Category: spirituality

You Overwhelm Me

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, spiritualityLeave a comment

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 9, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100922.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, two significant themes in our readings are gift-giving and gratitude.

In our first reading Naaman, a pretty hot-shot Syrian commander, is a leper. He takes the advice of a captured Israel slave girl who encourages Naaman to seek a cure from Elisa the prophet.

As Naaman approaches, Elisha sends word  to rinse in the Jordan. Naaman, who is obviously accustomed to personalized subservience, is not happy with Elisha’s absentee advice. Angry, Naaman sets out for home. But his servants encourage him to cool down and to act on Elisha’s instructions. 

Naaman receives the cure and he promises, half-heartedly, to from henceforth worship Yahweh. He then asks what he can pay for the gift of the cure. Elisha responds that there is no payment .

Notice: Naaman never says “Thank you”. Instead, he wants to pay, to owe nothing for the immense gift he has received. He doesn’t want to be beholden, even to God.

Elisha, in so many words, tells Naaman: What I was blessed to convey to you comes from God. The power is God’s. I am the instrument. You can’t buy or own it. I can’t sell it. It’s God’s – freely given.

2Tim2_9JPG

Paul repeats the theme to Timothy: the Word of God is not chained. God’s power, grace, and healing are given freely. We cannot earn them buy, them, control them, or ever thank God enough for them. But we should try.

In our Gospel, only one cured leper – a Samaritan – has the sense and humility to try to thank Jesus. Born of his faith, that gratitude saves him.

God is Infinite Gift. God’s love pours over us spontaneously and continually to bring us to wholeness. God can’t help loving us and hoping for our completeness in grace.

May we be delivered from any speck of entitlement, indifference, arrogance, or ingratitude in the face of such Goodness!

Poetry: song for our poem today – Sarah Kelly – You Overwhelm Me

Music:  Thank You, Lord – Don Moen

Clothed in Grace and Kindness

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spiritualityLeave a comment

Saturday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
October 8, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100822.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Paul continues opening the minds and hearts of the Galatians to their new Christian identity. It is one inspired and impelled by faith rather than by mere observance of laws.

There are times when all religions, and some of their followers, still struggle with this truth. External observance is sometimes invoked as a measure of holiness or faithfulness. But law will never trump Love.

Just as in any human relationship, we cannot measure love and devotion by external signs. We can send a beloved bushels of flowers, but if our heart is distracted and lukewarm those flowers are a mockery.

Our Gospel tells us that the true measure of our devotion is how responsive we are to God’s Word – how “clothed” we are in Christ. The Psalm today invites us to “glory in God’s Holy Name”. We are to rest our souls in God, the way we might sink our sore body into a warm, healing bath. We are to “clothe” ourselves in the portion of God’s glory inherited through our Baptism.

I absolutely love the picture I’m sharing today. My grand-nephew stands in a stream of refreshing water, totally clothed in freedom, delighted and joyful. 

Ps 105_RG Glory

We stand in such a fountain of God’s infinite love and grace. May we glory in it, be healed by it, be enlivened by it, be a living blessing because of it.

Poetry: Kindness -Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to gaze at bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

Music: A precious song by John Nuttall – I Delight in You

Mary, Vessel of Grace

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Mary, spiritualityLeave a comment

Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary
October 7, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100722.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we encounter readings that are probably not among anyone’s favorites. In the epistle, Paul is trying to demonstrate to the Galatians how blessed they are to have inherited the promise given to Abraham. 

In the Gospel, there is a lot of talk about evil spirits, divided kingdoms, and good old Beelzebub. It’s not really a day when you’ll say, “Gosh, those readings inspired me!”

Is it worth sticking with the daily readings in such a case?  I think so.

Ps111_grateful heart

There is always a string lying among these sacred words that we can tie to our own hearts. For me today, that string is wrapped around the Responsorial Psalm:

I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart.

Just as the Galatians have inherited God’s promise, so have we. Just as the Kingdom of God has come upon Jesus’ followers, it has come upon us. God’s fidelity remains with us through all the “demons” that might annoy or threaten us. God’s graciousness has already redeemed us for an eternal life beyond their reach.

So let’s have intentionally grateful hearts today. Everything – yes, everything – in our lives is a gift, if we but have the grace to unwrap it with humility, openness and gratitude.

On this day when we pray in a special way to Our Lady of the Rosary, we can take the opportunity, while fingering our beads, to relive her life with her. We talk with her about the major mysteries of our own lives which have invited us to birth Christ into our own times and experiences.

Poetry: Theotokos – Malcolm Guite

You bore for me the One who came to bless
And bear for all and make the broken whole.
You heard His call and in your open ‘yes’
You spoke aloud for every living soul.
Oh gracious Lady, child of your own child,
Whose mother-love still calls the child in me,
Call me again, for I am lost, and  wild
Waves suround me now. On this dark sea
Shine as a star and call me to the shore.
Open the door that all my sins would close
And hold me in your garden. Let me share
The prayer that folds the petals of the Rose.
Enfold me too in Love’s last mystery
And bring me to the One you bore for me.

Music: Give Thanks ~Don Moen

Does God hear Me Knocking?

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, spiritualityLeave a comment

Thursday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
October 6, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100622.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Gospel gives us three comforting invitations and assurances:

Ask, knock, seek. 
If you do, you shall
receive, be welcomed, find.

That’s nice, isn’t it? But does it really work? I’ve asked for a lot of things I haven’t received. I’ve knocked and sought answers that never came to me. What about you?

Lk11_9 Ask

Perhaps we’ve been reading the passage with a closed heart.  This Gospel may be more remarkable for what it does NOT say than for what it says.

It says ask, not ask FOR something.
It says knock, not BURST IN.
It says seek, not seek AFTER something.

The reading is not about getting our particular requests presented before, heard and answered by God. It is not about how to visit a “Santa Claus” God with our wish list and get everything we asked for.

  • It is, instead, about recognizing our emptiness, and asking God to fill it – in whatever way God wishes.
  • It is about recognizing that the Spirit lives in a deeper place in our lives – a place that is opened to us only by prayer and trust.
  • It is about seeking God and God’s desire for us, far beyond any tangible gift.

When we’ve done this kind of asking, knocking and seeking, we have no “answered prayers” to show for it. Instead, we are changed in the way rivers are changed by the rush of melting mountain snows. We are fed, the way trees are fed by the rain disappearing at their roots. We are at peace, the way the deep ocean lies in peace despite any surface storm.

Poetry: from Rumi

One went to the door of the Beloved and knocked.
A voice asked: “Who is there?” He answered: “It is I.”
The voice said: “There is no room here for me and thee.”
The door was shut.
After a year of solitude and deprivation
this man returned to the door of the Beloved.
He knocked.
A voice from within asked: “Who is there?”
The man said: “It is Thou.”
The door was opened for him.

Music: A delightful song from the 60s that will charm you and stick in your head all day. 

And the Love Come Trickling Down ~ The Womenfolk

Praying with Jesus

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Jesus, spiritualityLeave a comment

Wednesday of the Twenty-seventh Week in Ordinary Time
October 5, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100522.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Paul and Peter have a big fight – two of the Greats take it to the mat over an issue of inclusivity in the early Church.

To put the episode in a nutshell, Peter had succumbed to political pressure from Jewish Christians to isolate non-Jewish Christians from full participation in the Church. The pressure was rooted in nationalism, religious prejudice and unexamined fear. Peter, in an attempt to manage these forces, made a huge misstep.

Paul, seeing that Peter’s actions would set a dangerous and divisive precedent in the emerging Church, confronted him before the whole community. For a moment in time, these two pillars of Christianity stood on separate shores.

Lk11_2 Pray

Ultimately, through prayer, respect and discernment, Peter and Paul continued together to shepherd the embryonic Church toward a new reality – one built on, but beyond, the Judaism in which they both had been raised.

The Church, as a living reality, will always be challenged by issues of growth, identity, inclusion and other concerns. But as soon as we define ourselves as anything other than simply Christians, we run the risk of moving to our own “separate shores”. 

We are not conservative or liberal Christians. We are not American, or European or Asian Christians. We are not gay or straight, Black or White, male or female, rich or poor Christians.

We are all sisters and brothers in the Gospel of Christ, standing on the same shore with Him, praying to our one Father. May this shared prayer help us to become who we are called to be.

Poetry: Our Father – Malcolm Guite

I heard him call you his beloved son
And saw his Spirit lighten like a dove,
I thought his words must be for you alone,
Knowing myself unworthy of his love.
You pray in close communion with your Father,
So close you say the two of you are one,
I feel myself to be receding further,
Fallen away and outcast and alone.
And so I come and ask you how to pray,
Seeking a distant supplicant’s petition,
Only to find you give your words away,
As though I stood with you in your position,
As though your Father were my Father too,
As though I found his ‘welcome home’ in you.

Music: Lord, Teach Us to Pray ~ Joe Wise

Learn What’s Important

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, friendship, holiness, spirituality3 Comments

Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi
October 4, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100422.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Martha and Mary. These sisters are the personification of the Benedictine motto: Ora et labora: Pray and work – the two essentials that we all struggle to balance in our lives.

They, with their brother Lazarus, are dear friends of Jesus. The scriptures show us that Jesus felt comfortable at their home, and that they loved to have him stay with them.

As all of us do with our closest friends, Jesus understood the lights and shadows of their personalities – and they of his. He knew that Martha was the organizer, the one who planned and worried about the incidentals. Mary was deeply spiritual, but maybe had her head in the clouds a bit when it came to getting things done. 

Perhaps these personality differences caused some tensions between the sisters, as they might between us and our family members or close friends. Sometimes these little, unnoticed frictions can suddenly become chasms between us and those we love. 

How and why does it happen?

Jesus gives us the answer in this Gospel passage. He hears Martha’s simmering frustration. He calms her, as one might a child – “Martha, Martha…”. We can hear his gentle tone. Jesus tells her that worry and anxiety are signs that we are not spiritually free. He tells her that Mary has focused on the important thing.

This may sound repetitious, but just think about it a while:

It is so important to know what is important. 

It is so freeing to agree on what matters with those closest to us. Talking with each other in openness, respect, and unconditional love is the only path to that freedom.

Maybe Martha and Mary slipped off that path a bit in this situation. But with Jesus’ help, they righted their relationship. 

That’s the best way for us to do it too. Let Jesus show us what is most important through sharing our faith, and even our prayer, with those closest to us. Let him show us where our self-interests, need for control, fears and anxieties are blocking us from love and freedom.

It is the same way that we, like Mary, can strengthen our relationship with God. It is not sufficient for our prayer to consist of incidentals — pretty words and empty practices. 

We must sit open-hearted at the feet of Jesus and let him love us, let him change us. Even in the midst of our responsibilities and duties, we must balance “the better part”.

Poetry: Bethany Decisions – Irene Zimmerman, OSF – How appropriate to have this wonderful Franciscan poet speak to us on this Feast of St. Francis. Let us thank God today for the wonderful charism of this saint from Assisi, and for the amazingly gifted women and men who carry it to us today.

As Jesus taught the gathered brothers
and Martha boiled and baked their dinner,
Mary eavesdropped in the anteroom
between the great hall and the kitchen.
Her dying mother’s warning words
clanged clearly in her memory—
“Obey your sister. She has learned
the ways and duties of a woman.”

She’d learned her sister’s lessons well
and knew a woman’s place was not
to sit and listen and be taught.
But when she heard the voice of Jesus
call to her above the din
of Martha’s boiling pots and pans,
she made her choice decisively—
took off her apron and traditions,
and walked in.

Music: a charming little song by Peg Angell which leaves me with same practical question I always have when reading this passage: who actually did get the dinner ready?

One Family – Like It or Not!

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Faith, inclusivity, Mercy, Prayer, spirituality5 Comments

Monday of the Twenty-Seventh Week in Ordinary Time
October 3, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100322.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Gospel gives us the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is a story in which we can all find ourselves, maybe changing roles in the changing circumstances of our lives.

IMG_6600

Have we ever been the robbers, the bullies, the outlaws who in some way used force or subterfuge to gain their own advantage? We don’t have to be a criminal to do this. We can do it by our prejudices, our preferential treatment, our gossip, our secrets and our cliques. We can do it by our uninformed or willful choices which deprive others of their needs and rights.

Have we ever been the Levite, the one who claims a special religious place by family heritage? Have we ever, like the Levite in the parable, bypassed someone because of her religion or ethnic origins – because she isn’t “like us”?

Have we ever been this pathetic priest who so completely misunderstands the role of minister – who ignores God’s suffering creature for fear of some imagined contamination?

Have we ever been the victim, the one set upon by the meanness of others, the one unable to heal himself from injury? Has the memory made us more like the Samaritan or like the robbers once we were healed?

And finally, have we ever been the Samaritan? Do we even want to be? Or do we think him foolish to have given his own time and treasure for a stranger?

This parable is a study in differences and how we respond to them. Some use differences to separate rather than enrich their world. They fail to understand that we all belong to each other and will live forever as one family in heaven. If we don’t learn to do it in this life, we won’t be part of it in the life to come.

Realizing this may change how we might have responded on that ancient road – or the road right now where we’re all just walking each other home.

Poetry: Vagrant – Mary Wickham, rsm

I am the mad one you will not shelter;
I am the beggar you will not own;
I am the ranter, the intemperate raver;
I am the self you hurl from home.
My passion frightens and dismays you,
I am garrulously obscene and wild.
My rage your own unleashes for view;
I am your willful, untameable child.
Reject, deny, revile, deride me-
until you embrace me I am bound;
my need will cry till I am free,
you are lost unless I am found.

Music: Take All the Lost Home ~ Joe Wise

Your Life Spells It Out!

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

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 2, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100222.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy,  our readings combine to offer us a powerful message: we are the translators of God’s Word for our time. Our choices and actions for justice and mercy make the vision “readable” – visible for our sisters and brothers.

Hab2_2 vision

Habakkuk starts our challenge. He is in a bit of a struggle with God, asking repeatedly how long God is going to allow the people to suffer. ( I have had similar conversations with God, especially during these charged political times).

In so many words, God tells Habakkuk to look to his faith – his vision through God’s eyes. God sees that “the just one, because of his faith, shall live.” God tells him to “write the vision down”, to make it apparent in his own choices and actions for justice and mercy. In other words, Habakkuk, I’ve done what I am going to do. The rest is up to you, Buddy!

In a similar way, Paul reminds Timothy to “stir up the flame” – the gift of God given at his profession of faith. Paul reminds Timothy that, by grace, he knows what is right and just. He must not be chicken about living and speaking that Truth – to write the vision down by his choices and actions for justice and mercy.

In our Gospel, the disciples seem to want their faith increased because the commitment to witness is scary. They think they might feel a little better about it all if their faith consoled them more. But “writing the vision with our lives” takes guts, and the disciples seem a little lacking in today’s reading.

Jesus tells them to buck up. They are blessed to serve the Word of God by the witness of their lives. It won’t always feel good, safe or successful. Still they, and we, must unfailingly write the vision down by our choices and actions for justice and mercy, because even …

When you have done all you have been commanded,
say, ‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.

Jesus calls it like it is today. We are blessed to be God’s translators. We have an undeniable call to live God’s just and merciful vision. No excuses. Get it together. Keep the pencil sharp. No asking God when He’s going to make things better. The legible (just and merciful) translation depends on us!

Poetry: Abou Ben Adhem – Leigh Hunt

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!) 
And saw, within the moonlight in his room, 
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom, 
An angel writing in a book of gold:— 
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold, 
And to the presence in the room he said, 
“What writest thou?”—The vision raised its head, 
And with a look made of all sweet accord, 
Answered, “The names of those who love the Lord.” 
“And is mine one?” said Abou. “Nay, not so,” 
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low, 
But cheerly still; and said, “I pray thee, then, 
Write me as one that loves his fellow men.” 

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night 
It came again with a great wakening light, 
And showed the names whom love of God had blest, 
And lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest.

Music: The Vision – Patrick Love

Latter Days

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Faith, friendship, Love, spirituality1 Comment

Memorial of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church
Saturday, October 1, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/100122.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we read how Job’s elder years were blessed with peace and prosperity — beautiful gifts!

We want this serenity and peace for all of our dear elders. They have traveled the road ahead of us, often showing us the way.

Job42_12

All of our beloved elders need and deserve appreciative love and respect from us. Tell your parents, grandparents and older friends what a blessing they are to you. Let them know they have shone a light on your path.

The writer imagines Job sitting with his children in the midst of his latter riches, having found a deep friendship with God through all the challenges of his life. His household has been blessed with the same friendship by learning from Job’s ardent faith.

Many times our elders need us to listen to their journey story. I remember a much older friend sadly telling me that no one was alive who shared her memories. Her words struck me as I realized the deep loneliness which accompanied them.

Our elders may need us to help them remember the worth and beauty of their long years. Even in advanced age, some may still be carrying regrets that we might help them forgive in themselves. Certainly all still bear losses that they may need to remember with us, and blessings that they need to re-celebrate in stories.

May we never take for granted what we have been given by the ones who go before us, on whose shoulders we stand. The simple act of listening may be the most perfect way to say “Thank You”.

Poetry: When You Are Old – William Butler Yeats
in this tender poem, Yeats writes to a young beloved about what her old age should be like – remembering both her own youth and his preceding death.

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Music: To God Be the Glory – André Crouch

Turn Toward Grace

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Faith, repentance, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church
September 30, 2022

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/093022.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Jesus castigates the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and even his beloved Capernaum for their lack of faith.

In these Galilean villages, nearby to his own hometown, Jesus has performed many of his miracles and cures. These people have been the audience for his most memorable sermons. But now, Jesus begins to meet resistance and doubt as his disciples assume greater participation in his ministry. 

Lk10_13 Chorazin

Jesus is preparing for the time when he will no longer be here. He wants to see strong faith in his followers, but he is disappointed. He tells the crowds that they will regret their hard-heartedness, their slowness of conversion. They will be more harshly judged because they failed to respond to more abundant graces.

This passage is filled with spiritual lessons. We, too, have received so many blessings from God. How have we responded? 

It is a sad thing to look back on any part of our lives with regret – to say, “I wish I had…” or “I wish I hadn’t”. The only benefit of such sadness is to learn a lesson for our future.

Let’s pray today to live ever more intentional lives – giving ourselves time to recognize and respond to our blessings, to the needs of others, and to the deepening call of faith within our spirits.

May this prayer help us turn our spirits from any crippling self-interest and lukewarm faith to a dynamic, life-giving spirituality. As our responsorial psalm today encourages us: “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.”

Poetry: Little Summer Poem Touching The Subject Of Faith by Mary Oliver

Every summer
I listen and look 
under the sun's brass and even
into the moonlight, but I can't hear
anything, I can't see anything -- 
not the pale roots digging down, nor the green 
stalks muscling up,
nor the leaves
deepening their damp pleats,
nor the tassels making,
nor the shucks, nor the cobs.
And still,
every day,
the leafy fields
grow taller and thicker -- 
green gowns lofting up in the night,
showered with silk. 
And so, every summer,
I fail as a witness, seeing nothing -- 
I am deaf too
to the tick of the leaves, 
the tapping of downwardness from the banyan feet -- 
all of it
happening
beyond any seeable proof, or hearable hum. 
And, therefore, let the immeasurable come.
Let the unknowable touch the buckle of my spine.
Let the wind turn in the trees,
and the mystery hidden in the dirt
swing through the air.
How could I look at anything in this world
and tremble, and grip my hands over my heart?
What should I fear? 
One morning
in the leafy green ocean
the honeycomb of the corn's beautiful body
is sure to be there.

Music: I Can Hear Your Voice ~ Michael W. Smith