Category: Praise

Abundance

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, joy, Love, Praise, Prayer, spirituality, Thanksgiving3 Comments

April 13, 2025

Pange Lingua

We are in the midst of the great Jewish and Christian holy days of Passover and Holy Week. 

During the Passover Seder meal, a beautiful prayer of gratitude is offered. It is called the “Dayenu” which means “It would have been enough”. The prayer recounts fifteen different gifts that God has given the Jewish people. After naming each gift, this phrase is repeated, “It would have been enough…”  To read the full Jewish prayer, click here: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/dayenu-it-would-have-been-enough/

The prayer is a celebration of the abundance of God toward us and toward all creation. For each of us, our personal translation might be something like this: 

  • Not just the sun and moon, which would have been enough, – but also stars, planets, comets, quasars … 
  • Not just a robin, which would have been enough, – but also a blue jay, hummingbird, parrot, stork, flamingo … 
  • Not just my breath, which would have been enough, – but also my ability to move, to think, to love, to choose, to bless … 
  • Not just my parents, which would have been enough, — but also my siblings, my spouse, my children, my grandchildren, my friends,,,
  • Not just my humanity, which would have been enough, – but also the rich humanity of every race, ethnicity, color, culture and personality …. 

As Jews and Christians, we will spend time this week remembering our lifelong passage through grace to freedom. But whatever our faith context, all of us can recognize God’s power in sustaining our lives through challenge and fear to bring us to light and life. 

Try today to count the gifts of the Creator’s abundance in your life. It will be impossible because they are infinite. Still, after each precious memory and name, we can breathe the blessing of the Dayenu: “It would have been enough.”

Music: Dayenu – Pagoda Online Learning

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 22:14-23

Click for Scripture

Rejoice

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, holiness, joy, Praise, spirituality, suffering, TruthLeave a comment

Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
November 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/110624.cfm

Do everything without grumbling or questioning,
that you may be blameless and innocent,
children of God without blemish
in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation,
among whom you shine like lights in the world,
as you hold on to the word of life,
so that my boast for the day of Christ may be
that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
But, even if I am poured out as a libation
upon the sacrificial service of your faith,
I rejoice and share my joy with all of you.
In the same way you also should rejoice and share your joy with me.
Philippians 2:15-18

Being a Christian is not easy. It was not easy for the Philippians, and it’s not easy for us. We still live in the midst of a “crooked and perverse generation.” And its crooked perversity is not always easy to discern as the culture becomes more clever in deceitful jargon and technological manipulation.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray to have a clear vision that sees into the heart of life in God. Despite challenges, Paul rejoices in this insightful faith of the Philippians and invites them to rejoice as well. Let’s consider our own faith journey and those aspects of it that cause us to rejoice:

  • God’s faithfulness and our perseverance
  • what we have given for love, and what we have received in return
  • the freedom faith has granted us, and the freedom we have fostered in others
  • the contentment of a long fidelity, and the assured hope of a promised eternity

Poetry: Mindful by Mary Oliver

Every day
I see or hear
something
that more or less

kills me
with delight,
that leaves me
like a needle

in the haystack
of light.

Music: Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Our Desiring – arranged by D. Qualey

Wing

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Praise, spirituality1 Comment

Memorial of the Holy Guardian Angels (Readings from Mass of the Angels)
October 2, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/1002-memorial-guardian-angels.cfm

I dwell in the shelter of the Most High.
and abide in the shadow of the Holy One.
I say, “You are my refuge and stronghold,
my God in whom I put my trust.
You will deliver me from the snare of the hunter
and from all manner of evils.
You will cover me with your pinions
and hide me in the shadow of your wings.
I need not be afraid of any terror of the night,
or danger of the day.
I will be strong in the face of difficulty
and face the trials of my life with calm assurance.
I need not fear illness or injury,
people who roar like lions or hiss like snakes,
You will tread on my fears.I hear you whisper,

“I am bound to you in love,
therefore I will help you in times of trouble.
I am with you when you call for me.
I will dwell in your heart through the years of your life.
Psalm 91 (interpreted by Christine Robinson)

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We pray with the angels. They are not chubby little cherubs on Christmas cards. Rather, they are magnificent beings with whom we share God’s breath. They worship God with all their vitality, and guide us so that we may someday share in their sacred ministry.

We honor our angels, asking to learn from the purity of their love for God.

Prose: from Thomas Merton

The angels are our brothers/sisters and fellow servants in a world of freedom and of grace. Like us, they are saved by Christ the Lord and King of Angels. With Christ their King and sent by his command, they come to us as invisible messengers of his divine will, as mysterious protectors and friends in the spiritual order. Their presence around us, unimaginable, tender, solicitous, and mighty, terrible as it is gentle, is more and more forgotten while the personal horizon of our spiritual vision shrinks and closes in upon ourselves.

Music: Adoro Te Devote – written by Thomas Aquinas, sung by Juliano Ravanello

Glory

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, holiness, Love, Praise, Prayer, spiritualityLeave a comment

Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord
August 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/080624.cfm

Beloved:
We did not follow cleverly devised myths
when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,
but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received honor and glory from God the Father
when that unique declaration came to him from the majestic glory,
“This is my Son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven
while we were with him on the holy mountain.
Moreover, we possess the prophetic message that is altogether reliable.
You will do well to be attentive to it,
as to a lamp shining in a dark place,
until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
2 Peter 1:16-19

This beautiful passage from Peter shines with faith, adoration, and praise. It invites us to let go of our “thinking” about God and, instead, to bask in the Divine Glory of which our faith assures us.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
The Feast of the Transfiguration beckons us to be with God in the way we would be with someone we deeply love – not analyzing the bliss, but resting in it gratefully and contentedly.

Poetry: Transfiguration – Malcolm Guite

For that one moment, ‘in and out of time’,
On that one mountain where all moments meet,
The daily veil that covers the sublime
In darkling glass fell dazzled at his feet.
There were no angels full of eyes and wings
Just living glory full of truth and grace.
The Love that dances at the heart of things
Shone out upon us from a human face
And to that light the light in us leaped up,
We felt it quicken somewhere deep within,
A sudden blaze of long-extinguished hope
Trembled and tingled through the tender skin.
Nor can this blackened sky, this darkened scar
Eclipse that glimpse of how things really are.

Music: Transfiguration – by Wren and Manalo

Seraphim

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, holiness, joy, Praise, spirituality1 Comment

Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 13, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071324.cfm

I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,
with the train of his garment filling the temple.
Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings:
with two they veiled their faces,
with two they veiled their feet,
and with two they hovered aloft.

They cried one to the other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!
All the earth is filled with his glory!”
Isaiah 6:1-3

There are times in life when we are graced to see through appearances to find the Holy – maybe the gaze of a newborn, the kindness of a stranger, the moment someone dies, the deep aloneness of nature.

Isaiah experiences such a moment in this reading – and it was supercharged! The trappings of earth fell away as Isaiah stood praying in the Temple. He saw the Seraphim singing praise to the Holiest of Beings. In that astounding light, Isaiah found a new self, one drenched in the Divine Presence and Will. It was in this moment that Isaiah truly became a prophet!

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We ask that our hearts be opened to the very real Presence of God in our ordinary lives. Let us trust that angels accompany us even though we do not see them. Let us listen to their song in those rare moments when we can almost touch the Holy under the surface of our lives.

Poem: I Saw the Seraphim – Robert Wagner

I saw the Seraphim one summer’s night
Reaping it seemed a field of endless wheat.
I heard their voices through the fading light
Wild, strange and yet intolerably sweet.
The hour such beauty first was born on earth
A dawn of sifting had that day begun
For some would not endure love’s second birth
Preferring their own darkness to that sun.
And still love’s sun must rise upon our night
For nothing can be hidden from its heat
And in that summer evening’s fading light
I saw his angels gather in the wheat.
Like beaten gold their beauty smote the air
And tongues of flame were streaming in their hair.

Music: I Saw the Seraphim – the poem set to music by JAC Reford

Observe

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Lent, Poetry, Praise, spirituality6 Comments

Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
March 6, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030624.cfm

Moses spoke to the people and said:
“Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
which the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.”

Deuteronomy 4:1

The word “observe” carries several meanings. We may, for example,

  • observe by giving full attention
  • observe by stating our assessment of something
  • observe a holiday or birthday by sending a card
  • observe an order from a superior
  • observe the sacred by a ritual of practice, silence, or waiting

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Let’s take the final sense of sacred observing, placing our lives before God in faith, hope, and love. Each day that we live is a ritual of praise to the One Who created us. By living God’s Law of Love, we offer the praise for which God made us.

Poetry: from First Love by Denise Levertov

In the excerpt, Levertov “observes” by giving, and receiving, full attention.

`Convolvulus,' said my mother. 
Pale shell-pink, a chalice 
no wider across than a silver sixpence.
It looked at me, I looked 
back, delight 
filled me as if 
I, not the flower, 
were a flower and were brimful of rain. 
And there was endlesness. 
Perhaps through a lifetime what I've desired 
has always been to return 
to that endless giving and receiving, the wholeness 
of that attention, 
that once-in-a-lifetime 
secret communion.

Music: Touch of the Spirit – Nadama

Holy

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, holiness, Lent, Praise, spiritualityLeave a comment

Monday of the First Week of Lent
February 19, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021924.cfm

The LORD said to Moses,
“Speak to the whole assembly of the children of Israel and tell them:
Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.

Leviticus 19:1

How do we become more like our loving, merciful God? How do we become holy? Today’s reading offers us a series of “shall nots” and “shalls” to guide us: (Click on the picture if you want to see it bigger.)

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy

Let’s hold our lives in prayer beside these images.

  • Are there “nots” we wish to eradicate?
  • Are there imperatives we wish to live by?

Poetry: I Too Am Alone in the World – from “The Book of Hours” by Rainer Maria Rilkē

I am too alone in the world, and not alone enough
to make every minute holy.
I am too tiny in this world, and not tiny enough
just to lie before you like a thing,
shrewd and secretive.
I want my own will, and I want simply to be with my will,
as it goes toward action,
and in the silent, sometimes hardly moving times
when something is coming near,
I want to be with those who know secret things
or else alone.
I want to be a mirror for your whole body,
and I never want to be blind, or to be too old
to hold up your heavy and swaying picture.
I want to unfold.
I don’t want to stay folded anywhere,
because where I am folded, there I am a lie.
And I want my grasp of things
true before you. I want to describe myself
like a painting that I looked at
closely for a long time,
like a saying that I finally understood,
like the pitcher I use every day,
like the face of my mother,
like a ship
that took me safely
through the wildest storm of all.

Music: Holy God, We Praise Thy Name – Ignaz Franz

Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” (original German: “Großer Gott, wir loben dich”) is a Christian hymn, a paraphrase of the Te Deum. The German Catholic priest Ignaz Franz wrote the original German lyrics in 1771 as a paraphrase of the Te Deum, a Christian hymn in Latin from the 4th century.