Yoke

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

Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

July 18, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071824.cfm

Jesus said:
“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

It is not that Jesus’s listeners are unfamiliar with being “yoked” – irrevocably tied to burdens and labor. But the yoke Jesus offers is different. Choosing it, they will be tied to him in learning his way of peace and love. When these gifts fill one’s heart, life’s weight is lightened. When we abide in such proximity to Jesus, the journey is easy.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We listen to Jesus’s invitation, “Come …”. What is it that we are trying to carry without the help of his grace? Let’s tie those burdens to Christ’s love and open our hearts to learn from him.

Poetry: spring song by Lucille Clifton

the green of Jesus
is breaking the ground
and the sweet
smell of delicious Jesus
is opening the house and
the dance of Jesus music
has hold of the air and
the world is turning
in the body of Jesus and
the future is possible

Music: My Yoke is Easy – John Michael Talbot

All who are weary come unto Me
All who find life a burden
I will refresh you
Your soul will find rest
For My yoke is easy
And My burden is light

Take my yoke on your shoulders and learn
For I am gentle and humble
I will refresh you
Your soul will find rest
I am gentle and humble of heart

My yoke is easy
My burden is light
Your soul will find rest
Take My yoke on your shoulders and learn
I am gentle and humble of heart

Come unto Me
Your soul will find rest
My yoke is easy
My burden is light
I am gentle and humble of heart

All who are weary come unto Me 

Praise

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality2 Comments

Wednesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 17, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071724.cfm

At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Matthew 11:25

What really is praise? Is it song and dance and lifting up the reputation of the other in glory?

Or is it when Love moves fully from the heart into the heart of the one esteemed? And does its light come not from within us but from the One to Whom it is given?

There is a total selflessness in praise. The Other is the full focus of our awe and gratitude.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

For many of us, our prayer may be full of petitions with little room for much else. Today, we think about how Jesus loved and praised the Father. We ask for deeper praise and gratitude in our own prayer.

Poetry: Gitanjali 11 – Rabindranath Tagore

Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee!

He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the path-maker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!

Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found? Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; he is bound with us all for ever.

Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense! What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained? Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow.

Music: Love Divine – Jan Mulder with the London Symphony Orchestra

Woe

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Discipleship, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, repentance, spirituality2 Comments

Tuesday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 16, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071624.cfm

Jesus began to reproach the towns
where most of his mighty deeds had been done,
since they had not repented.
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty deeds done in your midst
had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would long ago have repented in sackcloth and ashes.
Matthew 11:20-21

Chorazin and Bethsaida were privileged. They had been blessed to see God’s power miraculously displayed in Jesus. And yet they failed to believe! How can that be? Hard-heartedness? Stupidity?

I think that, more likely, it was fear – the woeful condition that holds us back from giving ourselves to the truth. What would be required of them if they believed? What changes would they have to make in their lives? How would their comfortable world be turned upside-down?

Repentance: that would be the fruit of faith in Jesus. Many of them just couldn’t face it.

Today in God’s Lavish Mercy:

How committed is my faith? How is the Truth of Jesus alive in my life? What repentance, large or small, do I need to offer God?

Poetry: Savior – Maya Angelou

Petulant priests, greedy
centurions, and one million
incensed gestures stand
between your love and me.

Your agape sacrifice
is reduced to colored glass,
vapid penance, and the
tedium of ritual.

Your footprints yet
mark the crest of
billowing seas but
your joy
fades upon the tablets
of ordained prophets.

Visit us again, Savior.
Your children, burdened with
disbelief, blinded by a patina
of wisdom,
carom down this vale of
fear. We cry for you
although we have lost
your name.

Music: Calling – Masako, Ackerman, Eaton

Peace

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Courage, Cross, Discipleship, Gospel, Jesus, justice, Mercy, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
July 15, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071524.cfm

Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.
Matthew 10:34-36

I would not have liked hearing these words from Jesus, would you? The last thing I would have ever wanted was to be set against my precious mother! So WHAT is Jesus talking about?

These words are central to Christ’s mandate to his disciples. He is telling them that they will inevitably meet painful conflict while living out his mission. Sometimes the conflict will even be within their families and among their friends.

This is because God’s Peace is not quiet indifference but the striving for just equanimity for all people. This is the sword of discipleship – we must cut ourselves away from anything that turns us from a just and merciful God.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy,
We pray for graced insight that we may see where the sword is pointing in our lives, and for courage that we may do the necessary cutting to be worthy disciples and build an honest peace in our world.

Poetry: Swords Into Plowshares – Daniel Berrigan, SJ
This poem was written in response to the conviction of the Plowshares Eight, of whom Berrigan was a member, for their civil disobedience against nuclear war.

Everything enhances, everything
gives glory—everything!

Between bark and bite
Judge Salus’s undermined soul
betrays him, mutters
very alleluias.

The iron cells—
Row on row of rose trellised
Mansions, bridal chambers!

Curses, vans, keys, guards—behold
the imperial lions of our vast acres!

And when hammers come down
and our years are tossed to four winds—

why, flowers blind the eye, the saints
pelt us with flowers!

For every hour
scant with discomfort
(the mastiff’s baleful eye,
the bailiff’s mastery)—

see, the Lord’s hands heap
eon upon eon,
like fruit bowls at a feast.

Music: Go Light Your World – Chris Rice

Mystery

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Creation, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Love, spirituality2 Comments

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 14, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071424.cfm

In all wisdom and insight, God has made known to us
the mystery of the Divine Will in accord with the favor
set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of times,
to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.
Ephesians 1:9-10

In this tiny passage from Ephesians, Paul describes infinite realities – that our Creator has shared with us a Divine Mystery that we will never fully understand in this life. The Mystery has been embodied in the life and Person of Jesus Christ so that we may see and imitate what Divine Love looks like. That alignment with Love is the Will of our God for us.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We ask that our simple faith may open itself to the Mystery of God’s Love. God is not a problem to be solved. Nor are God’s ways fully comprehensible to us. But Jesus has lived Love in our midst so that we can see the only thing we need to understand.

Poetry: Love’s Choice – Malcolm Guite

This bread is light, dissolving, almost air,
A little visitation on my tongue,
A wafer-thin sensation, hardly there.
This taste of wine is brief in flavour, flung
A moment to the palate’s roof and fled,
Even its aftertaste a memory.
Yet this is how He comes. 
Through wine and bread
Love chooses to be emptied into me.
He does not come in unimagined light
Too bright to be denied, too absolute
For consciousness, too strong for sight,
Leaving the seer blind, the poet mute;
Chooses instead to seep into each sense,
To dye himself into experience.

Music: The Mystery – Michael Card and John Michael Talbot

Could you be findin’ the mystery
You have been lookin’ for
A kingdom where servants will come to be kings
Are you lookin’ for
And you’ll know
That the sweet paradoxes unfold
And the mystery will clearly show
And you’ll know
And you’ll know

Jesus, paint my life
(Could you be findin’ the mystery)
Jesus, paint my life
(Could you be findin’ the mystery)
Jesus, paint my life
(Could you be findin’ the mystery)

And we know You are the Master of painters
Comin’ the true Prince of Peace
And we know You are the Tue Creator
Comin’ the King of kings

Jesus, paint my life with charity
Paint my life with mercy
Paint my life

Can you be the light of the world
Can you be the light
Then take the light that’s given to you
Can you be the light

Can you give your love to the world
Can you give your love
Take the love that’s given to you
Can you give your love

Jesus, paint my life with charity
Paint my life with mercy
Paint my life
Paint my life

Seraphim

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, holiness, joy, Praise, spirituality1 Comment

Saturday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 13, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071324.cfm

I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne,
with the train of his garment filling the temple.
Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings:
with two they veiled their faces,
with two they veiled their feet,
and with two they hovered aloft.

They cried one to the other,
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts!
All the earth is filled with his glory!”
Isaiah 6:1-3

There are times in life when we are graced to see through appearances to find the Holy – maybe the gaze of a newborn, the kindness of a stranger, the moment someone dies, the deep aloneness of nature.

Isaiah experiences such a moment in this reading – and it was supercharged! The trappings of earth fell away as Isaiah stood praying in the Temple. He saw the Seraphim singing praise to the Holiest of Beings. In that astounding light, Isaiah found a new self, one drenched in the Divine Presence and Will. It was in this moment that Isaiah truly became a prophet!

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

We ask that our hearts be opened to the very real Presence of God in our ordinary lives. Let us trust that angels accompany us even though we do not see them. Let us listen to their song in those rare moments when we can almost touch the Holy under the surface of our lives.

Poem: I Saw the Seraphim – Robert Wagner

I saw the Seraphim one summer’s night
Reaping it seemed a field of endless wheat.
I heard their voices through the fading light
Wild, strange and yet intolerably sweet.
The hour such beauty first was born on earth
A dawn of sifting had that day begun
For some would not endure love’s second birth
Preferring their own darkness to that sun.
And still love’s sun must rise upon our night
For nothing can be hidden from its heat
And in that summer evening’s fading light
I saw his angels gather in the wheat.
Like beaten gold their beauty smote the air
And tongues of flame were streaming in their hair.

Music: I Saw the Seraphim – the poem set to music by JAC Reford

Dew

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Faith, healing, holiness, Hope, spirituality2 Comments

Friday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 12, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071224.cfm

I will heal their defection, says the LORD,
I will love them freely;
for my wrath is turned away from them.
I will be like the dew for Israel:
he shall blossom like the lily;
He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar,
and put forth his shoots.
His splendor shall be like the olive tree
and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar.
Again they shall dwell in his shade
and raise grain;
They shall blossom like the vine,
and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
Hosea 14:5-8

Hosea describes God’s love for Israel – and for us – in tender, lavish images. We can picture the droughty land longing for refreshment the way a human heart longs for ease in suffering. God promises Israel a turn toward new life, fresh hope, the rooted security of covenantal relationship.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
God promises the same to us, pouring the dew of Lavish Mercy over our longing spirits. Our part is to open our hearts to that promise, to wait, and to receive.

Poetry: Inversnaid by Gerard Manley Hopkins

This darksome burn, horseback brown,
His rollrock highroad roaring down,
In coop and in comb the fleece of his foam
Flutes and low to the lake falls home.

A windpuff-bonnet of fáwn-fróth
Turns and twindles over the broth
Of a pool so pitchblack, féll-frówning,
It rounds and rounds Despair to drowning.

Degged with dew, dappled with dew
Are the groins of the braes that the brook treads through,
Wiry heathpacks, flitches of fern,
And the beadbonny ash that sits over the burn.

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Music: Dew on the Grass – Me-Do Meditation Music

Shake

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Courage, Discipleship, Faith, Hope, spirituality1 Comment

Memorial of Saint Benedict, abbot
July 11, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071124.cfm

Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it,
and stay there until you leave.
As you enter a house, wish it peace.
If the house is worthy,
let your peace come upon it;
if not, let your peace return to you.
Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—
go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.
Matthew 10: 11-14

Jesus gives his disciples a lesson on how to deal with disappointment and frustration as they spread the Gospel. Not every heart is going to be open to them. Jesus wants them to give their mission a heartfelt try. But if it meets a wall, they should not bang their head against it. Just turn around, let it go, and shake off their concern. Let it be like so much “dust in the wind”.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

All disciples of Jesus, all who sincerely live and preach the Gospel, are going to meet frustration at many points in their lives. We live in a world that is often diametrically opposed to the Beatitudes, the Magnificat, the Our Father. We live with people who cover classroom walls with the Ten Commandments while breaking every one of them in personal practice.

It can be frustrating, but Jesus says not to get caught in that frustration. Rather, he teaches, shake it off and move on to more receptive ground.

Jesus was serious about this and, in another passage, used some harsh words to make his point:

Do not give what is holy to the dogs;
nor cast your pearls before swine,
lest they trample them under their feet,
and turn and tear you in pieces.
Matthew 7:6-7

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:

Over the course of our lives, we will find ourselves somewhere in these passages – disciples or frustraters, pearl- givers or swine! Wherever we stand, God’s grace awaits us.

Poetry: Shake Thyself from the Dust – Mary Hoyt Loveland

Shake thyself from the dust, faint heart;
Loose thyself from bands that bind.
Thou art not Assyria’s thrall;
Captive, rise and freedom find!

Captive, this is Love’s own realm!
Lo! the very hills rejoice
That oppression is cast down;
Yea, the streams lift up their voice.

Yea, each dewy blossom glows,
Freed from error’s withering blight.
Loosed from tyranny and fear,
Captive, turn ye to the light!

Turn ye to the light, and see
That no evil can dismay,
Gathering clouds of bitterness,
Hiding harmony from day.

Turn ye to the light, faint one;
In the truth is freedom won!

Music: Dust in the Wind – by Kansas

At Hand

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Eternal Life, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Mercy, spirituality4 Comments

Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 10, 2024

Jesus sent out these Twelve after instructing them thus,
“Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town.
Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
As you go, make this proclamation:
‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”
Matthew 10: 5-7

In this passage, Jesus is concerned with those who were offered faith in One God but have lost touch with it — “lost sheep of the house of Israel”. He wants these lost believers to be given the message, “The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

While the message conveys a sense of urgency (Hurry up and get your act together), it also offers a calming security. When something is “at hand”, we can touch it. We can hold on to it for balance. We can feel support and accompaniment as we we hold hands with a Loving Presence.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We may hear Jesus’s words either as a warning or an invitation to intimacy. Love is at hand for us, even if our faith has become distracted and our direction “lost”. We are invited to reach out to the God Who waits for us.

Poetry:

“The Beloved is with you in the midst of your seeking!
God holds your hand wherever you wander.

Rumi

Music: Hold to God’s Unchanging Hand – Jennie Bain Wilson (1857) Sung here by Lynda Randle

Time is filled with swift transition,
Naught of earth unmoved can stand,
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.

Refrain:
Hold to God’s unchanging hand,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand;
Build your hopes on things eternal,
Hold to God’s unchanging hand.


Trust in Him who will not leave you,
Whatsoever years may bring,
If by earthly friends forsaken
Still more closely to Him cling.

When your journey is completed,
If to God you have been true,
Fair and bright the home in glory
Your enraptured soul will view.

Splancha

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, Forgiveness, healing, Jesus, Love, Mercy, spirituality2 Comments

Tuesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
July 9, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/070924.cfm

Jesus went around to all the towns and villages,
teaching in their synagogues,
proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom,
and curing every disease and illness.
At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them
because they were troubled and abandoned,
like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew 9:32-38

Have you ever felt your heart constrict or your belly drop in the face of deep sadness or shock? If so, you have felt “splancha”, the Greek word for that profound compassion that wells up from our innards for the sake of a suffering person.

Matthew tells us that Jesus felt “splancha” for the crowds because they were troubled and abandoned. They had lost their way to God and had no one to help them find it. Thus he reaches out to heal and teach them about God’s Lavish Mercy.

Today, in that same Lavish Mercy:
By the grace of God may we,
and all who are in need of grace,
be healed of trouble and abandonment
to find our way to God
through the Mercy of Jesus.

Poetry: Mercy by John F. Dean

Unholy we sang this morning, and prayed
as if we were not broken, crooked
the Christ-figure hung, splayed
on bloodied beams above us;
devious God, dweller in shadows,
mercy on us;
immortal, cross-shattered Christ—
your gentling grace down upon us.

Music: Merciful God – The Gettys and Stuart Townend