Tag: freedom

Nothing

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

Wednesday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time
September 25, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/092524.cfm

Jesus summoned the Twelve and gave them power and authority
over all demons and to cure diseases,
and he sent them to proclaim the Kingdom of God
and to heal the sick.
He said to them, “Take nothing for the journey,
neither walking stick, nor sack, nor food, nor money,
and let no one take a second tunic.
Whatever house you enter, stay there and leave from there.
And as for those who do not welcome you,
when you leave that town,
shake the dust from your feet in testimony against them.”
Then they set out and went from village to village
proclaiming the Good News and curing diseases everywhere.
Luke 9:1-6

That’s what Jesus said – NOTHING – “Take nothing for the journey”! Within their coming journey, everything already awaited his disciples. He asked them to empty the box of their acquired possessions so that they could see through to heaven.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
I picture myself when I go on a journey of a week or two. Almost always, I carry at least one suitcase I never need. Instead, I have dragged a bag full of inessentials through most of Europe and the U.S.! We carry so much with us we do not need – both materially and spiritually.

Whenever I read this Gospel, I am reminded of a verse from Janis Joplin’s smash hit song of 1971, “Me and Bobby McGee”. Janis was a tortured soul but a magnificent artist. Her song captured the transitory nature of anything we try to possess in life

The line I love is this – take it for whatever truth it can offer you:

Freedom’s just another word
for nothing left to lose.

Poetry: On Freedom – Hafiz

We have not come here to take prisoners,
But to surrender ever more deeply
To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world
To hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run my dear,
From anything
That may not strengthen
Your precious budding wings.

Run like hell my dear,
From anyone likely
To put a sharp knife
Into the sacred, tender vision
Of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend
Those aspects of obedience
That stand outside of our house
And shout to our reason
“O please, O please,
Come out and play.”

For we have not come here to take prisoners
Or to confine our wondrous spirits,

But to experience ever and ever more deeply
Our divine courage, freedom and
Light!

Music: Me and Bobby McGee – written by Kris Kristofferson, sung by Janis Joplin

O Key of David

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Advent, Faith, Hope, Jesus, Poetry, Prayer1 Comment

Friday of the Third Week of Advent

December 20, 2019

Click here for readings

key of david

 

Today, in Mercy, we pray:

O Key of David,

O Blessed Freedom,
Who unlocks the secret of eternal life
within our hearts!

Come absolve
the sad incarcerations
shackling us!

We hold ourselves
and one another captive
by our fears, our greed,
our terrible need
to control
Your power within us.

We are afraid of Love,
because once released in us,
Love asks for everything…

… for everything to be
unbound, unbarred
and given to Your
Unrestricted Grace,
in flesh named “Jesus”.

Love asks us to
become like You,
but we are locked
in smaller dreams.

O Key of David,
come free our dreams
with Yours.

Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!

Music:  O Clavis David

Radical Benediction

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Faith, Gospel, holiness, Jesus, justice1 Comment

Monday, June 11, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061118.cfm

Today, in Mercy, we begin several weeks of readings from Matthew’s Gospel. In today’s passage, Jesus starts out by turning the world upside-down!

Blessed 6_11_18

In the earlier chapters of his Gospel, Matthew has set the tone for the announcement of Jesus’ message – a new reign of grace and glory. The crowds gather in great anticipation. Most are overwhelmed and beleaguered by life under Roman occupation. Many hope for a political Messiah who will deliver them from their current circumstances, returning to them the material control of their lives. 

Instead, Jesus announces that:

“The kingdom of God can only be received by empty hands. Jesus warns against
(a) worldly self-sufficiency: you trust yourself and your own resources and don’t need God
(b) religious self-sufficiency: you trust your religious attitude and moral life and don’t need Jesus.”
~ Michael H. Crosby, Spirituality of the Beatitudes: Matthew’s Vision for the Church in an Unjust World

We are so used to hearing the Beatitudes that they may have become tamed for us — lovely consolations to the downtrodden that things will eventually be OK. On the contrary, the Sermon on the Mount proclaims a shocking message to those gathered with Jesus — AND to us. The radical blessedness of life is to be found within our ordinary joys and sorrows, embraced humbly, faithfully and joyfully.  It is to be found in right-relationship with all Creation, not in any kind of dominance by one over another – political, economic, or personal.

The poor in spirit, the meek, the bereaved, the justice-seekers, the merciful, the pure of heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted: Jesus says these people are blessed – even FORTUNATE – because there are no barriers between them and the fullness of God. Power, prestige and possessions block us, perhaps even cripple us, from our shared immersion in God’s ever-present love and grace.

It is likely that many who gathered on that Galilean Hill didn’t want to hear Jesus’ astonishing message. Their myopic vision of prosperity was turned upside down. They were challenged to an unexpected, comfort-shattering, radical blessedness. Would they accept the challenge? Will we?

Music:  Blessings ~ Laura Story

Ransomed

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn Conversion, Faith, Jesus, justice, Mercy1 Comment

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/053018.cfm

1 Pet1_18 ransomed

Today, in Mercy, Peter tells us that we have been ransomed at an infinite price – the blood of Jesus. And what have we been ransomed from? The early Christians were quite familiar with slavery, some having been enslaved themselves. Peter shows them that their souls too may be enslaved.

In any form, slavery is a restriction or loss of freedom. It may be physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual or intellectual. It is that place where our Truth is constricted by the negativity of another force.

Peter tells us that we have been freed “so that our faith and hope are in God” and not in anything that can chain our souls. He tells us that we have been born anew so that we can love one another intensely from a pure heart.

Today, let’s pray for those, even ourselves, enslaved in any way – through illness, addiction, stereo-typing, racism, domination, poverty or ignorance; for those who are trafficked, for immigrants cruelly separated from family, for the unjustly or inhumanely imprisoned, for those forced from their homeland by war and violence.

Let us pray for conversion and forgiveness for any role we may have played, however unwittingly, in sustaining these social evils.

Music: Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi’s opera Nabucco. Inspired by Psalm 137, this mournful melody recalls the enslavement of Jews during the Babylonian Captivity.