Category: spirituality

Eat the Pickle, Sister

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, holiness, Love, spirituality, Virtue6 Comments

January 26, 2026

The virtue of Love, known as caritas or charity,
is a theological virtue defined as
loving God above all things
and loving one’s neighbor as oneself.

A friend and I had gone mall shopping not too far from my parents’ home. Finishing early, I asked Mattie if she’d mind an unplanned stop to see Mom. I knew Mom would delight in the surprise visit.

Had I alerted Mom, a banquet would have awaited us. She loved to feed people, and she did so with masterful skill. But this impromptu stop occurred the day before weekly shopping. Thus, the coffers were relatively low, at least by Mom’s standards.

Nevertheless, the kitchen table soon filled with the essential makings of a great sandwich. Mattie and I dug in as Mom arrayed a host of condiments at table’s center. However, in the abundance, one glass jar stood out in contradiction. Alone, behind the green Vlasic label, hid the last remaining kosher dill, an unlikely survivor of my family’s lunch habits.

As Mom joined us at the table, she realized the situation. She looked at Mattie, our guest, and encouraged her, “Eat the pickle, Sister!” We all burst out laughing and, indeed, Mattie did eat the lonely pickle.

Our shared laughter signaled a deeper understanding of this straightforward scene. No one had to enumerate what lay behind Mom’s encouragement:

  • As our guest, you get first choice. (Hospitality)
  • Somebody’s got to eat it. It might as well be you. (Practicality)
  • It’s not really important if the rest of us get a pickle. (Discernment)
  • We are blessed to have more choices beyond the pickle. (Gratitude)
  • We’ll be fine, even if we are “pickleless”. (Blessed Assurance)
  • You are the important thing, not the pickle. (Respect)
  • And anyway, who left one stinkin’ pickle in the jar! (Wise Judgement)

For years to follow, Mom and I laughed about that remark. We quoted it often when there was a nebulous situation that called for a final choice, because the phrase contained all the essential elements of a loving and expeditious decision:

  • What’s important in this situation?
  • Who or what has the greatest need?
  • What resources free us to be generous?
  • What action will best reflect our values?
  • And, remember:

Not to decide is to decide.
So never resist a generous impulse

I delight in remembering the story today, the anniversary of my mother’s death. She left me so many lessons under the most unlikely appearances. Who would think that a pickle jar might influence my decision-making for the ensuing 40 years!
Thank you for that pickle, Mom, and for all the other loving condiments you left to dress my life!

Music: ‘Tis A Gift to Be Simple – Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss

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 116: 12-19

Click for Scripture

The Call

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Faith, Gospel, inclusivity, justice, spirituality12 Comments

Martin Luther King Day
January 19, 2026

Photo by Chris on Pexels.com

On this blog, I strive never to cross a political line without a clear moral imperative. Today, on the memorial of a fearless prophet for justice, I would be remiss not to comment on our current national socio-political environment.

This administration’s governmental dysfunction can no longer be ignored, excused, or rationalized. It has moved beyond the realm of political differences and polite skirting of “politics” at the dinner table. We are now in the penultimately dangerous dynamic of evil masquerading as good while, in fact, fostering a virtual genocide of anyone who is not white, rich, male, Maga, and subservient to its agenda.

We no longer stand on the doorstep of veiled neo-Nazism, it is consuming us, and many feel helplessly dismayed in its torrent. Look at us! Masked stormtroopers in full military gear, plundering, gassing, murdering unarmed protestors, wreaking havoc on innocent refugees, and teargassing pacifist clergy and children. Weep for our country, seen for decades as the keeper of peace, now threatening and enacting invasion on former allies and weaker countries.

We have a morally rogue President with a spineless Congressional majority to enable him, and an indebted Supreme Court to endorse him. It has become all too evident that we can no longer expect wisdom or leadership from the majority in Congress. There are many heroes there who are fighting the good fight, but they are outnumbered by those who choose to be blind or complicit.

If you are still caught in political denial, please step back into the Gospel. What does our current environment require of us who want to live the Gospel call in our time? Not silence. Not indifference. Not stubborn opinion.

These times require witness, mercy, courage, and accompaniment of those suffering under this plague of evil. You may feel that you can do nothing, but that’s not the case.
You can:

  • Refuse to condone any argument that blames refugees, people of color, or moral activists for current unrest
  • Persistently write and call your members of Congress expressing your outrage and demand for justice
  • Participate to the degree you are able in peaceful protests demanding justice and human rights for all people
  • Vote! Vote! Vote! In 2024, 90 million Americans failed to vote! The vote of another 77 million either ignored the bare fascism of Project 2025, or bought into its extremist agenda. We can never let that happen again!

In the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King:

The church must be reminded that it is not the servant nor the master of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, and never its tool. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.

And from Bishop Mark Seitz at the El Paso Courthouse:

I make an urgent plea today that the government and immigration enforcement pull back from the edge and respect the sanctity of every human life, the constitutional and civil rights guaranteed to all in this country, to cease actions that degrade the moral and public order, and take action to address the impunity and lack of accountability we are witnessing in the indiscriminate enforcement taking place every day.

My friends, let us pray for courage; let us act with justice; let us live in mercy. Let us take inspiration from a great prophet of our times, Rev. Martin Luther King.

Trinity in Session

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Faith, spiritualityLeave a comment

January 11. 2026
The Baptism of the Lord

The theological virtues are the supernatural gifts of
faith, hope, and love
that are directly infused by God into the human soul
to enable a person to live in relationship with the Holy Trinity.

The Baptism Of Jesus
by Jeff Haynie
For purchase, see:
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-baptism-of-jesus-jeff-haynie.html

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Gospel invites us to the banks of the Jordan River. We sit in the midst of a crowd filled with avid believers and curious doubters. The Baptist passionately preaches on the muddy shore. Some listen intently. Some fiddle with their picnic baskets because they aren’t ready to hear. (They don’t have cell phones to fiddle with.)

Where are you, and what are you doing when the under-breath murmurs begin to rise in surprised chatter? Who is this man exuding mysterious power even as he quietly emerges from the bank’s far side – and why is he here?

Simply this:
Jesus came from Galilee
to John at the Jordan
to be baptized by him.

But Omnipotence reveals Itself in this simple act: Creator, Redeemer, and Spirit present in Divine Voice, Sacred Wing, Grace-drenched Redeemer.

After Jesus was baptized,
he came up from the water and behold,
the heavens were opened for him,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove
and coming upon him.
And a voice came from the heavens, saying,
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:16-17

As you experience this miraculous revelation, are you still looking into your picnic basket? Or have you been changed right down to your roots?

Music: Behold the Lamb of God from Handel’s Messiah

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:

Readings for the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus

Celebrate Epiphany!

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Eternal Life, Faith, Holy Spirit, spirituality3 Comments

January 4, 2026

Fear of the Lord – A Gift of the Holy Spirit

God wants us to recognize God’s glory,
to experience the awe and wonder
of One Who loves us in our lowliness.
That’s why, perhaps, “awe and wonder”
might better capture what this gift is about.
– from an article by Dr. John M. Grondelski

Remember your Confirmation Day? Maybe not. Maybe you were like me when I was confirmed – about eight years old, covered with Mercurochrome from a recent scuffle, and totally oblivious as to how I would need the Holy Spirit to survive in life!

But as oblivious as I was, I managed to memorize those 7 Gifts, and for a long time was a little troubled about why I needed to “fear the Lord”. My little brain wondered if I was wrong about the Lord always loving me! But, praise God, I wasn’t wrong!

As eight decades have passed, God has continually demonstrated that unfailing love. Especially when one of life’s opaque curtains falls, that love will peek through, a star of hope – an Epiphany. Eventually, we may come to understand “fear” more as astonishment and awe at God’s generosity. Like the Three Wise Royals, we may find ourselves in silent, confident, and grateful worship before such a mystery.

Look at your life today – the present and the past. Count the times God has broken through the darkness for you. Let the remembrance, or perhaps the new awareness, convince you that there is nothing to “fear”. There is only awesome Love.

Music: This Ancient Love – Carolyn McDade

I realize that I frequently suggest this song. That’s because I just love it and hope you do too. It captures everything, don’t you think?

Suggested Scripture: Isaiah 60: 1-6

Click for Scripture

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?

New Year Blessings

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality5 Comments

January 1, 2026

Obedience – A Moral Virtue

Obedience means to deeply and attentively hear divine instruction, understand it, internalize it, and respond from a place of faithful action, trust, and reverence for the sacred.
– from a homily by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we begin this new year with confident hope for the future because faith assures us of God’s Abiding Presence.

Today’s Gospel describes John the Evangelist’s profound adoration before God’s Eternal Presence:

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made;
without him nothing was made that has been made.
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.

The Gospel also conveys John the Baptist’s authentic obedience to the mystery of Redemption. Obedience comes from the Latin meaning “to listen.” In his prayer-sensitized soul, John heard the emerging mystery of Christ as it broke through time. He stepped aside, inviting others to listen.

Music: “Verbum Supernum Prodiens” (Word Descending from Above)

Suggested Scripture: John 1:1-18

Click for Scripture

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?

The Holy Lists

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Church, Conversion, Discipleship, holiness, spirituality, Virtue3 Comments

January 1, 2026

Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, please bless and guide us throughout 2026.

As we welcome the new year, I welcome each of you to Lavish Mercy 2026. As I did in 2025, I will offer a reflection about once a week, sometimes more often.


For 2026, I have chosen a theme that I nicknamed “The Holy Lists”. My Catholic friends who, like me, are of a “certain age” will remember the Baltimore Catechism. Though currently updated in language and attitude, that dear old 1945 version contained a mountain of incomprehensible truth condensed into manageable steps. Even though it provided scarce moral latitude, the book left me many unforgettable checklists that still influence my broader reflections and choices. They provided a roadmap for VIRTUE which could use a huge comeback in our morally tumultuous culture.

Who can forget the famous milk bottle by which one measured the level of their adolescent depravity?
Or the theological study questions with which even Thomas Aquinas might have struggled? e.g. (actual samples):

  1. Julius, an irreligious High School boy, claims we are forced to do all the things we do; he says that we are not free. Is this true? What is the reason for your answer?
  2. Leander wonders how it was possible for the prophets to describe the details of Our
    Lord’s passion and death many centuries before they took place.
    Can you explain this to Leander?

I deeply appreciate the wonderful religious instruction I received in the 1950s and 60s. But I think that even for Julius and Leander, some of those powerful lessons may have failed the leap into the 21st century.

So for 2026, I’d like to refresh some of those listed items by connecting them to the day’s reflection or readings. In a cultural and political climate so often disconnected from a moral compass, these virtues can serve a corrective purpose. They are valuable and, when offered in the modern vernacular, may inspire personal and cultural transformation.

Believe me, this is not an attempt to return to pre-Vatican II strictures. I am definitely an “aggiornamento” gal! Rather, I hope to provide an incentive to reclaim the quiescent markers of our faith – a faith that might be captured in a single virtue, or lost in a single fault. And I also think it might be fun!

St. Gregory of Nyssa inspires me with this statement:

The goal of a virtuous life
is to become like God.

Let’s give some time in 2026 to the pursuit of that virtuous life we all committed to at our Confirmation! God knows our world needs it!

See if you remember any of these once-memorized signposts :
• Gifts of the Holy Spirit
• Fruits of the Holy Spirit
• Cardinal Virtues
• Theological Virtues
• Moral Virtues
• Capital Virtues and their nemeses, the Deadly Sins
• Beatitudes
• Mysteries of the Rosary

And now, let’s begin…..

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

Eternal Birth

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Christmastide, Jesus, spirituality3 Comments

Christmas, 2025
Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord. – Luke 2: 11

It was Christmas Eve, 1985 and we knew only his name, not his story.

Leon, just thirty-seven years old, was one of those rootless souls who, by life’s violent incisions, become severed from their history and their future. He had come to us from a local boarding home, comatose and dying. He came with no friend or family to attend his imminent passage. So, through the night of Christmas Eve, I sat silently with Leon, adamant that he should not die alone.

Leon had a quiet death. Very little changed in him except for stilled breathing and the relaxed mask that follows expiration. It was I who changed.

In that sterile hospital room, grey-lit with early morning, the palpable breath of God embraced me. I knew, and from that Christmas moment will always know, that all life beats within the Divine Heart; that every one of us is sacred and immortal within its mysterious rhythm.

Over these celebratory days, we will orchestrate a series of Christmas moments in our decorations, carols, gifts, and feasts. We will visit our treasured memories and revered mangers. We will be blessed by the love of family and friends who are the face of Christ to us.

May we also receive this singular grace: to know that any true Christmas moment comes only when the Spirit of Christ passes through us into the heart of another person.

To receive this grace, we may need to sit in a silent room with a dying stranger. We may need to welcome that ostracized family member who has carelessly injured us. We may need to rediscover, in our own quiet contrition, the radiant Gospel commitment that has paled in us.

Meister Eckhart, seven centuries ago, sought such a Christmas moment:

Today we celebrate the Eternal Birth
which God the Father has borne
and never ceases to bear in all eternity.
But if it takes not place in me, what avails it?
Everything lies in this, 
that it should take place in me.

A Blessed Christmas to you all, dear friends.

Music: Christmas Concerto – Corelli

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: Wisdom 18:14-15

Click for Scripture

The Invitation – It is almost time!

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Advent, Eternal Life, Hope, spirituality2 Comments

Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 21, 2025

Have you ever been told not to get your hopes too high? The kind admonisher is trying to protect you. But you, like all human beings, still hope for everything, no matter the odds!

What would it be like if someone told us instead, “Hope for everything! The fulfillment of your hope is guaranteed!”

This is the jubilant assurance carried to us by the Word of God in the fourth week of Advent.
• Luke tells us that God has indeed remembered his promise of mercy.
• The eloquent Song of Songs guarantees us that the winter is past; that the rains are over and gone.
• The psalmist encourages us to lift up our heads and see. Our salvation is near at hand.

After our prayerful Advent, we now stand at the threshold of the sacred, transforming Nativity. As we lift our eyes to behold this glorious God, what shall we see – a miracle, a change in the world around us?

Marianne Williamson, spiritual teacher and author, says this: “A miracle is just a shift in perception from fear to love.” The transformative change is within us, not around us.

As we open our hearts for the coming of Jesus, might we be surprised to see that nothing, yet everything is changed? Will we see Him now in the beggar we bypassed just a month ago? Will we sit gratefully beside Him now in the church where we had ignored our neighbors? Will we recognize Him fully now in an aging parent, a distressed spouse, a demanding child? Will we meet him now in our own peaceful silence where before we had obliterated him in a flurry of distractions?

“Behold your God!” is clearly an invitation to bask – awestruck – in Christ, the fulfillment of our hope. It is also a profound invitation to free ourselves of any graceless complacency which hides the ever-incarnate God from our daily sight.

Music: O Come – The Porter’s Gate

[Verse 1]
For those who walk in darkness
The sun is rising… rising, rising
The shadow dies
Our anguish flies
From dawn on high
Oh, Lord Jesus, come!

Oh, come!
Oh, come!

[Verse 2]
The yoke upon our shoulders
Is finally breaking… breaking, breaking
Our burdens gone
In that bright dawn
When He has come
Oh, Lord Jesus, come!

Oh, come!
Oh, come!
Oh, come!

[Verse 3]
The Son to us is given
And we are waiting… waiting, waiting
Emmanuel
Oh Wonderful!
Your peace to tell
Oh, Lord Jesus, come!

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:

Click for Scripture

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

Click for Scripture