Tag: Deuteronomy

Gathered in God’s Name

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality4 Comments

Wednesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 16, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081623.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings confirm the power of call and community.

In this final reading from Deuteronomy, God shows Moses the Promised Land. The description is sweepingly triumphant in tone:

Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo,
the headland of Pisgah which faces Jericho,
and the LORD showed him all the land—
Gilead, and as far as Dan, all Naphtali,
the land of Ephraim and Manasseh,
all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea,
the Negeb, the circuit of the Jordan
with the lowlands at Jericho, city of palms,
and as far as Zoar.

Deuteronomy 34:1-3

There in front of Moses is the entire vision of what his life’s call was all about. Moses’s journey is now complete and his death is memorialized by the Deuteronomist in the uttermost terms:

Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses,
whom the LORD knew face to face.
He had no equal in all the signs and wonders
the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt
against Pharaoh and all his servants and against all his land,
and for the might and the terrifying power
that Moses exhibited in the sight of all Israel.

Deuteronomy 34: 10-12

Joshua now assumes a leadership role among the people who have been formed by God, under Moses’s mentorship, into the community of Israel. Joshua, with the people, will continue to shape Israel into a true “People of God”.

Our Gospel reading today describes how the power of community also shapes Christian life.

In Matthew 18, Jesus teaches his disciples a lesson in a particular element of community: fraternal correction. Fraternal correction is a concept often misinterpreted by its would-be practitioners. Here is a good description of what fraternal correction is and is not:

Fraternal correction is an ancient, Christian understanding of what it means to help each other grow in holiness. It is not a reaction to injury suffered, it is not vengeance, it is not revenge, it is not a reaction because I am hurting. But instead, it happens when I am moved by love for my brother or sister. It happens when I am moved to assist my brother or sister in growth or holiness.

Fr. Matthew Spenser, OSJ, Provincial of the Oblates of St. Joseph

Sisters of Mercy Community – Buffalo Founding Event, 1991

A community gathered in God’s Name depends on its members to exercise leadership, followership, sororal and fraternal correction, and unlimited goodwill for one another. Moses did it. Joshua did too. And Jesus certainly modeled and taught us how to live with and for one another in community.

Today’s readings might inspire us to consider the level of our own commitment to the communities which sustain our life: family, Church, religious community, as well as the civic, global, and universal contexts in which we live. We are leaders in some of these communities. We are followers in others. In all of them, we are members – a graced status that calls us to active and responsive love.

Prayer: Prayer for Community
This prayer comes from the same site as our readings – The USCCB: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops 

Embracing Father,
You grace each of us with equal measure in your love.
Let us learn to love our neighbors more deeply,
so that we can create
peaceful and just communities.
Inspire us to use our creative energies
to build the structures we need
to overcome the obstacles
of intolerance and indifference.
May Jesus provide us the example needed
and send the Spirit to warm our hearts for the journey.
Amen

Music: even Sesame Street can offer a little community “theology” 🙂

Remember and Love Generously

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Community, Courage, Discipleship, dying, Eternal Life, Faith, spirituality2 Comments

Memorial of Saint Clare, Virgin
August 11, 2023
Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081123.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings continue to take us through Deuteronomy, and for the next two weeks, through Joshua, Judges, and Ruth.

The word “Deuteronomy” means “second law” because the book is a reiteration and refinement of the Law given in Exodus. The Book of Deuteronomy is basically three big speeches by Moses, the commissioning of Joshua as Israel’s next leader, and a recounting of the death of Moses.

Today’s speech is powerful and beautiful. Moses calls on the people to remember and give thanks for the immense blessings they have received at the hand of God.

Ask now of the days of old, before your time,
ever since God created man upon the earth;
ask from one end of the sky to the other:
Did anything so great ever happen before?
Was it ever heard of? 
Did a people ever hear the voice of God
speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live?

Deuteronomy 4:32-33

At length, Moses recounts the sacred history of the people and tells them that, because of it, they are called to respond in covenanted fidelity.

This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart,
that the LORD is God in the heavens above and on earth below,
and that there is no other.
You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today,
that you and your children after you may prosper,
and that you may have long life on the land
which the LORD, your God, is giving you forever.”

Deuteronomy 4: 39-40

Moses offered these encouraging and directive speeches because he sensed he was near the end of his life and that Israel was moving into a new phase of its life.

In our Gospel, Jesus feels the same way. In the section immediately preceding today’s reading, Matthew says this:

From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised

In today’s passage, Jesus calls his disciples to live in covenanted fidelity by imitating his life.

Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
Or what can one give in exchange for his life?

Matthew 16: 25-26

I’ve read this Gospel passage a thousand times in the past sixty or seventy years. And I ask myself each time, “Do you really take this seriously? Do you really understand that your life is not for yourself but for God and all of God’s beloved creatures?”

It takes radical courage to live that kind of understanding. But continually remembering God’s Presence and Promises throughout our own lives strengthens us. That’s what Moses was trying to tell his people. That’s what Jesus is encouraging his disciples to recognize.

Jesus promises that, at the end of time, each will be repaid according to the level of their generosity. But the repayment doesn’t wait for the end times. Remembering our lives in grateful prayer will convince us of this: there is no true happiness, no deep joy, unless we learn to live beyond our own self-interests.

Poetry: Unless a Grain of Wheat Falls into the Ground and Dies – Malcolm Guite

Oh let me fall as grain to the good earth
And die away from all dry separation,
Die to my sole self, and find new birth
Within that very death, a dark fruition,
Deep in this crowded underground, to learn
The earthy otherness of every other,
To know that nothing is achieved alone
But only where these other fallen gather.

If I bear fruit and break through to bright air,
Then fall upon me with your freeing flail
To shuck this husk and leave me sheer and clear
As heaven-handled Hopkins, that my fall
May be more fruitful and my autumn still
A golden evening where your barns are full.

Music: Unless a Grain of Wheat – Bernadette Farrell


Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die,
it remains but a single grain with no life.

If we have died with him then we shall live with him;
if we hold firm, we shall reign with him.
Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die,
it remains but a single grain with no life.

If anyone serves me then they must follow me;
wherever I am my servants will be.
Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die,
it remains but a single grain with no life.

Make your home in me as I make mine in you;
those who remain in me bear much fruit.
Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die,
it remains but a single grain with no life.

If you remain in me and my word lives in you,
then you will be my disciples.
Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die,
it remains but a single grain with no life.

Those who love me are loved by my Father;
we shall be with them and dwell in them.
Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die,
it remains but a single grain with no life.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you;
peace which the world cannot give is my gift.
Unless a grain of wheat shall fall upon the ground and die,
it remains but a single grain with no life.

Lent: The Choice

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Cross, Faith, Jesus, Lent, spirituality2 Comments

March 3, 2022
Thursday after Ash Wednesday

Today’s Readings

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings confirm that a life patterned on Christ contradicts worldly definitions.

Deuteronomy gives us stark, either-or, advice:

I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live,
by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice,
and holding fast to him.

Deuteronomy 30: 15-16

It’s definitive advice, but we could probably do these things, right?

  • Choose life
  • Love God
  • Heed God’s voice
  • Hold fast to God

Sounds OK, doesn’t it?

It’s when Jesus comes along that it begins to sound difficult.
Jesus tells us, “Here’s how you choose life:

“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

Jesus tells us, “Here’s the God you must love, one who:

“suffers greatly, is rejected, and is killed.”

Jesus tells us, “Here’s what my voice says to you :

“What profit is there for you to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit yourself?”

Jesus tells us, “Here’s how you hold fast to me:

‘Take up your cross daily and follow me.”

The deep love of the Holy Cross was the sacred gift of Catherine McAuley to her Mercy Family.
Let us listen to her counsel.

Some have huge crosses to carry in their lives – war, famine, enslavement, untended illness, homelessness, persecution, poverty. Those who carry such crosses are singularly loved by God who dwells with them.

But if we don’t have big, obvious crosses in our lives – if we are among those the world deems fortunate – how do we follow the crucified Jesus to find our way to eternal life?

How do we really CHOOSE LIFE?

We need to get close to the ones God singularly loves. We need to walk beside them and lift some of their heavy crosses. We need to help their voices be heard, their needs be met, their rights be honored.

Not all of us can do this by direct service. But we can do it by our advocacy, our material contributions, and our articulated support for justice.

We need to make these choices for LIFE all the time. But Lent is a great time to examine the vigor and commitment of our choices, a time to take a closer walk with our suffering Christ and ask him to inspire our courage.

Poetry: Simon the Cyrenian Speaks – Countée Cullen, an American poet, novelist, children’s writer, and playwright, particularly well known during the Harlem Renaissance. I picked his poem today because Simon of Cyrene is someone who chose to carry the cross just as we are asked to do.

He never spoke a word to me,
And yet He called my name;
He never gave a sign to me,
And yet I knew and came.

At first I said, “I will not bear
His cross upon my back;
He only seeks to place it there
Because my skin is black.”

But He was dying for a dream,
And He was very meek,
And in His eyes there shone a gleam
Men journey far to seek.

It was Himself my pity bought;
I did for Christ alone
What all of Rome could not have wrought
With bruise of lash or stone.

Music: Just a Closer Walk with Thee – Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson

Lent: A Closer Walk

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Charity, Conversion, Discipleship, dying, Eternal Life, Faith, Jesus, Lent6 Comments

Thursday after Ash Wednesday

February 27, 2020

Click here for readings

Today, in Mercy, our readings confirm that a life patterned on Christ contradicts worldly definitions.

Dt.30_19 Chhose

Deuteronomy gives us stark, either-or, advice:

I have set before you life and death,
the blessing and the curse.
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live,
by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice,
and holding fast to him.

It’s definitive, but we could probably do that, right? Choose life, love God, heed God’s voice, hold fast to God? Sounds OK, doesn’t it?

It’s when Jesus comes along that it sounds difficult. 

Jesus tells us, “Here’s how you choose life –

“Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

Jesus tells us, “Here’s the God you must love, one who

“suffers greatly, is rejected, and is killed.”

Jesus tells us, “Here’s what my voice says to you –

“What profit is there for you to gain the whole world
yet lose or forfeit yourself?”

Jesus tells us, “Here’s how you hold fast to me –

‘Take up your cross daily and follow me.”

mcA Cross

Some have huge crosses to carry in their lives – perhaps famine, enslavement, untended illness, homelessness, persecution, poverty. Those who carry such crosses are singularly loved by God who dwells with them.

But if we don’t have big, obvious crosses in our lives – if we are among those the world deems fortunate – how do we follow the crucified Jesus to find our way to eternal life?

How do we really CHOOSE LIFE?

cross icon WP

We need to get close to the ones God singularly loves. We need to walk beside them and lift some of their heavy crosses. We need to help their voices be heard, their needs be met, their rights be honored.

Not all of us can do this by direct service. But we can do it by our advocacy, our material contributions, and our articulated support for justice.

We need to make these choices for life all the time. But Lent is a great time to examine the vigor and commitment of our choices, a time to take a closer walk with our suffering Christ and ask him to inspire our courage.

Music:  Just a Closer Walk with Thee – Patsy Cline and Willie Nelson

In Every Age

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Discipleship, Faith, holiness, Jesus, spirituality5 Comments

Tuesday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

August 13, 2019

Click here for readings

Dt32_7Jage to agePG

Today, in Mercy, our readings are peopled with individuals of all ages.

Deuteronomy gives us Moses at 120 years, when time forces him to admit:

“I am now one hundred and twenty years old
and am no longer able to move about freely;
besides, the LORD has told me that I shall not cross this Jordan.

We also have Joshua, vigorous and on the doorstep of his career:

Then Moses summoned Joshua and in the presence of all Israel
said to him, “Be brave and steadfast,
for you must bring this people into the land
which the LORD swore to their fathers he would give them.

The Gospel brings us Jesus near the untimely end of his young life, and the disciples growing into their apostolic maturity.

And then we have the picture of the humble little child who is “the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven”.

Every one of them, young or old, is seeking God in the circumstances of their lives.

What about you, dear friends, how is the mystery of God unfolding in your life today?  As summer gently and slowly leans toward autumn, let the passing days teach us that each season brings its own graces.

Music: in Every Age – Janet Sullivan Whitaker

Your Grace Amazes Me

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Faith, joy, ThanksgivingLeave a comment

Monday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

August 12, 2019

Click here for readings

Today, in Mercy, Moses recounts for the people God’s immense generosity toward them.

Dt10_7awesome God

Have you ever heard yourself, or someone dear to you, saying, “God has been so good to me!” Such a statement rises out of our awe at God’s love and mercy to us.

The deeper our faith, the clearer our insight into these gifts. I have heard people in the sparest of circumstances utter such a prayer. How can they do that, we might ask?

In all cases, there is a beautiful humility, trust, and generosity emanating from their spirits. Gratitude has transformed them. Hope, not wishing, has freed them.

Moses wants his People to be like that. He says:

Think! The heavens, even the highest heavens,
belong to the LORD, your God,
as well as the earth and everything on it.
Yet in his love for your fathers the LORD was so attached to them
as to choose you, their descendants …

This is your glory, he, your God,
who has done for you those great and awesome things
which your own eyes have seen.

I want to be that kind of grateful, faith-filled person too. Don’t you?

Today’s profound advice from Moses can help us.

Music: Your Grace Still Amazes Me – Philips, Craig and Dean

God’s Own — Wow!

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Jesus, Lent, Love, spiritualityLeave a comment

Saturday, March 16, 2019

Click here for readings

Today, in Mercy, in our reading from Deuteronomy, God tells the People that they are loved in a unique way. So are you!

God says:  And today the LORD is making this agreement with you:

You are to be a people peculiarly his own

Dt16_18 peculiarly

The word “peculiarly” may strike us exactly as it says. It is a word whose usage has changed over the centuries. We think of it today as “odd” or “unusual”, a meaning given it only since the 18th century.

The word’s actual derivation is this:

Mid-15th century:  “belonging exclusively to one person,” from Latin peculiaris “of one’s own (property),” from peculium “private property,” literally “property in cattle” (in ancient times the most important form of property).

So Deuteronomy is telling us that we are to God as the herdsman’s possessions are to herdsman. We belong to God Who has invested everything in us. God will protect, nurture and strengthen us in a relationship of mutual investment and harmony — IF we do our part which is:

… provided you keep all his commandments,
he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory
above all other nations he has made,
and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God,
as he promised.

In our Gospel, Jesus outlines exactly how to do this.

Love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

In today’s world, so full of hate, greed and retribution, I suppose we are “peculiar”, in both senses of the word, when we live as Jesus asks.

Music: How He Loves Is ~David Crowder Band ( The Song may not resonate with at first, but stick with it. There is something deep in this melody..)

Choose Life

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, dying, Eternal Life, holiness, Lent, Prayer, repentance, spiritualityLeave a comment

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Click here for readings

Dt30_19 Life

Today, in Mercy, our first reading gives us Moses’ compelling speech to the newly covenanted Israelites: 

3_7mirror
Today I have set before you
life and prosperity, death and doom…
Choose life, then,
that you and your descendants may live.

We might ask ourselves, “Who wouldn’t choose life over death, for Heaven’s sake?”

Really? Well then ask yourself these questions:

Do I ever ignore health warnings, cancel doctor’s appointments, eat unhealthy food, smoke, drink and drive, drive and text, skip daily medicine, fail to exercise and get enough sleep … Should I go on?🧐

But even deeper than these external choices are the choices we make for the life of our souls. 

  • Do we pray daily, take quiet time to hear God in our lives?
  • Do we recognize any toxic relationships or habits in our lives and work to remove them?
  • Do we challenge our negative attitudes and try to grow beyond them?
  • Do we call ourselves to generosity, forgiveness, gratitude, hope and other life-giving attitudes?

God has given us the gift of life. But it is up to us to LIVE our lives in the fullness of their possibility.

Music: Choose Life ~ Big Tent Revival (Lyrics below)

A choice is set before you now
living or dying, blessing or cursing
You know, the time has come around
to turn from your fighting
and rest in his mercy

Choose life, that you might live
the life that He gives
He gives you forever
Choose life, the way that is true
from the one who chose you
your father in Heaven
Choose life
Trust the Lord with all your heart
all of your soul and all of your being

Hold on, listen and obey
surrender your life into His keeping
And the weight you’re under
will be lifted away
And the world will wonder
what happened here today
then you’ll stand right here and say