Category: spirituality

“Ifs” and “In-Betweens”

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Faith, spirituality6 Comments

Monday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 10, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071023.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Genesis takes us deeper into the story of Jacob, and Matthew tells of a faith-filled centurion and a hope-filled woman. These are a wonderful narratives painted in images so intense that they have infused the prayers of generations.

Jacob’s Ladder by William Blake

Jacob and his mother have successfully stolen the birthright from Esau. But now Jacob, threatened with muder by his wronged brother, is an exile seeking a place to live out his life.

Jacob is on a journey in between his past and his future, between his choices and his regrets, between his security and his hope. He is in a place of momentous “ifs” because he has no “for sures” in hand.

Pausing at a shrine, Jacob sleeps and dreams of angels, of a laddered freeway to heaven. God appears and speaks to him, reiterating the essence of the Abrahamic promises.

By Divine Graciousness, God has intruded on Jacob’s “in-betweeness”

In you and your descendants
all the nations of the earth shall find blessing.
Know that I am with you;
I will protect you wherever you go,
and bring you back to this land.
I will never leave you until I have done what I promised you.”

Genesis 28:14-15

The experience moves Jacob to make a vow, hinged on a particular word of hope : IF

“If God remains with me,
to protect me on this journey I am making
and to give me enough bread to eat and clothing to wear,
and I come back safe to my father’s house, the LORD shall be my God.
This stone that I have set up as a memorial stone shall be God’s abode.”

Genesis 28:20-22

If I But Touch the Hem by James Tissot

In our Gospel, the suffering woman pivots her hope on the same word: IF

A woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him
and touched the tassel on his cloak.
She said to herself, “If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured.”
Jesus turned around and saw her, and said,
“”Courage, daughter! Your faith has saved you.””
And from that hour the woman was cured.

Matthew 9:20-22

It is clear from God’s spontaneous generosity in both these passages that Divine Mercy does not swing on an “IF“. God waits for us to open our hearts. God’s Promise is constant, and God’s Will for our wholeness in immutable. The “IFs” are our constructions, not God’s. God is with us no matter what, not if.

Most of our life is spent atwix one thing and another – between youth and old age, sickness and healing, security and contentment, courage and fear, indifference and awareness … beginnings and endings in a thousand forms. It is at these in-between places that God waits for us, as God did for Jacob, as Jesus did for the suffering woman.

“In-between” is usually an uncomfortable place because we are stretched between growth and passivity. But in the stretch, we may find a holy place, as Jacob did. In the reach of our heart for the hem of God’s garment we, like the extravasating woman, may find new life.

Poetry: That Passeth All Understanding – Denise Levertov

An awe so quiet 
I don’t know when it began. 

A gratitude 
had begun 
to sing in me. 

Was there 
some moment 
dividing 
song from no song? 

When does dewfall begin? 

When does night 
fold its arms over our hearts 
to cherish them? 

When is daybreak?

Music: In Between – J.J. Pfeifer (lyrics below)

In between the day and the night
In between the dark and the light
In between what′s wrong and what’s right
I′ll find you

I’m not really sure just why I care
My heart is broken and I’m scared
Walls are coming down
My defense is on the ground
I′m falling

In between the day and the night
In between the dark and the light
In between what′s wrong and what’s right
I′ll find you

I don’t want to lose you
Can′t stand the pain
I wanna feel the sun
Not always feel the rain
Walls are coming down
My defense is on the ground
I’m falling

In between the day and the night
In between the dark and the light
In between what′s wrong and what’s right
I’ll find you (find you)

I′ll find you
Forever beside you (beside you)
I′ll find you
Breathing inside you
I’ll find you

I′ll find you
I’ll find you

God’s Silent Power

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Discipleship, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality8 Comments

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 9, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070923.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings lead us to a converted understanding of life, one that couterposes war and peace, flesh and spirit, labor and rest.

Zechariah describes it.
He shall banish the chariot from Ephraim,
and the horse from Jerusalem;
the warrior’s bow shall be banished,
and he shall proclaim peace to the nations.

Paul preaches it.
We are not debtors to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh. 
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.

Jesus invites us to it.
Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves. 
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.

What do the prophet, the preacher, and the Messiah ask of us in these readings? What does the Church ask by grouping them for this Fourteenth Sunday?

These readings ask us to turn our lives upside down. By describing what the Reign of God is like, these readings challenge us to confront the commonly accepted misperceptions of our world and turn them inside out.

Zechariah tells us that the Reign of God is not accomplished by war or any other expression of human power over Creation. It is accomplished by the meek and humble justice which pours mercy over all of us:

Rejoice heartily, O daughter Zion,
shout for joy, O daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king shall come to you;
a just savior is he,
meek, and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9:9

Paul tells us that the Reign of God blossoms from the Spirit of Christ within us and not from any material appearance of success – be it beauty, wealth, physical strength, or wrested power.

If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you,
the one who raised Christ from the dead
will give life to your mortal bodies also,
through his Spirit that dwells in you.
Consequently, brothers and sisters,
we are not debtors to the flesh,
to live according to the flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die,
but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body,
you will live.

Romans 8: 11-13

Jesus, reminiscent of Zechariah, invites us to rest in the mystery of God’s humble love for us – expressed in the very Person of Christ given for our redemption.

Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
and you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.

Matthew 11:28-30

These passages are dense with meaning and mystery. In holy contradiction to a soulless world, they call us to live in, and witness to God’s Silent Power underlying life’s visible appearances. Within this Power, the peacful are the conquerers, the spiritual are the fulfilled, and those bearing the yoke of Christ are freed.

Poetry: The Ponds ― Mary Oliver, from House of Light

Every year
the lilies
are so perfect
I can hardly believe

their lapped light crowding
the black,
mid-summer ponds.
Nobody could count all of them --

the muskrats swimming
among the pads and the grasses
can reach out
their muscular arms and touch

only so many, they are that
rife and wild.
But what in this world
is perfect?

I bend closer and see
how this one is clearly lopsided --
and that one wears an orange blight --
and this one is a glossy cheek

half nibbled away --
and that one is a slumped purse
full of its own
unstoppable decay.

Still, what I want in my life
is to be willing
to be dazzled --
to cast aside the weight of facts

and maybe even
to float a little
above this difficult world.
I want to believe I am looking

into the white fire of a great mystery.
I want to believe that the imperfections are nothing --
that the light is everything -- that it is more than the sum
of each flawed blossom rising and fading. And I do.

Music: Invisible Peace – F.C. Perini

The Promise Survives Deception

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, spirituality1 Comment

Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 8, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070823.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Genesis presents us with a story that may make us pick sides.

Jacob Deceives Isaac (Rebekah in back). James Jacques Joseph Tissot. c. 1896-1902.

(All I can say is that Esau must have been one hairy dude!)

Old, blind Isaac, sensing death on the horizon, dramatically prepares to hand over the promise to Esau. But his wife Rebekah has other ideas:

Rebekah then took the best clothes of her older son Esau
that she had in the house,
and gave them to her younger son Jacob to wear;
and with the skins of the kids she covered up his hands
and the hairless parts of his neck.
Then she handed her son Jacob the appetizing dish
and the bread she had prepared.

Genesis 27:15-17

It’s a fascinating and powerful narrative. I can see the movie trailer in my mind’s eye:

Watch as “The Promise” is passed to the wrong son
by means of his mother’s deception.

So is that what the story is about? Well, only on the surface.

The real story stars an Actor who is never mentioned in the script:

God, the Promise Keeper

This Bible passage teaches that God does not deviate from the Promise, no matter how the other players manipulate its unfolding. God performs the Promise despite human fiddling.

Friends, aren’t we just a little bit like Rebekah and Jacob? When our life’s dramas swirl around us, don’t we make every effort possible to salvage our own designs? It’s human nature, and it’s all good.

But all the same, God must smile at us and our sometimes frenzied efforts to control our lives. I think God smiled like that at Rebekah, covering her favorite son with smelly sheepskins so as to deceive her hungry husband.

Rebekah thought she had a better plan, but it was God’s plan all the time!

It takes some of us so long to realize that we can’t control much of our life. We can only engage our days, trusting that, as they unfold for us, they carry the promise and will of God for our hallowing.

By grace, we can learn to receive our lives as an infinite river of blessing, with all its natural turns. We can pray to trust that blessing when it is hidden in the curve of life’s shadows.

In our Gospel, the Baptist’s disciples are confused by Jesus’ behavior because it contradicts the old Law which offered them a controllable path to holiness.

Jesus tells them that the Law of Requirements is no longer sufficient. It is an old wineskin.
With the new wine of the Gospel, He is calling them to trust and enfold themselves in the Law of Love.

No one patches an old cloak with a piece of unshrunken cloth,
for its fullness pulls away from the cloak and the tear gets worse.
People do not put new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined.
Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.

Matthew 9:16-17

Poetry: Late Ripeness – Czeslaw Milosz

Not soon, as late as the approach of my ninetieth year,
I felt a door opening in me and I entered
the clarity of early morning.
One after another my former lives were departing,
Like ships, together with their sorrow.
And the countries, cities, gardens, the bays of seas
assigned to my brush came closer,
ready now to be described better than they were before.
I was not separated from people,
grief and pity joined us.
We forget -- I kept saying -- that we are all children of
the King.
For where we come from there is no division
Into Yes and No, into is, was, and it will be.
We were miserable, we used no more than a hundredth part
of the gift we received for our long journey.
Moments from yesterday and from centuries ago --
a sword blow, the painting of eyelashes before a mirror
of polished metal, a lethal musket shot, a caravel
staving its hull against a reef -- they dwell in us,
waiting for a fulfillment.
I knew, always, that I would be a worker in the vineyard,
as are all men and women living at the same time,
whether they are aware of it or not.

Music: Piano and Flute Meditation – by Laura Sullivan

Universal Call

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

Friday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 7, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070723.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, each of our readings presents a story of vocation and how it is fulfilled in a lifespan.

Our reading from Genesis describes four people at different stages of their life’s vocation: Abraham and Sarah in its fulfillment, Isaac and Rebekah in its initial hope.

For my prayer, I focused on Abraham who is closing out his story in peace, prosperity, and active hope for a future he will not see:

Abraham had now reached a ripe old age,
and the LORD had blessed him in every way.
Abraham said to the senior servant of his household,
who had charge of all his possessions:
“Put your hand under my thigh,
and I will make you swear by the LORD,
the God of heaven and the God of earth, …
… that you will go to my own land and to my kindred
to get a wife for my son Isaac.”

Genesis 24:1-4

Both Abraham and Sarah lived long and fruitful lives, matured in faith, and died in peace. Through the extensive history of their lives, they listened to and trusted God (on and off!), acted for God’s glory, and guided their household in God’s way.

They listened, responded and connected their lives irrevocably to God’s vision.
It is at once a simple and a challenging formula for spiritual fulfillment.

In our Gospel, Matthew is called to the same formula which is the underpinning of any vocation:

As Jesus passed by,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “”Follow me.””
And he got up and followed him.
While he was at table in his house,
many tax collectors and sinners came
and sat with Jesus and his disciples.
The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples,
“”Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?””
He heard this and said,
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
Go and learn the meaning of the words,
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

Matthew 9:9-12

Matthew listens to Jesus’ call, responds,
and connects his life irrevocably to Jesus’ vision.

The continuing call for each of us is clear. Each of our lives offers us a particular expression of “vocation”. It may be as religious, priest, parent, spouse, family member, teacher, caregiver, public servant, or any other role that places us in loving and responsible relationship with our neighbor.

In that role, can we/do we:

  • listen for God in every circumstance
  • respond in faith, hope, and love
  • witness a Christ-rooted life by our actions for Gospel justice and mercy

Poetry: Vocation by William E. Stafford

This dream the world is having about itself 
includes a trace on the plains of the Oregon trail, 
a groove in the grass my father showed us all 
one day while meadowlarks were trying to tell
something better about to happen. 

I dreamed the trace to the mountains, over the hills, 
and there a girl who belonged wherever she was; 
but then my mother called us back to the car: 
she was afraid; she always blamed the place,
the time, anything my father planned. 

Now both of my parents, the long line through the plain, 
the meadowlarks, the sky, the world's whole dream 
remain, and I hear him say while I stand between the two,
helpless, both of them part of me:
"Your job is to find what the world is trying to be."

Music: The Call – Celtic Women sing a song written by Anthony Downes

God Will Provide

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Faith, spirituality3 Comments

Thursday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 6, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070623.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we are challenged by one of the most difficult passages in Genesis – the testing of Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

The USCCB website says this about the passage:

The story is widely recognized as a literary masterpiece, depicting in a few lines God as the absolute Lord, inscrutable yet ultimately gracious, and Abraham, acting in moral grandeur as the great ancestor of Israel.

Walter Brueggeman agrees:

This chapter is among the best known and theologically most demanding in the Abraham tradition. It poses acute questions about the nature of faith and the way of God with his faithful creature.

Nevertheless, I have always been repelled by the story of Isaac’s sacrifice. On a human level, it leaves me with a bad taste for Abraham and – yes – even for God. I have made all kinds of excuses for why such a violent story is even included in sacred scripture. And in all these resistant machinations, I have missed the whole point of this Biblical classic.

This is not a story about father/son conflict, or an angry god, or of human sacrifice.

This is a story about learning to live a life of resolute and complete faith.

When I prayed with the verses in that light, I remembered how God has been wound into my life in the very ways we find in this passage.

I’m sure, dear readers, that each one of you, like me, has heard God’s call many times in your life, trusted God’s promise to lead you, and yet run into a few brick walls along the way. Some of these walls may have been huge, threatening to separate you from your life’s treasures: your health, hope, loves, achievements, reputation or chosen future.

That’s what happened to Abraham. Isaac was his treasure. When that treasure was threatened, could Abraham retain unquestioning trust in God?

We find the answer in verse 8:

As the two walked on together, Isaac spoke to his father Abraham:
“Father!” he said.
“Yes, son,” he replied.
Isaac continued, “Here are the fire and the wood,
but where is the sheep for the burnt offering?”
“Son,” Abraham answered,
“God himself will provide the sheep for the burnt offering.“
Then the two continued going forward.

God himself will provide…

… the expression of absolute trust

Although the wall may separate him from everything else, Abraham will not allow it to separate him from God. He does all that is required of him, and then he chooses to trust. And in that choice, all things are transformed and restored to Abraham.

Like Abraham, by our choice to trust and believe, we free God to be God for us. We have no control over the walls life might throw before us. But we can control how we face them. We are freed for new life by trusting that God will deliver us from every evil, even if it be in ways we would never design or imagine ourselves.

Even though it was centuries before Jesus gave us the prayer, I imagine Abraham climbing Mt. Moriah with sentiments similar to the Our Father in his heart:

Our Father,  in heaven
holy is your Name.
May your holy balance come to us,
Your Will be done, here,
as it is in heaven.
Give us today what we need to survive,
and forgive us for choosing darkness
when you have offered us your Light.
Lead us not head first 
into the walls that threaten,
but deliver us from evil.
For You are God, and that is enough for us,
in all things and forever.
Amen.

Music: Faithful Now – Vertical Worship

Don’t Be Afraid

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Faith, justice, spirituality5 Comments

Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 5, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070523.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings encourage us not to be afraid.

“Do not be afraid”, or one of its many forms (e.g. “take courage”, “be at peace”), is a phrase that appears frequently in scripture. It is often uttered by God. And it usually occurs at a point of human desperation but spiritual opportunity for the one who actually is afraid.

Today, Genesis offers us the story of Hagar, the enslaved concubine of Abraham and mother of his eldest son Ishmael. Hagar draws the fearful scorn of Sarah after Sarah bears Isaac. Sarah is afraid that the older boy, Ismael, will inherit what she wants only for her own son. Sarah forces Abraham to send Hagar away as our passage today describes:

Sarah noticed the son whom Hagar the Egyptian
had borne to Abraham
playing with her son Isaac;
so she demanded of Abraham:
“Drive out that slave and her son!
No son of that slave is going to share the inheritance
with my son Isaac!”

Genesis 21:9-10

Sarah is worried about Abraham’s material legacy, but God knows there is an infinitely greater endowment to be left to the children of Abraham. God does not limit that promise to Isaac alone:

God said to Abraham: “Do not be distressed about the boy
or about your slave woman.
Heed the demands of Sarah, no matter what she is asking of you;
for it is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name.
As for the son of the slave woman,
I will make a great nation of him also,
since he too is your offspring.”

Gemesis 21:12-13

Poor Hagar trods off into the desert with baby Ismael where, finally bereft of water, food, and energy she sits down near some bushes to die.

As she sat opposite Ishmael, he began to cry.
God heard the boy’s cry,
and God’s messenger called to Hagar from heaven:
“What is the matter, Hagar?
Don’t be afraid; God has heard the boy’s cry in this plight of his.
Arise, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand;
for I will make of him a great nation.”
Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water.
She went and filled the skin with water, and then let the boy drink.

Genesis 21:14-19

God opened Hagar’s eyes and she could see the means of her survival – a fresh well in the desert.

“Seeing” is a key reflection point of this passage. When no one else cared to see Hagar as a person, God saw her. When Hagar was at the very edge of existence, her spiritual eyes were cleared and she saw God.

This passage from Genesis invites us to reflect on:

  • times we have felt “invisible” or afraid in our lives, and how that circumstance may have offered us a new understanding of God
  • times when we have been blind to the fear or desperation of others who needed us to notice their marginalization

Hagar, (like Adam, Abraham, Jonah, David, Ruth), is an archetype of the Hebrew Scriptures. Yet her powerful story often takes second place to those of the great ancestors, just as she herself took second place to Sarah in the Abrahamic canon. I found an excellent article about Hagar as I prepared this reflection. If you would like to read it, the link is below.

https://digitalcommons.denison.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1096&context=religion

Poetry: I Return to the Church – Carolyn Marie Rogers

I like this poem because it speaks to me of the appreciation which grows in us as we mature in faith and experience. The poet seems to have passed through a “desert”, from youth to a later age. It is only then that she recognizes all the grace she did not “see” in her earlier life.

Spoons of love and
grace, mushy with mercy,
like oatmeal in a bowl
hushes my mouth into
sugary sweet solemnity.
A neophyte’s reverence.
Holiness. Me. God’s witness
recipient.
A finger to make a cross
across my lips.
And is this love?
Oh yes, this is love
when I come, returned from
the world from walking through
hells, my hungry years.
Hunger that is called youth
looking for rainbows, promised
lands, edens, and paradises.
Only to find it all
that I left behind, that
I could not see like Hagar.
And I did not
even know the word,
desert.

Music: Hagar’s Song – Sue Hahn, writer; Amanda Hopper, vocalist (lyrics below)

A life of injustice is all I have known.
Shamed and mistreated I’ve never been loved.
My dignity’s taken. I finally fled
alone and forsaken in this wilderness

You speak my name like you really know me.
You ask where I’ve come from 
and where I am going
You tell me return, there is no need to run.
You give me your blessing, a name for my son.

You are the God who sees me.
You are the God who hears me.
You keep all your promises.
You know all my fears.
You met me in my wilderness
wandering in despair.
I will choose to trust and obey.
You are the God who cares.

Now we are abandoned, 
a wasteland to roam.
My son won’t survive here,
nowhere to call home.
Life seems so hopeless.
We’ve cried all we can.
I thought you’d protect us .
Did I misunderstand?

You speak my name,
“Hagar, Don’t Be Afraid”.
You’ve seen all our tears 
and your plan hasn’t changed.
They’ve reawakened, 
you open my eyes.
A well in the desert proves
You will provide.

You are the God who sees me.
You are the God who hears me
You keep promises.
You know all my fears.
You met me in my wilderness
wandering in despair.
I will choose to trust and obey.
You are the God who cares
This is not the path I would have chosen
but it’s the one that led me straight to You.
Just when I was sure my life was over
You retold my story with your truth.
You see me; You know me.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
you see me and you know me
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Chaos, Prayer, and Mercy

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Gospel, Scripture, spiritualityLeave a comment

Tuesday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 4, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070423.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we resume our readings from Genesis and Matthew – and they’re packed with action and inspiration!

Sodom and Gomorrha by Henry Osawa Tanner

(Note Lot’s wife left behind in white)

If you’re “of an age” like me, you might remember your old Bible History class and first hearing the story of Lot and his “mortonized” wife.

I spent a lot of my 7-year-old energy wondering what she looked like as a salty pillar. I even imagined how she might have melted in the next rain after the meteor set Sodom on fire.

But most of all, I felt bad for her. I mean, really, one glance backward and ZAP! And by correlation, I felt bad for myself because, even at that young age, I realized that I was quite capable of backward glances once God had spoken. And it scared me.

Was God really like that?!

Looking back on those childhood feelings, I consider how my faith and perception of God have evolved over the course of my now long life. The God of my grade school years was not the God of my late teens and twenties. Nor was that God of my young adulthood the God of my 50s and 60s.

Did God grow and change during those years? Of course not. It was I who deepened, widened, and mellowed in experience and grace.

The stories in Genesis, and throughout the Hebrew Scriptures, were told and interpreted over many centuries before they were ever written down. After being written down, they have continued to be studied and parsed even into our own times.

Just as we grow in the spiritual understanding of our own lives, we mature in our ability to look through the surface of scriptures to their deep and sacred meaning.

As Christians, we must read the ancient scriptures in the light of the Gospel. We have the advantage and responsibility to seek the deep spiritual understanding resident within these stories. Buried in a sometimes bizarre passage is the fundamental truth of God’s abiding Presence, no matter our circumstances.

The particular words used to convey these stories were designed for and by people of a very different culture from ours. Some of the concepts are relayed in a primitive manner that may not speak to a modern reader. But we can’t let ourselves get stuck on those cultural differences — the way I did when I was seven years old.

The story of Abraham, Lot and Lot’s wife is not a news report about some family that avoids a natural disaster save for one disobedient member.

It is instead a parable which invites us to consider God’s persistent desire for our wholeness despite our own resistance to that grace. If we continually harden our spirits to God’s invitation to relationship, it is we, not God, who make the choice to distance ourselves in spiritual exile.

Yet, Genesis tells us that, even if we make that distancing choice, all is not lost. We cannot cause God to disassociate from us, no matter how hard we might try. There is always a path back to the heart of God – even if it leads through a storm of brimstone.

As our Gospel assures us, even in the scariest of storms, our God is with us:

They came and woke him, saying,
“Lord, save us! We are perishing!”
He said to them, “Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?”
Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea,
and there was great calm.

Poetry: Lot’s Wife – Anna Akhmatova

And the just man trailed God's shining agent,
over a black mountain, in his giant track,
while a restless voice kept harrying his woman:
"It's not too late, you can still look back
at the red towers of your native Sodom,
the square where once you sang, the spinning-shed,
at the empty windows set in the tall house
where sons and daughters blessed your marriage-bed."
A single glance: a sudden dart of pain
stitching her eyes before she made a sound . . .
Her body flaked into transparent salt,
and her swift legs rooted to the ground.
Who will grieve for this woman? Does she not seem
too insignificant for our concern?
Yet in my heart I never will deny her,
who suffered death because she chose to turn.

Music: The Love I Have for You , O Lord – sung by James Kilbane

Who Have Not Seen Yet Believe

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Discipleship, Faith, Jesus, spirituality1 Comment

Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle
July 3, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070323.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 117. We do so in the spirit of Thomas, who now offers his unquestioning faith to our patient and forgiving Jesus.

Praise the LORD, all you nations;
    glorify him, all you peoples!
For steadfast is his kindness for us,
    and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever

Psalm 117: 1-2

Faith is not a commodity or an achievement.
Faith is relationship and a journey.

It is a gift and an exercise of grace.
Never stretched, it withers like a brittle ligament.

It ebbs and flows with our personal and communal dramas.
It deepens with prayer, silent reaching, and a listening obedience to our lives.
It shallows with our demands, like Thomas’s, only to see and to touch.

It is fed by the Lavish Mercy of God Who never cuts its flow to our souls
if we but take down the seawall around our heart.

On this day when we celebrate the power of tested and proven faith,
may we bring our needs into the circle gathered in that Upper Room.

Standing beside Thomas today in our prayer,
may we place our trust in the glorified wounds of Christ.

A video today for our prayer: Blessed Are They That Have Not Seen

Music: Healing Touch – Deuter

As we reach out in faith with Thomas to touch Christ’s wounds, let us open our hearts to receive the returning touch of God’s Lavish Mercy.

Me? A Prophet?

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Courage, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, spirituality1 Comment

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 2, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070223.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings instruct us on the nature of prophecy.

Walter Bruggemann, in his transformational book “The Prophetic Imagination” writes about prophets. He indicates that prophets emerge in the context of “totalism” – those paralyzing systems which attempt to control and dominate all freedom and possibility.

Totalism kills ideas, hope, freedom, choice, self-determination, and creativity for the sake of controlling reality for its own advantage. Totalism is the ultimate “abusive relationship“. Examples in our society include cults, hate groups, mob rule, or any relationship that subjugates another’s free will.

Brueggemann defines the prophet as one engaged in these three tasks to restore hope and freedom:

  • the prophet is clear on the force and illegitimacy of the totalism.
  • the prophet pronounces the truth about the force of the totalism that contradicts the purpose of God.
  • the prophet articulates the alternative world that God has promised, and that God is actually creating within the chaos around us.

Our first reading comes from the Second Book of Kings which was written about 600 years before Christ. The Jewish people experienced the totalism of the Babylonian Captivity.. First and Second Kings was written to help the people understand their situation, to remain faithful to God, and to move toward freedom.

These two books are full of powerful figures pulling the people both toward and away from God – biblical Baddies and Goodies who carried profound messages about faith or its abandonment.

One of the Goodies is Elisha the Prophet whom we meet in today’s verses. Elisha confronts barrenness and death with the transformative power of faith. The Summanite woman is able to benefit from this power because she believes.

In our second reading, Paul doesn’t use the word “prophet” but he talks about the Resurrection Power we receive through our Baptism. This power calls us and confirms us as bearers of God’s transformative Word in a hostile and unfree world.

In our Gospel, Jesus is direct with his disciples about the rewards which fall to those who have prophetic faith:

“Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man
will receive a righteous man’s reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold water
to one of these little ones to drink
because the little one is a disciple—
amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

Matthew 10:40-42

So, are we actually called to be prophets? The answer is YES. We are called by the Gospel and through our Baptism to do what Walter Brueggemann describes above:

  • to name the structures of unfreedom in our lives and in our world
  • to speak truth and stand against those things which contradict God’s Mercy and Love
  • to witness hope and courage by the joyous, generous service of our lives

Photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash

Poetry: Onto a Vast Plane – Rainer Maria Rilke

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: When the Prophet Speaks – Van Morrison (lyrics below)

When the prophet speaks, mostly no one listens
When the prophet speaks and no one hears
Only those who have ears to listen
Only those that are trained to hear

Come closer now, I'll tell you what they whisper
Closer now, we'll whisper it in your ear
What big ears you've got when you get the details
Do you understand, do I make it clear?

When the prophet speaks, yeah, no one listens
When the prophet speaks, mostly no one hears
Only those that are trained to listen
Only those who have ears to hear

When the prophet speaks, yeah, no one listens
Baby, baby, baby, baby, baby
Don't you have no fear
You gotta get the truth on what is happening

When the prophet speaks, have to make it clear
Come closer now and I will whisper
Whisper the secret in your ear
What thick ears you've got when you get all the details

Do you understand, do I make myself clear?
When the prophet speaks, you've got to listen
When the prophet speaks, you've got to get the truth
When the prophet speaks, don't need no explanation

When the prophet speaks, have to make it move
Prophet speaks, no one listens
When the prophet speaks, mainly nobody hears
Only those that are trained to listen

Only those who have ears to hear

Is Anything Impossible for God?

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Gospel, healing, spirituality5 Comments

Saturday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
July 1, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070123.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings build on yesterday’s themes of promise and patience, faith and resistance.

The Trinity or The Hospitality of Abraham –
Icon by Sister Petra Clare

Genesis tells the rich and instructive story of the visiting angels who come as spokespeople for God’s Promise. Abraham, in a flurry of Middle Eastern hospitality convinces the three visitors to linger at his home. Exuding a deferential hospitality certain to gain them a blessing, Abraham and Sarah lay out a lovely dinner. The blessing comes in an unexpected reiteration of that nagging, and still unfulfilled, promise:

They asked him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” 
He replied, “There in the tent.” 
One of them said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year,
and Sarah will then have a son.”

Genesis 18:9-10

This time, post-menapausal Sarah has had it with the inconclusive, and seemingly outlandish, promise!

Sarah was listening at the entrance of the tent, just behind him.
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years,
and Sarah had stopped having her womanly periods.
So Sarah laughed to herself and said,
“Now that I am so withered and my husband is so old,
am I still to have sexual pleasure?”

Genesis 18:10-12

God doesn’t think it’s funny. To Abraham and Sarah, God poses the elemental faith question that will be posed to every potential believer:

But the LORD said to Abraham: “Why did Sarah laugh and say,
‘Shall I really bear a child, old as I am?’
Is anything too marvelous for the LORD to do?

Genesis 18:13

Our Gospel centurion has already answered that question for himself. When Jesus agrees to come heal the beloved suffering servant, the centurion expresses his humble and unconditional faith in God’s promise:

The centurion said in reply,
“Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof;
only say the word and my servant will be healed.”

Matthew 8:8

This prayer, repeated at every Eucharistic celebration, allows us to measure our own faith and to ask for our own healing.

Poetry: Thou Art Just Indeed, Lord, If I Contend – Gerard Manley Hopkins

Hopkins questions God about his suffering, stating that he’s a good priest and if God treats him this poorly, how must God treat enemies! Like Abraham, Hopkins needs fruitfulness – “send my roots rain?”

Justus quidem tu es, Domine, si disputem tecum; verumtamen
justa loquar ad te: Quare via impiorum prosperatur? &c.

Thou art indeed just, Lord, if I contend
With thee; but, sir, so what I plead is just.
Why do sinners’ ways prosper? and why must
Disappointment all I endeavour end?
Wert thou my enemy, O thou my friend,
How wouldst thou worse, I wonder, than thou dost
Defeat, thwart me? Oh, the sots and thralls of lust
Do in spare hours more thrive than I that spend,
Sir, life upon thy cause. See, banks and brakes
Now, leavèd how thick! lacèd they are again
With fretty chervil, look, and fresh wind shakes
Them; birds build – but not I build; no, but strain,
Time’s eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes.
Mine, O thou lord of life, send my roots rain.

Music: Abraham and Sarah – Bryan Sirchio

I just love this song. I hope you do too! Lyrics below.

Ha Ha Ha – Ho Ho Ho
I wonder what’s so funny?

Abraham and Sarah were very old and grey.
An angel of Lord showed up and said to them one day,
“I know you’re very old and that you’ve never had a kid,
but God says, “Better find a baby crib!”

And they said:
Ha Ha Ha – Ho Ho Ho
You can’t have a baby when you get this old.
Abraham and Sarah had to laugh.
Oh, bend at the knees

Ha Ha Ha – Ho Ho Ho
So now Abraham and Sarah know
that nothing is too hard for God.

Abraham and Sarah were very old and grey.
An angel of Lord showed up and said to them one day,
“I know you’re very old and that you’ve never had a kid,
but God says, “Better find a baby crib!”

And they said:
Ha Ha Ha – Ho Ho Ho
You can’t have a baby when you get this old.
Abraham and Sarah had to laugh.
Oh, bend at the knees

Ha Ha Ha – Ho Ho Ho
So now Abraham and Sarah know
that nothing is too hard for God.

And sure enough they had a baby
and they named the baby Isaac
which means “Laughter”!