The Beautiful Dream

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality1 Comment

August 23, 2025

Marie Mathey-Doret – Sister Marie Madeleine
Played by Suzanne Neisser, RSM

It was on the waves of deep emotion,
that we came to Philadelphia under the name of Mercy.

My name is Marie Matthey-Doret.
Yes – are you surprised?
Not all of the original ten were Irish!
I was born in Limoges, France,
of a Swiss father and French mother.

Many languages could be heard in my family home.
Fine arts and the love of music filled my early days with beauty.
Perhaps it was there that the love of teaching
began to grow in me
and my dream of mercy was born.

Even though I was also the first Mistress of Novices,
all of us who began in 1861 were teachers
in one way or another.
This was the first gift of mercy
that we sought to offer this dear city.

We didn’t know the way for certain.
We heard God’s voice and held God’s hand
and we stepped out in faith to do the work of love.
This is the way the dream unfolds.

I know the sisters have retold a thousand times
the story of our very first schools…
But some here may not know that story.
After all, it was a tiny house where we first lived.
Ten of us had to create sleeping quarters in all available spaces!

But in the morning, rooms that had been bedrooms and chapel
were quickly remodeled into classrooms for the children
and women who would come to learn that day.

We joked that these rearrangements were our “morning exercises”!
Each day, we would laugh as the children arrived
And think “Oh, if they only knew!!!”
Would your students at the Academy not be surprised
to think of that today?

I have watched your “morning exercises”
through the intervening years.
They’ve changed somewhat –
Quite a bit of electricity involved today! –
but still …
such devotion to the lives of children.
Just to think of all those schools and
all those students
touched by the unfolding of the mercy dream.

The beauty of music and language
Wrapped my spirit like a deep blue sea.
From that beauty,
I have sent you waves of blessing from heaven
And smiled to hear the laughter and
The songs of Mercy children
Across these hundred fifty years.

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Psalm 127
improvised by Rev. Christine Robinson

Unless the house is built solid, and
for the right reasons, the work is in vain.
When the right thing is done at the right time,
it endures like a house built on a good foundation.
When a nation is governed justly and wisely,
it is safe from all manner of danger.
When you do what you can each day with due diligence,
you sleep deeply at night, trusting God for the rest.
Attend well to the next generation.
The children are God’s gift to us,
and their good upbringing our gift to God.

The Faithful Dream

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality3 Comments

August 22, 2025

Many of my readers will remember the Sesquicentennial Celebration of the founding of the Sisters of Mercy in Philadelphia.

In October 2010, many of you joined us in the magnificent Kimmel Center for our beautiful program of reflection and music. You will remember Patricia Waldron inviting us to hear the dream of our founding Sisters – to serve God in the poor, sick, and uneducated people of Philadelphia.

Sr. Patricia Waldron
played by our dear late Mimi Connor, RSM

Have you ever noticed how our dreams unfold?
They never happen in the way we first imagined.
Instead, they weave – your dreams and mine —
Among each other in a latticework of grace.
By the way, my name is Anne Waldron.
known in my life as Mother Patricia –
“Reverend Mother” really.
A rather weighty title, don’t you think?
But my own dream of mercy was not weighty.

I was born in Tuam (pronounced “Choom”), County Galway, Ireland.
‘Tis a precious place, a mere 20 miles from the glorious bay to the south,
Where the soft air carries a hint of the sea
And the sweet land holds both a deep promise and a deep scar of famine.

I must seem a long way from you now, after these 150 years –
almost like a shadow on your memories.
And you must think me a particularly courageous part of your history.
After all, you have named buildings after me, I see!
But tonight, I want you to know me in a new way.

I was only 27 when I came here to this strange city.
I walked these same streets as you,
fraught as they are with their dangers and beauties.
Do you know that a century and a half ago
we sisters lived just two miles north of this very spot!
Ah, but the Philadelphia of the 1860s was a far different sight
from what I saw outside tonight.
I see that a million and a half souls live here now!
Oh my! Just a third that number in the city then.
We thought it an amazing number having come mostly from our small villages.

I was young then – like all of you are or were once –
Young and full of dreams.
We all were – I and these my dear companions.

We were not different because of our courage, our spirit of adventure,
our dedication or our generosity—
Although these marked our lives
as we grew deeper into God.

No – what made us who we were was this:
We clearly knew and trusted that the dream in us
Was God’s dream for a wounded world.
In our deepest hearts,
We were Sisters of Mercy!

As you listen to our stories tonight,
Hold this question in your own hearts:
What dream lived in you when you were young?
What dream lives in you now?

Over the next nine days, we will revisit the stories of each of these founding Sisters. As you meet them in your prayer, open your hearts to their inspiration.

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Psalm 100 – improvised by Rev. Christine Robinson

Be Joyful
Gladly serve the good
Rejoice in the gift of life.

Highest above, deepest within
Around us in nature, present in each.
We are yours, You are ours
We enter your presence with Thanksgiving
With chants and songs
With grateful hearts and open hands
And know a flash of eternity.

Lessons of Mercy

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality1 Comment

On August 22, 2025, the Sisters of Mercy celebrate
the 164th Anniversary of our arrival in Philadelphia.

August 21, 2025

How Mercy has flourished
in the intervening years!
— countless numbers of students taught,
patients cared for, people given shelter,
prisoners offered justice, hungers fed,
struggling hearts tendered hope and direction.

We rejoice in the thousands
who share the name of Mercy with us
— people like each one of you
who are the face and voice of Mercy
in an inhospitable world.

We remember ten young women,
none even thirty years old –
women an ocean away
from their homes and families;
women who waited days
for donated food to sustain them;
women who believed that God
wants those who are poor and sick
to be cared for with love;
— and so they built a harbor of Mercy
from little but faith and hope.

Sesquicentennial Cross
Designed by
Robert McGovern and
Jude Smith, RSM

There is a lesson for each of us
in these first Mercy stories.
Pray with them
and hear how they speak to you.

They teach that,
though we cannot see faith, hope, and love,
we see their powerful effects.
It is a power rooted in relationship
with the One Who is Mercy,
with the One Who chooses
to live in and through us.

In the Name of God’s Mercy,
we begin to feel, in our heart’s depths,
the profound suffering in the world.
We are moved to give
all that we can to its healing.

Listen for the next ten days
to those early voices, still living in us:
“Thank you for sustaining the dream
to which we gave our lives.
Eternal Mercy, Who called us,
now calls you.
Know that we are with you
as you answer.

(The first voice will be sent today,
and another in each of the next nine successive days – a “novena of Mercy”.

Feast of the Assumption

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality6 Comments

August 15, 2025

Understanding the Assumption: A Maturing in Faith

Many of us grew up in households where we were surrounded by a strong devotional faith. I am happy to be one of those people. These simple, sacramental practices awakened and engaged my young faith and offered me a visible means to respond to its stirrings. These practices also gave my parents and grandparents the tools to teach me to love and trust God, Mary, the Saints, and my Guardian Angel.

I remember with gratitude the many parameters of that deep devotion which accompanied our fundamental practice of a sacramental and liturgical life.
• Our home had a crucifix in every room to remind us of God’s Presence
• Over the main door was the statue of the Infant of Prague and the first Christmas card we had received depicting the Three Kings to bless us on our journeys.
• All year, Dad’s fedora sported a tiny piece of straw tucked into its plaid band. He had plucked it from the parish Christmas crèche, near to St. Joseph who was his trusted friend. At Easter, he added a little piece of palm.
• During a really violent thunderstorm, we might get a sprinkling from Mom’s holy water flask kept for especially taxing situations.

And, maybe because we live not too far from the East Coast, we had one special summer practice. We went into the ocean on the Feast of the Assumption, believing that, through the water, Mary offered us special healing and graces on that day.

I can still picture young boys helping their elderly grandparents into the shallow surf. I remember mothers and fathers marking their children’s brows with a briny Sign of the Cross. There was a humble, human reverence and trust in these actions that blesses me still.

While that August 15th ritual, like similar devotions, might seem superstitious and even hokey to some today, the memory of it remains with me as a testament to the simple faith and deep love of God’s people for our Blessed Mother.

It was just such devotion and faith, expressed over centuries by the faithful, that moved Pius XII to declare the dogma of the Assumption:
“We pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
(MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS 44)

On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII defined the dogma of the Assumption in the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus (The Most Bountiful God). The world at that time was still healing from the horrors of World War II. The Pope himself, no doubt, was wounded beyond description by what he had witnessed. One can hear his deep pain as he begins his letter by saying:

“Now, just like the present age, our pontificate is weighed down by ever so many cares, anxieties, and troubles, by reason of very severe calamities that have taken place and by reason of the fact that many have strayed away from truth and virtue. Nevertheless, we are greatly consoled to see that, while the Catholic faith is being professed publicly and vigorously, piety toward the Virgin Mother of God is flourishing and daily growing more fervent, and that almost everywhere on earth it is showing indications of a better and holier life.”

This belief is complementary to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception defined by Pope Pius IX in 1854. These two articles of faith embrace the totality of Mary’s life which was uniquely blessed among all humans. Mary gives us, in our humanity, both a model of and a supportive invitation to holiness.

Marie T. Farrell, RSM has written a scholarly and insightful essay on the Assumption. Her work offers a rich understanding of the theological layers within this teaching.
Sister Marie closes her essay with these words:

Mary assumed into heaven and spiritualized in her whole personhood is a prophetic symbol of hope for us all. In his Resurrection-Ascension, Jesus has shown the way to eternal life. In the mystery of Assumption, the Church sees Mary as the first disciple of many to be graced with a future already opened by Christ, one that defies comprehension for ‘…no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him…
(1 Cor 2: 9)

Music: Assumpta Est Maria – Pierluigi de Palestrina

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Luke 2:13-20

There is no reference to the Assumption in the Bible. But I think this passage captures the deep beauty and wisdom of Mary’s spirituality.

Click for Scripture

A Crane in the Desert

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Conversion, Creation, dying, healing, peace, spirituality1 Comment

August 6, 2025

Today is the 80th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Dona Nobis Pacem – Yo-Yo Ma and Illia Bondarenko

On a hot August 6th over 40 years ago, I sat quietly in the Nevada desert just outside Las Vegas. Most maps call the place the Nevada Test Site. Established as the Atomic Energy Commission’s on-continent proving ground, the Nevada Test Site has seen multiple decades of nuclear weapons testing.

But to the native peoples, the land is known as Newe Sogobia (Earth Mother), or the Western Shoshone homelands.

I had come to the place with over 200 other peace activists to pray for the end of nuclear wars, bombings and weapons proliferation. As part of our prayer, each one of us found a private spot in that massive desert where we could sit alone to meditate. I rested by a low bush to capture its small shady triangle in the dry, threatening heat even of that early morning.

At first, to the unappreciative eye, the desert seems a monochromatic place. The earth, the few stones, the sparse vegetation all appear to wear a beige garment of anonymity – almost as if they are saying, “Don’t see me. Don’t change me by noticing me.” But after many minutes of peeling away the multiple blindfolds we all carry, I became aware of muted majesty breaking from that desert like tender life from an egg.

A tiny hummingbird, the color of slate and sand, hovered inches from my hand. It drew my eyes to another small white object hidden under the lowest branches of the bush. It was a perfectly executed origami crane, no bigger than my thumb. I learned later of the Japanese activists who had preceded us into the desert, and whose custom it was to leave behind these beautiful “peace cranes” as mute reminders of the horrors of Hiroshima and of the hope for universal peace.

Later that evening, thinking about the cranes, I found myself straddling a confusing range of emotions. In the late 40’s and 50’s, I had grown up in a household that despised Japan. On my mother’s birthday in 1945, her 19 year old brother had been killed at Iwo Jima. It was a scar my mother bore the rest of her life.

But as with many scars we have earned or inherited in life, the years had taught me that there is an inner grace to every pain. Holding one of the delicate cranes, I thought about the innumerable Japanese lives – mostly innocent civilians – that had been lost or disfigured on August 6, 1945. I thought about the fact that life is never served by war – whether that war is global, local or personal. War serves only death.

The quest for peace is a complicated and endless pursuit. I ask myself – and each of you – to renew that quest today by harboring peace in our own lives. Refuse to solve conflicts by aggression. Look beyond the battle to the person. Be an agent of mutuality not of domination. Resist the normalization and glorification of violence and war, and defend their victims.

Eighty years after Hiroshima, we still see abominable inhumanity exploding in Gaza, Ukraine, Haiti, Sudan, and the immigrant communities of the Americas. We cannot be silent in the face of what we see. We are called to witness for peace and justice by our words, our attitudes, our votes, and our advocacy.

God knows our world – our streets – need this from us. If we unfold the wings of our own hearts, perhaps the crane of peace can be freed to change the world.

Music: Peace Train – Cat Stevens

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: John 14:23-27

Scripture

A Gold and A Silver Voice

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Hope, joy, Scripture, spirituality7 Comments

July 27, 2025

Silver and Gold from the movie “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”

In the Spring of 2009, the “Voice of Philadelphia” passed away. Harry Kalas, long-time sports announcer for the Phillies and a commentator for NFL films, died suddenly just before the baseball game. Besides having a golden mellifluous voice, Harry was a good man. The outpouring of love and respect for him was huge.

At the same time, but on a much lighter note, Susan Boyle, a matronly, unassuming woman from a small Scottish village, blew the world away with her soul-stirring singing voice, debuted on Britain’s version of “American Idol”. Her voice is not just good – it is molten silver against the cold darkness. It is a rich and powerful contradiction to the whining nasality of so many willowy stars. It is a victorious testimony to the truism that you can’t tell a book by its cover.

I remember that these events left me thinking about the gift of our voices. This gift, like many others, is one we tend to take for granted. It is only when a voice we love is silenced that we truly appreciate how we had loved to hear it.

Six or seven years after my mother died, my brother Jim and I were playing some old videos of his kids, looking for clips for a graduation tribute. Unexpectedly, my mother appeared in one of the videos, talking to the children in her gentle, grandmotherly tones. Jim and I hadn’t heard that precious voice since Mom had died. We were stunned to tears with the sweet memory and the poignant loss.

The human voice is one of the clearest expressions of God’s Power. It can lift people into the light of hope and reassurance, or it can push them to the edge of despair. It can set someone on the path to self-worth, or it can crush them under the weight of a hasty, intolerant word. It can carve someone a way out of loneliness, or it can imprison them in their own exaggerated sense of difference. The voice can bless or it can curse.

We are powerful people who are sometimes wrapped in a paralysis of unawareness. Often, we don’t realize the power of our words or the force of our silence. Such powers demand and deserve our attention. Our words may never be repeated in tribute like Harry’s and Susan’s have been. But our words can rest forever in the recesses of someone’s heart. Someday — when they draw up that memory, the way my brother and I did — let them be holding silver and gold.

Music: Two songs for your enjoyment, certainly of different musical merit, but both very moving. Enjoy!

For Your Reflection

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Ephesians 5:19-20

Scripture

Life’s Slide

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Eternal Life, Hope, joy, spirituality3 Comments

July 20, 2025

The old Hancock playground was a city kid’s oasis in a macadam desert.

When it opened in the 1950s, we flocked to it like thirsty birds. It allowed us to fly in new ways: long-chained swings that soared to eight feet at a strong clip; sturdy monkey bars that invited real acrobatic skills; a big, well-oiled roundabout and – best of all, a shiny metal sliding board.

The wonder of that equipment was that it responded to each child’s challenge and skill. A little boy could swing gently; a big girl could pump those long chains until they thrummed like yo-yo strings.

But the sliding board offered the most subtle and sometimes sinister challenges. Was it really a 10-foot climb to the top, or was I just that little? And did that shiny metal, on a hot July day, actually fry my skin?

On that steaming giant, there was never “fast enough”. We invented all kinds of formulae to increase slide speed: head first, legs up, jack-knifed. Some of us even carried a pocketful of mom’s waxed paper, polishing the incline to a cutthroat slipperiness. It was pure joy at its dumbest best and it was only God’s kindness that we didn’t kill ourselves!

As we live our lives, part of us never leaves the playground. At times, we are still a little child, barely moving on the swing. At times, we are the convoluted acrobat, struggling to complete the challenge. Sometimes, our lives whirl at a dizzying pace. And sometimes we get burned and bruised in our attempts.

Life of course, as the years pass, demands wiser approaches to its “ playground”. It’s called “maturity”. As I age, I find myself more cautious in both good and not-so-good ways. Certainly, I won’t be doing any sliding boards if I can help it. But what about the adventure of new thinking, new relationships, new generosities that build my community belonging?

What about the neglected reconciliations, forgivenesses, and repented procrastinations that will free my spirit for unexpected joy?

As I drove past the refurbished, plasticized Hancock today, that hot metal slide shone like a star in my memory. And I decided to put some waxed paper in my pocket– just as a reminder to still take a measure of abandoned fun on life’s slide.

Music: The Slide – The Rhythm Rockets

A Golden Oldie from the 50-60s to get the spirit moving today!

I got a dance that I’m doin’ today
It’s called The Slide
I saw ’em dancin’ in the down the road hideaway
This dance The Slide
It makes you hop, jump, feel okay
If you dance The Slide

Mm-mm-mm, slide, baby slide
Oh-oh-oh, I mean The Slide

The music picks you up and puts you low down
Makes you hop, jump, shake around
You don’t need to play big and bright
Better to do it in the cool of the night

Mm-mm-mm, slide, baby slide
Oh-oh-oh, I mean The Slide

There’s the guitar takin’ speed
Gives you some idea what you’re doin’ to me
The drum will follow and make that sound
Make you hop, shake and rock around

Mm-mm-mm, slide, baby slide
Oh-oh-oh, I mean The Slide

The music picks you up and puts you low down
Makes you hop, jump, shake around
You don’t need to play big and bright
Better to do it in the cool of the night

Mm-mm-mm, slide, baby slide
Oh-oh-oh, I mean The Slide

Mm-mm-mm, slide, baby slide
Oh-oh-oh, I mean The Slide

For Your Reflection

Although this is a somewhat lighthearted reflection, I hope it will touch something life-giving in your heart. It’s so important to retain our capacity to think “young”, to be childlike in our hope, to enjoy life without prejudice or fear, to “slide” with spiritual trust when a great opportunity presents itself!

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Mark 10:13-16

Scripture

The Amoroso Man

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn dying, holiness, Hope, spirituality7 Comments

July 13, 2025

Italian Summer – Brian Crain

On the way to to the library today, I passed an Amoroso truck. We native Philadelphians are very serious about our sandwich rolls – and very biased. We think they’re the best in the world. For those of you outside Philadelphia, Amoroso is a local baking company famous for delicious Italian rolls. Every morning, their crisp white trucks with the red and green detailing can be seen delivering rolls all over our hungry city.

Many years ago, when I worked in an inner city ER, an Amoroso driver was brought in by fire rescue. The man had suffered a heart attack in the stifling July heat. Despite intense efforts by staff, he could not be revived.

My responsibility, after praying with him and for him, was to determine his identity and to inform his family of his death. There were only a few things in the chest pocket of his shirt, which lay ripped and tossed on the ER floor. There was a thin, well-used prayer book and an even thinner wallet with a couple of dollars, a lottery ticket, and a picture of his grandchildren. My eyes filled with tears as I laid these few items out on my desk. Here was a simple, good man’s life – faith, family, hope and responsibility. He carried what was most important to him close to his heart.

Passing the Amoroso truck today, on a warm July morning nearly forty years later, made me ask myself, “What do I keep close to my heart?”

It’s a good question, both literally and symbolically. In the space next to my heart do I have the things that most matter – faith, love, generosity, and joy. Or is there only a vacuum there, made empty by the common killers of our culture: cynicism, self-absorption, materialism, indifference, and competitiveness?

Life is short. Live it for what matters. And if you’re lucky, share an Amoroso roll to bless your journey.

Music: Simple Gifts

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Proverbs 13:19-22

Click for Scripture

The 5th of July

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Community, Faith, friendship, justice, spirituality8 Comments

July 5, 2025

Photo by Rakicevic Nenad on Pexels.com
1812 Overture in E-Flat Major, Op.49: I. Largo – Allegro giusto

After all the speeches, sparklers, and spectaculars, the “Next Day” dawns. I wonder what it was like for Jefferson, Franklin, Hamilton, and Adams on the fifth of July in 1776. Did they wake up thinking, “Declaration of Independence – signed. Now, make it happen!”?

When you get right down to it, most of our days are 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8ths of July. They are the days after graduation when we need to get a job. They are the days after the honeymoon when somebody needs to cook dinner and take out the trash. They are the days after the promotion when the first deadline looms and a bunch of faces are looking to you for the plan. They are the days that follow any major life decision, when we must take stock and determine who we are now – in this new dimension.

If the 4th of July is Independence Day, the 5th is Dependability Day, a day to celebrate the people we can always count on. They are there for the parades but they are there for the clean up afterward. They light the spark for the fireworks, but they have a hose nearby just in case. They put their “John Hancock” on the brave new dream and they show up the next morning to design its daunting execution.

The 5th of July is a day to celebrate our own sense of responsibility or “Dependability” – to realize that most of us really do try to be good spouses, parents, employees, neighbors, sons, daughters and friends – that we do keep making the effort every day to be someone for others and not just for ourselves. It is a day to look around at the people in our lives and be grateful that most of them are trying to do the same thing.

Like the founding patriots, we all need to wake up the next day, consider the “dependabilities” in our lives, and put our shoulders to the task of making a better world. Each of our lives is its own small country where the future really depends on how we show up on our “5th of Julys”. The fact that you get up every day and engage that challenge is cause for its own celebration. So if you have a little sparkler left in your back yard, light it for yourself tonight – and for your spouse, your community, your friends, your boss, your kids, your co-workers – who all showed up today to do the best they could on the 5th of July.

Thanks for that and Happy Fifth!

Music: We Need Each Other – PROSKUNED

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Romans 12:3-21

Click for Scripture

Snowball Man

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Discipleship, Service, spiritualityLeave a comment
Summer Haze – Andrè Aguado

Friends invited me out to a swanky dinner one night. Every menu item was presented in an elegant and appetizing manner. One offering particularly struck me. To clear the palate, the upscale restaurant offered “shaved ice infused with delicate essence“.

Immediately, my mind returned to a hot summer street in 1950 or so. The relative cool of evening had begun to fall over the broiled city. Families sat out on their steps or lawn chairs to catch whatever breeze might pass through the tight city streets. From the distance, a bicycle bell announced the impending arrival of the “Snowball Man”. He pedaled through the neighborhoods on a crudely cobbled cart, his newly purchased ice block tracing the watermarks of his passage.

Both nickel and dime portions were offered, with complimentary choices of flavoring from the half-dozen bottles which framed the precious ice block. There was no refrigeration. Of necessity, he journeyed quickly and a dawdling kid would be passed over for the next certain one in line.

The Snowball Man carried a transitory treasure which, in time, melted quickly into only memory. Yet it is in that memory where his jingling existence is preserved in a sweet array of colorful flavors.

That night, sixty years later, in a noisy, overpriced restaurant, the memory reminded me that so much of life is fleeting and fragile. Like the vendor’s ice block, our chance to offer sweet refreshment to the world will quickly melt away. Catherine McAuley, the first Sister of Mercy, expressed it this way: “Do all you can for God’s people for time is short.”

Today, when many around you are thirsty and parched, how will you share and flavor the precious refreshment within you?

Music: Time in a Bottle – Jim Croce

As you listen to this beautiful song, think about going through time with God and God’s People.

For Your Reflection:

  • What feelings or reactions do I have after reading this reflection?
  • Do my feelings or reactions remind me of any passage or event in scripture, especially in the life of Christ? 
  • What actions might I take today because of my response to these readings?

Suggested Scripture: Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

Click for Scripture