Category: Seasons

Candlemas: A Seasonal Anchor

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Christmastide, Courage, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Forgiveness, Jesus, Mary, Seasons, spiritualityLeave a comment

Feast of the Presentation
February 2, 2026

Candlemas,
also known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus Christ,
the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
or the Feast of the Holy Encounter,
is a Christian feast day commemorating
the presentation of Jesus
at the Temple by Joseph and Mary.
It is based upon the account in
Luke 2:22–40.

How do the great trees die and come to life again? It’s a question we might ponder every winter as the bare, black branches fill with ice. Their stark emptiness seems a place from which there is no return. But we know otherwise. In the relentless cold of every February, our experience whispers the hope for April. Our liturgical year is filled with lynchpins to stabilize and orient us in this hope.

The Feast of Candlemas (February 2), an ancient celebration of hope, is one of the seasonal anchors Medieval people used to ground their faith through its various seasons. The Feast commemorates Mary’s Purification and the Presentation of Christ to the world – thus the candles!

Other ancient and seasonal feasts were:

May 3: Roodmas – celebrating the discovery and veneration of the True Cross (called “Rood” in Middle English)
Aug 1: Lammas – Originating from the Old English hlafmaesse (“loaf-mass”), it involved blessing loaves made from the new crop, signifying gratitude for the summer’s bounty and preparation for the coming winter.
Sept 29 Michealmas – Festival of St. Michael the Archangel, known as the protector against evil and leader of heaven’s armies
Nov 11 Martinmas – a festival celebrated on November 11th, marking the end of the harvest and the start of winter, honoring St. Martin of Tours, a soldier famous for sharing his cloak with a beggar, symbolizing light and charity as days grow shorter
Dec 25 Christmas – the ultimate celebration of hope in the Light of Jesus Christ

Like nature, each one of us has our seasons. Our lives contain the cycles of our youth and aging, birth and death. Our daily experiences turn in both the warm and the chilly intervals of our lives.

  • We have blossomed with the expectant life of spring: a new job, relationship, adventure.
  • We have cultivated love over warm summers of dedication and growth – our faith, families, friends, and ministries.
  • We have reaped the autumnal returns of our efforts, walking away from a red and golden field carrying a well-earned harvest – graduations, anniversaries, promotions, retirements.
  • Certainly, each of us has known our own winters, when cold has threatened and dark has isolated – and yet, like the trees – we have survived.

As we experience the depths of “Winter 2026”, Candlemas seems an opportune time to review the lessons of the season – especially the chapters on deep roots, inner quiet, and a hidden spiritual warmth that defies freezing.

In the winters of our lives, we learn what truly sustains us. We are called to delve into the power of endurance, resilience, forgiveness, honesty, loyalty, and faithfulness. These are the winter virtues that preserve life deep under the surface of any paralyzing storm. These are the salts that keep life’s highways passable, allowing us to stay connected to all that keeps us vibrant.

On any given day of the year, we can experience “winter”. Think of the times you have received (or given) the “cold shoulder”. Remember when your explanations have been given an icy reception? Haven’t there been conversations where you were frozen out? Can’t you still see the frosty stare you got from someone who thought you were beneath them? We have all known some sub-zero responses when we were really looking for a warm word. We have all received some chilly greetings when we needed not to feel like an isolated stranger.

Hospitality is not listed as a Fruit of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, it is the melding of many of them. Hospitality is a radical welcome rooted in God’s love. It is the perfect antidote to all our methods of freezing one another out. It is the human anti-freeze that reminds us that we need one another’s warmth to survive the treacheries of life. It is a virtue to be deeply pondered in this societal age of frigid inhumanity to those we judge to be “alien”.

If there is someone in your life that you have exiled to the Arctic, consider reaching out in hospitality, care, forgiveness, or honesty. This winter, let go of the glacial grudges, silences, and harbored hurts that sometimes freeze our souls and kill our hope of returning life. Listen to the voice of the dark February nights. It is telling us how to move toward spring.

Music: We Are Called to Welcome Strangers – Jubilate

Suggested Scripture: 1 Peter 4:7-11

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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?

Don’t Read This!

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Eternal Life, Faith, Seasons, spirituality5 Comments

December 31, 2026
Happy New Year’s Eve

You know what? Don’t read this! It’s only all advice, and who needs advice anyway!

Oh, OK. You’re going to read it anyway? Thanks! Here goes:

Have you ever driven on a long road with no visible signposts? Maybe in a driving rain or snowstorm? Maybe on a moonless night? Your passengers constantly ask, “Are we there yet?” You keep saying, “Almost”, as you think, “Please Lord, I hope so!”

Well, life is a long road, and sometimes there are no directions on how to navigate it. The celebration of the New Year can be our human attempt to mark the road with milestones that help us keep going.

No matter where the journey takes me in 2026, I have come to trust the following road markers:

Mile Marker One: YOU WILL CHANGE.

We know this so well! We want the change to be an improvement, not a downgrade. That’s why we make New Year’s resolutions. Here’s a New Year’s resolution worth trying:
Never resist a generous impulse. I remake this particular resolution every year. To the degree that I keep it, it improves everything about my life. I recommend it highly.

Mile Marker Two: YOU WILL STAY THE SAME

In other words, you will survive. Those basic gifts of guts, determination and resilience, which have brought you through challenges you never imagined, will continue to do so. You will make it — no matter how sad, sick, tired or overwhelmed you feel. There is always a new day and a new year. So believe in yourself, have faith, and move with courage through your pain or doubt — because you are a unique and unrepeatable expression of God that nothing can destroy.

Mile Marker Three: YOUR WORLD WILL CHANGE

The New Year reminds us of how passing life is. Take a look in the mirror!
Jobs change. Kids grow up and leave home. Friendships fade. Investments fluctuate. Buildings fall. And people die. So love and cherish all that the present moment offers you: yourself, your family, your friends, your work. Use your resources wisely and generously — the return never diminishes. Build places of love and mutuality — they do not fall. Love unselfishly — death cannot break such bonds.

Mile Marker Four: YOUR WORLD WILL STAY THE SAME

You know it will! The same aches and pains; the same unappreciative boss or uninvested coworker; the same demanding kids, spouse, or in-laws; the same rattle-trap car, horrendous traffic, unbearably excessive weather, and scarcity of downtime. But since so many things really won’t change, why don’t you change?
Here’s how. Live gratefully. That aching body is still alive! You have family and friends when many are alone or abandoned. A dear old friend put it this way when asked how he was: “I woke up on this side of the grass!”
You get the drift! Appreciate. Be positive. Give good energy and ask for it in return. It can turn a resistant world into putty in your hands!

Mile Marker Five: GOD NEVER CHANGES

God’s love for each one of us is complete, unconditional, and constant — and as the Hebrew Scriptures (Lamentations) tell us, it is renewed each morning, not just each year! God thinks you’re the greatest thing that ever happened because God knows your potential: you are made in God’s own image — creative, beautiful, generous, holy and powerful for good. When you look in the mirror all year– every morning, remember that! When you look at every other human being, remember that!
It is a New Year. May you be renewed, blessed and happy.

Thought: St. Augustine’s Ever New and Changeless God

Music: This Ancient Love – Carolyn McDade

Autumn Lessons

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Love, Seasons, spirituality7 Comments

October 24, 2025

“The Angelus” – Jean-François Millet

In grade school, we had a course called “Picture Study”. Every Friday afternoon, Sister distributed small blue McLaughlin Notebooks. In them, we found the treasures of the great art galleries – paintings by Monet, Van Gogh, and Rembrandt. One of my favorites was a picture by Millet called “The Angelus”. In it, peasant farmers pause to pray as they gather their small harvest at the close of day. All the colors of late fall had dripped from the artist’s brush to capture feelings of peace, completion and hope.

I have a dear friend who doesn’t like fall. She is a complete and beautiful “summer” spirit! For her, autumn brings a sense of “closing down”. The freedom of summer evaporates; the heavy sharpness of winter looms. Some of us might feel that way as the sunlit hours shrink. But, for the reflective heart, there are deep blessings in Autumn’s ebbing.

Indeed, fall dances to a different tune from summer. The carefree skip of July becomes the thoughtful stroll of late October. It is a time for gathering, for counting the harvest, for putting up the fuel to sustain us through the winter. It is a time no longer to take things for granted. It is a time to pause and prepare. We begin to consider what the waning year has given us, and what it has taken.

As a child, I lived in a very old home originally built to house the 19th century immigrant factory workers of North Philadelphia. The kitchen, added by my grandfather’s own hands, was unheated. In the 1940s, my dad installed a pot-belly stove to warm this preferred gathering spot for our family.

Dad always left for work before the rest of us woke up. Beginning in the late fall, he would light a fire in that little stove every morning. By the time the rest of us assembled for breakfast, a freshly-perked pot of coffee awaited us atop the stove as a greeting from dad. I associated my father with that comfort and that delicious scent. Although we wouldn’t see him until late at night, his kindness accompanied us in the cozy, inviting kitchen every morning.

As deep October approaches, the earth steeps itself like fragrant tea in its own magnificent colors, but the chill suggests the coming change. Seeing this, I remember Dad and realize, such is the work of autumn:

  • to express beauty in the subtle colors of our kindness
  • to build the warm fires we know our loved ones will need
  • to brew the fresh tonic that wakes others to life and warms them against its sometime chill

It is a time now to glean summer’s final fruits and to wrap ourselves in their bounty; to listen, in the snug quiet of our spirits, to the voice of Love in our lives. What does Love ask of us as winter approaches? For each of us, the answers will be different. In the gathering October stillness, to what does the Divine Spirit invite me?

Music: Autumn “Allegro-Adagio Molto” (The Four Seasons) – Antonio Vivaldi

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: James 5:7

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Healing

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, dying, Faith, friendship, Mercy, Psalms, Seasons, spirituality6 Comments

October 2, 2025

Artwork by Judy Ward, RSM

Today, for your reflection, a poem I wrote decades go. I offer it today in memory of Judy Ward, RSM who passed away on September 27, 2025. Her life will be celebrated on October 2nd in a Mass of Christian Burial in the chapel at Mt. St. Mary, where Judy attended school, became a Sister of Mercy, and taught for many years.

Judy, a gifted artist, did so much to encourage me and to illustrate and promulgate my work. I will miss her generous kindness and her friendship.

October is a time when nature changes clothes.
Leaves, like miniature volcanoes, flare up and die, ashes at the foot of a silent, seemingly immortal tree.
Geese, having dawdled all summer in veiled expectation, suddenly leap into the clouds and disappear.
These solemn miracles may incline us to consider our own impermanence and the gossamer phenomenon we call life.

Healing

Music: A Playlist of Autumn Music

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 104

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Autumn Begins

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Creation, dying, Eternal Life, Faith, Seasons, spiritualityLeave a comment

September 22, 2025

I hope that, where you live, it is a glorious day – a perfect vestibule to a season of amazing beauty.  In the northern hemisphere, Nature prepares to shed the plush accretions of summer in a multi-colored ritual of leave-taking. It is time to return to the essentials – back to the branch, back to the buried root, back to the bare, sturdy reality that will anchor us in eventual winter.

Each day, some green leaf or blade will ignite like a phoenix – a blaze of scarlet or gold, only to extinguish that flame for a long winter’s sleep. Nature knows when things are finished.  It knows when it has had enough.  It knows its need for a season of emptying, for a clearing of the clutter, for the deep hibernation of its spirit.

But we humans often ignore the need for an “autumning” of our spirits.  We try to live every moment in the high energy of summer – producing, moving, anticipating, and stuffing our lives with abundance.  

But simplicity, solitude, and clarity are necessary for our spirit to renew itself.  Autumn is the perfect time to examine prayerfully the harvest of our lives – reaping the essentials and sifting out the superfluous. In the quiet shade of a rusting tree, we may discover what we truly love, deeply believe, and really need to be fully happy.

Take time on these crystal days to ask yourself what is essential in your life.  If something besides them inhibits you, let it go.

Nurture your “essentials” with attention and care.  Don’t take them for granted.  After the flare of life’s summer has passed, these are the things that will sustain you: a strong faith, a faithful love, and a loving compassion. Tend them in this season of harvest

Music: The Four Seasons: Autumn – Antonio Vivaldi

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: James 5:7-8

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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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Crocuses

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, Hope, Seasons, spirituality, TruthLeave a comment

March 20, 2025

Lanterns in the Sky – Michele McLaughlin

In the block behind my home, there is a small lawn filled with crocuses. A few weeks ago, when snow still had a tight grip on the landscape, those little green nibs began to peek their heads out through the white blanket.

Every year, late in winter, I see this miracle happening in the most unexpected places. And every year, I still doubt that those fragile dots of life will survive and grow through winter’s apparent death. Every year, my doubts prove unfounded. Every year, those delicate purple fields remind me of what it means to live.

Today is the first day of Spring — a great time to remind ourselves that what we are about in this world is always LIFE, never DEATH! Some things we face in life may seem like snowy, frozen fields. But, underneath, where the Spirit never tires, green new life inspires our attitude and choices.

To find that renewed vitality, I must do two brave things:
• Always choose LIFE for myself and others
• Trust that God will sustain me in my choices

Sometimes, we make mistakes about what renews our lives. Still, in our deep hearts, we know that real life cannot be lived in isolation and self-seeking. Choices for real life are always rooted in mutual peace, truth, integrity, generosity, and compassion.

As spring wakes before us, let’s listen carefully to that deep heart’s message.

Once we’ve made the choice for life, we must trust that despite “winter”, the green tender shoots will prevail. They always do! History should confirm our faith! Winter always ends, and it is always worth the choice to live beyond it!

When I see the first spring flowers, I think of a friend’s favorite advice for a happy life:
• Wake up!
• Show Up!
• Be there!
I think the crocuses got the message!

Poetry: The Crocuses – Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911)

They heard the South wind sighing
A murmur of the rain;
And they knew that Earth was longing
To see them all again.

While the snow-drops still were sleeping
Beneath the silent sod;
They felt their new life pulsing
Within the dark, cold clod.

Not a daffodil nor daisy
Had dared to raise its head;
Not a fairhaired dandelion
Peeped timid from its bed;

Though a tremor of the winter
Did shivering through them run;
Yet they lifted up their foreheads
To greet the vernal sun.

And the sunbeams gave them welcome,
As did the morning air—
And scattered o’er their simple robes
Rich tints of beauty rare.

Soon a host of lovely flowers
From vales and woodland burst;
But in all that fair procession
The crocuses were first.

First to weave for Earth a chaplet
To crown her dear old head;
And to beautify the pathway
Where winter still did tread.

And their loved and white-haired mother
Smiled sweetly ’neath the touch,
When she knew her faithful children
Were loving her so much

Music: The First of the Crocuses

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: Matthew 6:25-34

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Horizons

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Courage, Creation, Faith, healing, Seasons, spirituality2 Comments

March 17, 2025

Forest Dreams – Tim Janis

Spring is on the horizon! The long winter watch is almost over. But before we shake off its dark velvet wraps for good, it might be well to think about what winter teaches us.

The stretch of time between November and April is all about waiting. Bulbs wait under the frozen earth. Bears hibernate in the cold mountains. Birds migrate, their old nests empty until the spring. All creation seems to enter a time of patience and unrealized expectation. But it is not a time of desolation. It is a time of hope for things yet unseen.

Human beings also experience “winter” – not simply the seasonal one – but “winters of the spirit”. We all go through times when our nests have been emptied; times when all the beautiful flowering aspects of our lives seem dormant; times when our vigor and strength seem to hide in the cave of depression or sadness.

These “winters” take many forms. We may find ourselves sick of a job we had always loved. We may find a long, committed relationship wavering. We may find the burdens of age or economics overwhelming us. We may be the unwilling bearers of responsibilities we had not bargained for.

But if we listen, under the deep silence of any winter, the wind rustles. It carries the hint of a new season. It carries the hope of the renewing cycle of our lives. In that silence, we may be able to hear our heartbeat more clearly. We may come to a clearer understanding of what is most important in our lives. In the stillness, we may be forced to know and understand ourselves more deeply.

Others may reach out to us in their “winters”. They may be ill, experiencing confusion, or overwhelmed by the demands of their lives. They are asking for reassurance that some form of spring is coming. They yearn to feel the warmth and hope of renewed life. Our compassion for their needs will grow if we can remember our own winters. Surely, there has been a time when someone lifted the ice and blew warm breath over our fears, grief, or isolation. Someone held hope out to us to grab hold.

I think of a powerful image from the works of St. Teresa of Avila. She imagines God as a warm healer leaning over our frozen world, setting free the beauty of our spirits. This is what she says:

And God is always there,
if you feel wounded.
God kneels over this earth
like a divine medic,
and God’s love
thaws the holy in us.

Teresa of Avila

When we are compassionate and offer one another hope and light, we free what is sacred and do a holy work. Every time you touch another person’s life, you have the chance to change winter into spring. You have a chance to be like God.

Music: I Will Carry You – Sean Clive

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: Song of Solomon 2:11-13

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Fickle March

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Creation, Faith, Hope, joy, Mercy, Seasons, spirituality5 Comments

March 11, 2025

Nature’s Calm – Tim Janis

Fickle March hesitates on the edge of Spring.  It can’t quite decide: “Shall I wear my chilly or my warm personality today?”  We too are still wearing our “March personalities”.  Every morning, we say hopeful things to one another.  “Getting warmer.“  “Hint of spring today.” But hidden in those cheery remarks is the memory of past March blizzards that buried us in a foot of crushed expectations.

Still, the fact is that, as you read this article, we have almost made it through another winter.  Abundant, colorful life is ready to break through the cold brown barrenness.  In the annual championship bout, April always KOs March!

This analogy should give us great hope for our lives.  Our lives are “seasonal” too – full of chills and heat waves, fallow and fruitful cycles.  Sometimes we find ourselves in a harsh, interminable winter.  The hope of Spring – a sprig of new life – seems impossible.  We feel frozen in a powerless situation.

But haven’t we all known people who, no matter what, live in their heart’s Spring?  They understand the difference between healing and cure, between pleasure and joy, between possession and fulfillment.  Even amid chilling burdens, a deep hope and a joyous freedom guide them through their winters.

It is so important for us to be aware of the power we have over another person’s life.  The one encouraging word we offer may be that ray of hope that breaks through someone’s isolation.  That one small, patient moment we muster in the face of frustration may be the only glimmer of color in a person’s otherwise bleak landscape.  

When you were little and Aunt Polly asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, wouldn’t she have been surprised if you had answered, “I think I’m gonna’ be a bearer of spring, a shower of hope, a sweet light after the winter.”  But that is what you are!  

This is Spring – this is your season! For your own sake and the sake of your dear ones, may everything in your lives warm and blossom.

Poetry: from Emily Dickinson

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

Music: Serenade to Spring – Secret Garden

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: Song of Songs 2:11-13

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