can be infected by the negativity of “the insolent”. There is a spiritual distemper in us when these fractious humors fill the atmosphere.
Instead, we seek the peace and delight of being right with God. We embrace God’s law as a support and inspiration to guide us.
When we think of God’s Law, we might rightly think of the Commandments, the Beatitudes, the Torah, the Gospel – those places where we find the Law codified in words.
But we might also think of God’s Law as that silent omnipotent force that lifts the sun from darkness and sets it down again, that holds the seas in their global bowl, that lights the night with fiery stars.
Affinity with God’s Law is that loving practice which, by intrinsic prayer and reflection, gives over every moment of our lives to God’s order. That alignment, rooting us in God’s “due season”, allows goodness to blossom in us like a fruitful tree – an unfading, abundant harvest …
Like a tree
Psalm 1:3
planted near running water,
That yields its fruit in due season,
and whose leaves never fade,
ever prospering.
Poetry: Onto a Vast Plain – Rainer Maria Rilke
Listen. You are not surprised at the force of the storm— you have seen it growing. The trees flee. Their flight sets the boulevards streaming. And you know: he whom they flee is the one you move toward. All your senses sing him, as you stand at the window. The weeks stood still in summer. The trees’ blood rose. Now you feel it wants to sink back into the source of everything. You thought you could trust that power when you plucked the fruit: now it becomes a riddle again and you again a stranger. Summer was like your house: you know where each thing stood. Now you must go out into your heart as onto a vast plain. Now the immense loneliness begins. The days go numb, the wind sucks the world from your senses like withered leaves. Through the empty branches the sky remains. It is what you have. Be earth now, and evensong. Be the ground lying under that sky. Be modest now, like a thing ripened until it is real, so that he who began it all can feel you when he reaches for you.
Music: How Deep, How Simple – Kathryn Kaye
Psalm 29: Holy Attire
Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
February 16, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 29 which describes the settling of peace over an ended storm.
The voice of the LORD is over the waters,
Psalm 29:3
the LORD, over vast waters.
The voice of the LORD is mighty;
the voice of the LORD is majestic.
This gift of peace invites the psalmist to give glory to the Lord, and to do so in a celebratory manner:
Give to the LORD the glory due his name;
Psalm 29:4
adore the LORD in holy attire.
Reading this little verse this morning, I was reminded of my novitiate days. What a profound joy and thrill it was for me to receive the habit of the Sisters of Mercy. I count myself fortunate to have entered just in time to wear the original habit – just for fourteen months before we adopted a modified style.
Each morning as we dressed, we said a specific prayer over each component of the habit. The prayers were beautiful and served to orient us to the duties and blessings of the day.
Psalm 29 reminds us to give thanks for our blessings – and our challenges – as we begin and end each day. But it specifically says that we should clothe ourselves in “holy attire” as we pray. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul describes such attire:
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,
Colossians 3:12-15
clothe yourselves with heartfelt mercy,
Kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
Bear with one another
and forgive any complaint
you may have against another.
Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.
And over all these virtues put on love,
which is the bond of perfect unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,
for to this you were called as members of one body.
And be thankful.
Poem: She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron
May we walk, attired in the beauty of God’s Grace and peace.
She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies. One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o’er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express, How pure, how dear their dwelling-place. And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!
Music: Because You Are Chosen – John Michael Talbot
Because you are chosen
Called to be holy
Because you are the Lord’s beloved
You must clothe yourself with kindness
With heartfelt mercy
In the meekness of humility
So bear you now with one another
And forgive as the Lord’s forgiven you
Over all these virtues
Bind them all together
In the Love of our Lord Jesus
Over all these virtues
Bind them all together
In the Love of our Lord Jesus
Over all these virtues
Bind them all together
In the Love of our Lord Jesus.
Psalm 50: Love Bears Sacrifice
Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
February 15, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 50, set as a scene from a court proceeding. That seems rather appropriate after watching the impeachment proceedings, doesn’t it!
Psalm 50 is written to evoke the imagery of trial in which God calls all Creation as witnesses.
God the LORD has spoken and summoned the earth,
Psalm 50: 1
from the rising of the sun to its setting.
God expresses displeasure to the people about two specific things.
- The substance of their sacrifices:
Offer praise as your sacrifice to God;
Psalm 50: 15-16
fulfill your vows to the Most High.
Then call on me on the day of distress;
I will rescue you, and you shall honor me.
2. Their blatant hypocrisy:
But to the wicked God says:
Psalm 50: 17-18
“Why do you recite my commandments
and profess my covenant with your mouth?
You hate discipline;
you cast my words behind you!
in judgement, God requires a conversion in the people:
Now understand this, you who forget God,
Psalm 50:23
lest I start ripping apart and there be no rescuer.
The psalm’s imagery was no doubt effective for its first listeners because they, like us, had witnessed many a court proceeding that was all about “law” but very little about justice. They recognized hypocrisy clothed in pretense, even in themselves.
God, on the other hand speaks clearly about truth and justice:
Those who offer praise as a sacrifice honor me;
Psalm 50: 24
I will let him whose way is steadfast
look upon the salvation of God.
Praise is the prayer of a humble, aware, truthful, and obedient spirit. Our Gospel verse instructs us that we learn how to offer a sacrifice of praise by living in the pattern of Jesus:
I am the way and the truth and the life, says the Lord;
John 14:6
no one comes to the Father except through me.
Poetry: Praise Song for the Day by ELIZABETH ALEXANDER
A Poem for Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration Each day we go about our business, walking past each other, catching each other’s eyes or not, about to speak or speaking. All about us is noise. All about us is noise and bramble, thorn and din, each one of our ancestors on our tongues. Someone is stitching up a hem, darning a hole in a uniform, patching a tire, repairing the things in need of repair. Someone is trying to make music somewhere, with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum, with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice. A woman and her son wait for the bus. A farmer considers the changing sky. A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin. We encounter each other in words, words spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed, words to consider, reconsider. We cross dirt roads and highways that mark the will of some one and then others, who said I need to see what’s on the other side. I know there’s something better down the road. We need to find a place where we are safe. We walk into that which we cannot yet see. Say it plain: that many have died for this day. Sing the names of the dead who brought us here, who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges, picked the cotton and the lettuce, built brick by brick the glittering edifices hey would then keep clean and work inside of. Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day. Praise song for every hand-lettered sign, the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables. Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself, others by first do no harm or take no more than you need. What if the mightiest word is love? Love beyond marital, filial, national, love that casts a widening pool of light, love with no need to pre-empt grievance. In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air, any thing can be made, any sentence begun. On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp, praise song for walking forward in that light.
Music: Total Praise – Richard Smallwood
I just love this hymn and this choir!
Lord, I will lift my eyes to the hills Knowing my help is coming from You Your peace You give me in time of the storm You are the source of my strength You are the strength of my life I lift my hands in total praise to You You are the source of my strength You are the strength of my life I lift my hands in total praise to You Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen You are the source of my strength You are the strength of my life I lift my hands in total praise to You Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen
Psalm 90: A Most Beautiful Prayer
Saturday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
February 13, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 90, one of my favorites.
The psalm is so rich that it really needs no help to engage our prayer. But if you would like to pray with these, here are links to earlier reflections on Psalm 90.
Or, you might instead, wish to pray simply with the beautiful transliteration below and/or with one of these lovely pieces of music.
Poetry: Psalm 90 Life and Death - Christine Robinson We have come out of the Earth and to the Earth we return Our lives are but a flash in the light of Eternity. We are like beautiful flowers which live only a day. We might live 70 years—more if our strength holds. So much work and hardship! How quickly the time passes. Teach us then, to value our days to treat each one as a sacred trust. Fill our hearts with wisdom. and a love for our lives. In spite of all the grief and suffering May we be always glad of this precious gift And hallow the good in each day.
Music: Two selections today
- In Every Age: Janèt Sullivan Whitaker
Long before the mountains came to be
And the land and sea and stars of the night,
Through the endless seasons of all time,
You have always been,
You will always be.
In ev'ry age, O God, you have been our refuge.
In ev'ry age, O God, you have been our hope.
Destiny is cast, and at your silent word
We return to dust and scatter to the wind.
A thousand years are like a single moment gone,
As the light that fades
At the end of day.
Teach us to make use of the time we have.
Teach us to be patient even as we wait.
Teach us to embrace our ev'ry joy and pain.
To sleep peacefully,
And to rise up strong.
You have been our refuge
You have been our hope.
2. Psalm 90: Marty Goetz
Psalm 32: Forgiveness
Friday of the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
February 12, 2021
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 32, a classic penitential psalm.
It is an uncomplicated description of repentance and forgiveness which, nevertheless, discloses profound insights into the human spirit.
Blessed is the one whose fault is taken away,
Psalm 32:1-2
whose sin is covered.
Blessed the one to whom the LORD imputes not guilt,
in whose spirit there is no guile.
This relational sequence of confession and forgiveness is probed in depth in Psalm 32 (where) the speaker describes his silence and his consequent bodily disability (vv. 3–4). One can observe in the psalm an inchoate theory of repression that became definitive for Sigmund Freud. Repression immobilizes, says the psalmist! The abrupt move in verse 5 concerns the process of making his sin known, saying it aloud, confessing it.
It is confession that makes forgiveness possible. It is denial that precludes assurance and that immobilizes the perpetrator.
Walter Brueggemann, From Whom No Secrets Are Hid
Praying with Psalm 32 this morning reminded me of a story I wrote a few years ago.
The Earring
Young Emma, skewered by indecision, had stared into her mother’s jewelry box. She had always loved those silver earrings, a gift to her mother from her grandmother—an heirloom now, a treasure beyond price. She wanted so to wear them on this special date, but they were “hands off” and she knew it. Still, her mother at work and unaware of her desire, Emma had succumbed to temptation.
The dance had been wonderful, a whirlwind of such delight that Emma had not noticed when her left earring had brushed against her partner’s shoulder, tumbling hopelessly under the dancers’ trampling feet. Only at evening’s end, approaching her front door exhausted and dreamy, had she reached up to unclip the precious gems.
Her mother sat waiting for her in the soft lamplight, having already noticed the earrings missing from her dresser. Awaiting retribution, Emma knelt beside her mother and confessed the further sacrilege of loss. But her mother simply cupped Emma’s tearful face in her hands, whispering, “You are my jewel. Of course I forgive you.” Though accustomed to her mother’s kindness, this act of compassion astonished Emma, filling her with an indescribable, transformative gratitude.
As we pray Psalm 32, there may be a great forgiveness we are thankful for, or just the small kindnesses that allow us to rise each morning with joy and hope. Perhaps there is a memory of compassion, like Emma’s, that we treasure—one that in turn has made us kinder and more honest.
But maybe, on the other hand, there is a “lost earring”, never acknowledged. With time, that unacknowledgement burrows deeper into the spirit restricting our capacity to love.
Psalm 32 reminds us that God is our Mother waiting in the lamplight to cup our face with love, to receive our joyful thanks for divine mercies.
For this shall every faithful soul pray to you
Psalm 32:6
in time of stress.
Though deep waters overflow,
they shall not reach us.
Like Emma, we may be astonished at the graciousness that has been given to us. We may respond by pouring out our thanks to God in a silent act of prayer.
May we also have the courage to become like our merciful God, anticipating the other’s need for our forgiveness. May we seek the strength not to harbor injury, but too release it to make room for further grace in our hearts.
Poetry: FIRST FORGIVENESS - Irene Zimmerman The usually mild evening breeze became a wailing wind when the gates clanged shut behind them. They shivered despite their leathery clothes as they searched for the fragrant blossoms they’d grown accustomed to sleep on, but found only serpentine coils that bit and drew blood from their hands. It was Eve who discovered the cave. When she emerged, she saw Adam standing uncertainly at the entrance. A river of fire flooded her face as she remembered his blaming words— “The woman you gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” “Spend the night wherever you choose,” she told him bitterly. “You needn’t stay with me.” Long afterwards, when even the moon’s cold light had left the entrance and she’d made up a word for the hot rain running from her eyes, she sensed Adam near her in the dark. His breath shivered on her face. “Eve,” he moaned, “I’m sorry. Forgive me.” In the darkness between them the unfamiliar words waited, quivering. She understood their meaning when she touched his tears.
Music: Father, I Have Sinned – Eugene O’Reilly
Our story above was about a “prodigal daughter”. Our music is about a “prodigal son”.
Lavish Mercy 