Today, for your reflection, a poem I wrote decades go. I offer it today in memory of Judy Ward, RSM who passed away on September 27, 2025. Her life will be celebrated on October 2nd in a Mass of Christian Burialin the chapel at Mt. St. Mary, where Judy attended school, became a Sister of Mercy, and taught for many years.
Judy, a gifted artist, did so much to encourage me and to illustrate and promulgate my work. I will miss her generous kindness and her friendship.
October is a time when nature changes clothes. Leaves, like miniature volcanoes, flare up and die, ashes at the foot of a silent, seemingly immortal tree. Geese, having dawdled all summer in veiled expectation, suddenly leap into the clouds and disappear. These solemn miracles may incline us to consider our own impermanence and the gossamer phenomenon we call life.
Healing
Music: A Playlist of Autumn Music
For Your Reflection
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
I’m sure you’ve done some “Creative Thinking”, just staring into space and letting your mind wander in an attempt to address all worldly problems, personal and universal. One of the best places to do this is in a car or train when no one will interrupt you.
As I drove to work one morning several years ago. I was doing some of that “Creative Thinking “. But it was a special type that I call “Creatively Selfish Thinking”.
Now for those of you who are a lot more angelic than I, and have never engaged in this type of thinking, I will describe it. It’s a fruitless mental exercise that endlessly repeats phrases like, “How come I do all the work, and she gets all the credit?” Or, “How come she can eat anything she wants and never gain weight?” Or, “How come anytime I make a little mistake, it’s such a big deal?” Or, “How come I work so hard, and she has a nicer car?” And so on, and so on, and so on…..
That’s the kind of thinking I was doing that morning when God gave me a Divine “kick in the butt”, as my young nieces would describe. I thought I’d share it with you just in case you are ever tempted to feed your mind with unproductive, self-defeating thoughts.
The revelation came as I drove past the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia. Crossing the street in front of me walked a father and son. The little boy was no more than four years old. He held his Daddy’s hand, with his face turned upward toward him in a smile. In his other hand, the child held the smallest cane that I have ever seen — not much more than a foot long. Yet as poignant a picture as they made, it was a picture filled with happiness. Both were smiling. Both were obviously joyful in each other’s company. They seemed uncompromised by a burden so obvious to me.
As I continued along my journey, I heard a voice inside me say, “Why are you obsessing over things you can’t change? A loving God holds your hand in both light and darkness. God is walking beside you. God delights in your life, and rejoices when you are joyful. God surrounds you constantly with signs of love and grace. Feed your mind and soul on that Truth.”
That encounter was a real gift to me. I thought perhaps there might be others who could benefit from the grace-filled “kick” I received.
Music: Lord, Hold My Hand – Jocelyn Soriano
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?
I hope that, where you live, it is a glorious day – a perfect vestibule to a season of amazing beauty. In the northern hemisphere, Nature prepares to shed the plush accretions of summer in a multi-colored ritual of leave-taking. It is time to return to the essentials – back to the branch, back to the buried root, back to the bare, sturdy reality that will anchor us in eventual winter.
Each day, some green leaf or blade will ignite like a phoenix – a blaze of scarlet or gold, only to extinguish that flame for a long winter’s sleep. Nature knows when things are finished. It knows when it has had enough. It knows its need for a season of emptying, for a clearing of the clutter, for the deep hibernation of its spirit.
But we humans often ignore the need for an “autumning” of our spirits. We try to live every moment in the high energy of summer – producing, moving, anticipating, and stuffing our lives with abundance.
But simplicity, solitude, and clarity are necessary for our spirit to renew itself. Autumn is the perfect time to examine prayerfully the harvest of our lives – reaping the essentials and sifting out the superfluous. In the quiet shade of a rusting tree, we may discover what we truly love, deeply believe, and really need to be fully happy.
Take time on these crystal days to ask yourself what is essential in your life. If something besides them inhibits you, let it go.
Nurture your “essentials” with attention and care. Don’t take them for granted. After the flare of life’s summer has passed, these are the things that will sustain you: a strong faith, a faithful love, and a loving compassion. Tend them in this season of harvest
Music: The Four Seasons: Autumn – Antonio Vivaldi
For Your Reflection
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
Hold hands with your life. Look it in the eyes. There, in the stillness, God is revealing the miracle of knowing who you are.
But life can be hectic, can’t it? You might not have time to just “hold hands”, right?
Don’t you sometimes feel like Indiana Jones, running ahead of that huge boulder, trying to keep all your responsibilities from overwhelming you? Or maybe you feel as if your life has run so far ahead of you that you’re racing to catch up to it, watching it turn into a dot on the far horizon.
Life wasn’t intended to be like either of these images. Our lives are meant to be savored and lived in a deep awareness of our “present”. NOW is the only time we have. The people we are with, the challenges and joys we experience in this moment – this is our life. So many of us, running from the boulder or chasing the dot, let the beauty of our lives evade us.
When I see people holding hands, I am reminded to be still and to appreciate my life in the present. It’s beautiful to see a couple walking hand in hand, breaking a new pattern in the fresh snow. They might be young, just beginning an unimaginable journey. Or they might be elderly, having walked beside each other through miles of love and sacrifice, joy and sorrow.
I love to see a parent holding hands with their child. The child may be small, reaching up for security, protection and comfort. Or the parent may be old, reaching over for the same things. What a blessing to be beside someone whose touch can sustain your life!
Prayer is a kind of holding hands – God reaching for us, and we for God. I tried to capture the experience in a poem I wrote many years ago:
Poem: A Long Faith – Renee Yann, RSM
This is the way of love, perhaps near the late summer, when the fruit is full and the air is still and warm, when the passion of lovers no longer rests against the easy trigger of adolescent spring, but lumbers in the drowsy silence where the bees hum— where it is enough to reach across the grass and touch each other’s hand.
So hold hands with someone you love today, human or divine. Slow each other down to a deep appreciation of the gift of life in this present moment.
Music: Holding Hands – Creative Commons Instrumental Music
For Your Reflection
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
You were a kid once, right? Well when I was a kid, one of the things I really loved about September was getting a new box of crayons. It was a chance to start fresh. It was an opportunity once more to make my contribution to the design of the world with renewed sharpness and depth. It was a beginning participation in the infinite cycle of experience and revitalization we call “Life”.
Our ability with crayons, like our ability with life, develops in stages. As toddlers, our first box of crayons may have been a small three-pack of the primary colors, thick enough for little fingers to grasp, bright enough to make a mark, and (if Mom was lucky) maybe washable! Like life, each year our box of crayons grew bigger with both vibrant and subtle colors, usually indelible, a lot like life itself.
We learned not only that things are rarely black and white. They are not often really red, blue or yellow. We learned that a wild red rose begins as a shy pink bud, just like some people do. We learned that a true blue friendship doesn’t just happen but has to be proven through many green seasons. We learned that what appears to be a yellow streak may really hide the aqua depths of a courageous peacemaker. Each of our experiences brings us a greater capacity and depth to express the power of our spirit as they add the nuances of color to our understanding of life.
On September 11, 2001, our nation and our world added a bruising violet to our box of crayons. As time passes, we are learning to use that painful color to deepen our capacity for courage, compassion, hope, and resolve. Sometimes we and our leaders do this well; sometimes poorly. Our civic and moral duty is to pursue universal peace and justice for all peoples; to contribute to the well-being of Earth and all who share her riches.
As we continue to color our world with meaning, God, Who holds our hand, renews us in grace. In that grace, we are invited to begin afresh. We have a new chance every day to make our lives and our world better — just as we did in our early Septembers with that new box of crayons.
Let’s pray for and encourage one another — especially as September 11th approaches. Let’s pray for those who were most profoundly wounded by the deep purple shadow that fell over all of us that day. Let’s pray for leaders who have the magnitude of heart and spirit to create a compassionate and just world. And let’s reach out in sincerity to one another every day, like we did as children– sharing the colors of hope, faith, and love.
Music: Colors – Black Puma
This song and video present a moving contradiction. The music is upbeat, suggesting happiness. But in the video, a family struggles with losing their home and living unhoused. The video invites us to think about the counterbalance between struggle and joy, between justice and reality. Lyrics at end of page.
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?
[Verse 1: Eric Burton] I woke up to the morning sky first Baby blue, just like we rehearsed When I get up off this ground, I shake leaves back down To the brown, brown, brown, brown ’til I’m clean Then I walked where I’d be shaded by the trees By a meadow of green For about a mile I’m headed to town, town, town in style
[Chorus: Eric Burton with The Soul Supporters] With all my favorite colors, yes, sir All my favorite colors, right on My sisters and my brothers see ’em like no other All my favorite colors
[Post-Chorus: Eric Burton with The Soul Supporters] It’s a good day to be, a good day for me A good day to see my favorite colors, colors My sisters and my brothers, they see ’em like no other All my favorite colors
[Verse 2: Eric Burton] Now take me to the other side Little bitty blues birds fly In gray clouds, or white walls, or blue skies We gon’ fly, feel alright And we gon’, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, yeah They sound like ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh, ooh, yeah And the least I can say, I anticipate A homecome parade as we renegade in the morning, right on
Photo by Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto on Pexels.com
Annie Dillard is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American author who writes soul-stirring narrative non-fiction. Her book, A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, was almost a second Bible for me when I studied literature in college.
One wonderful section has become part of my own philosophy of life. In it, Annie describes an encounter with a weasel. She portrays the experience in intricate and inspiring detail, using it to present her own theories on the value of intense dedication, clarity of purpose, and “the dignity of living without bias or motive.” In other words, she talks about living life openly and purely, of honoring the world around you, and of striving for simplicity.
She recounts the story of a farmer who shot an eagle and found, affixed to its throat, the dried-out skull of a long-dead weasel. This weasel, even as it died, seized the hope of life and fought to hold on to it. The story always makes me consider the question, “What in my life is important enough for me to hold on to it even to the death?” In other words, what are my very deepest values? So often we say we value something but we fail to make the choices it requires. We “value” exercise, but we never take the time to do it. We “value” health, but we continue habits that are not healthy. We “value” life, but we drink and drive, fail to wear our seatbelts and speed.
But like Dillard’s weasel, if we really value something, we sink our teeth into the very heart of it and we don’t let go, no matter what. Those kinds of radical values define who we are in the world. People see through to our hearts. They know if we have sunk our teeth into honesty or insincerity, into compassion or self-interest, into the common good or self-promotion. No matter what we “say”, our true values always show.
Our families, communities, and friends depend on us to be a person with strong values. Every day we are challenged to put these values first in our decisions and our behaviors. It’s not always easy. Sometimes we must be like the weasel clinging to the throat of the eagle. Nevertheless, we are asked to have the same intensity and clarity about our choices as responsible members of the human family.
Test yourself. What choice would you make in the face of the “eagle’s talon”? When people look into your heart, what do they see shining there? With sincere focus and right intention, we can live with purity of heart. Annie Dillard puts it this way: “We could, you know. We can live any way we want. … The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse. This is yielding, not fighting. A weasel doesn’t “attack” anything; a weasel lives as he’s meant to, yielding at every moment to the perfect freedom of single necessity.”
How blessed our lives are when we live in such perfect freedom!
If you would enjoy reading more about Annie’s weasel, here is a short essay she wrote on the subject:
On the day after Labor Day, our spirits change clothes. Maybe it’s because we all went to school for so long, but today we feel ready for challenging routine, daily discipline, studied preparation, and a chance to start fresh at the most important possibilities of our lives
This “psychological change of season” is an ancient and enduring reality. The writer of the Book of Ecclesiastes, who lived 2500 years ago, tells us, “To everything there is a season…”. Think of your inner seasons that change despite the calendar.
Winter and spring may indeed come to us in the same day, with a birth announcement in the mail and a death notice in the newspaper. Summer and autumn coexist with a Saturday afternoon pick-up basketball game and a strained muscle that reminds us of our age.
The great challenge of our lives is to live all our seasons with faith. They are a reflection of God’s own Nature which is ever ancient, ever new.
So these days, as the kids (and some of us!) start back to school, and the air cools ever so slightly, it might be a good time to ask God the questions that will help us “season” in grace:
What is it You are teaching me in this season of my life?
How can I reflect Your love by the way I live my winters and springs, my summers and autumns?
Music: Turn, Turn, Turn – Pete Seeger
For Your Reflection
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
September has barely poked its nose through the door, but already we see signs of Autumn. A slight gold shimmers on the trees. Geese gather in noisy expectation. Early morning sheds its night veil in slower layers of magenta and blue. There have even been a few sweet nights when we can open the windows wide and sleep in the suggestively crisp air. All the signs are there — it is a new season – “The Season of Freshness”.
“Fresh” is a powerful word. Who can resist the crisply-aproned waiter suggesting, “Fresh ground pepper?” Who can ignore the aroma of fresh baked bread? Some of us even remember with appreciation the scent of linens fresh from our mother’s clothesline.
Let this beautiful season remind us that each day the Creator shakes out a fresh beginning for every one of us. With every radiant morning, the slate is clear with mercy. The opportunity to re-create the world awaits us. Our lives, our work, our relationships are the fresh bread of God’s hope for us. Within them, we are invited to reveal the powerful grace which runs just under the visibility of the ordinary. It whispers to us, “You are Beloved, and I want your life to be a fountain of joy.”
September is for fresh beginnings: a sparkling season, an unmarked semester, a turning of the garden, a clean page. It is nature’s way of saying forgiveness is possible, life is resilient, hope is eternal. Imagine September as the white-aproned waiter inviting you to freshness. At the Creator’s table, the tablecloth is clean and the sacred menu is forgiveness, hope, mercy and renewed beginnings. Don’t miss this opportunity to assess what needs refreshment in your life. Feast on September’s graces! They can be life-changing!
Music: September Song – Alexis Ffrench
For Your Reflection
What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ?
What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?
We have shared our Founders’ dreams with you. We love you so for making the dream come true in each succeeding generation. Today you have a new name “Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas”. Quite impressive! But the dream remains singular and unchanged. In each of you, We see our dream repeated, nourished, Clothed in the needs of your day, Assisting in the merciful recreation of the earth.
Many sisters now have come to be with us in heaven. Know that they all join us in blessing you this night. Do not fear diminishment. I made that mistake myself in the early 1900s When I expressed the fear that There would not be enough hands for all the work.
But God makes a way. We flourished after that In ways I had never imagined.
Right here in these seats, in these balconies, in these neighborhoods and homes, There are pure young hearts Who know that God’s dream for mercy lives in them. They will have the courage we had.
And so we say good night. God bless you all. We will see you in another 50 years or so. Go now and dream the Mercy dream For the generations you have yet to see.
Maestra Jeanette Goglia, RSM conducts over 3000 voices in her composition “The Circle of Mercy”
Click arrowhead to listen to “The Circle of Mercy”.
Eliza Curtin – Sister Mary Angela Played by Connie Haughton, RSM
And finally, my friends, a word from the youngest! Hello. My name is Eliza Curtin … Sister Mary Angela to you. Do you believe that I too was born in Cork! Quite a hotbed of Mercy, yes?
I was only fifteen when I came to the Sisters of Mercy. They said I was a pure, young soul. My fingers were never still. I was a handywoman and artist. It was my dream to be a saint and so to honor God.
I think as I look out at you, my sisters in the audience You too came to Mercy as pure, young souls. What a precious gift you gave … each one of you – each one of us. That simple gift is the foundation Of God’s mighty works.
Not so young now, some of us? But still, the pure young gift thrives. How is that?
Prayer, my sisters, my friends. It is the fountain of our spiritual youth. No work … no exercise is more important To the vitality of mercy.
It is through prayer that we grow eternally young even as we age. It is through prayer that we can transcend our burdens and are enfolded in the Providence of God. In prayer, we become free. In prayer, we become whole.
It is our elders, who have prayed the longest who pray best. They carry all the rest of us within their web of grace. Their prayer, and mine, has fallen like pure white snow On the landscape of your petitions, Lifting your need in simplicity and confidence Into God’s listening heart.
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?
Lavish Mercy 