Carla Mae's Blog

“By Their Fruits You Will Know Them…” W e are now in the final ten weeks of ordinary time. It is the time when the Church looks for the harvest, the fruits of the birth, death, resurrection of her Beloved, and the rich and powerful results of his life-giving Spirit among us. So what fruits are being fostered? Will we spot them as the liturgy highlights them? In September the summer begins to cool down. The liturgy cools us down too…focusing our eyes on the real struggle that brings forth new life. This month offers us no less than four feasts of the Mother of God, first of the believers. She shines before us in her birth (Sept. 8), her holy name (Sept. 12), her sorrows (Sept. 15), and a more hidden ancient feast, Our Lady of Ransom (Sept. 24). Then we are given the powerful feast of the Holy Cross (Sept 14), a remembrance of the Korean martyrs (Sept. 20), the Japanese martyrs (Sept. 28), and finally the Feast of the Angels (Sept. 29). This is ...

As Dominicans, we are flexible indeed. We move like dancers taught by a founder who chose white for the color of the religious habit for his Order, symbol of grace, light, and the baptismal garment. Dominic is also the Doctor of Truth. But what is Truth? (We sound like Pilate!) First and most important, for the Dominican, Truth is a person, not a proposition. Truth is not a statement of belief about God, about Jesus. It is far more. We are referring to the One who is Truth itself, the fullness of Truth. Once we realize our Dominican life isall about a relationship with a person, then we can ask again, “Risen Lord, what are you the Truth about? Let’s take it step by step… Truth is the real…as known by the mind. Now what is real is real, whether we know it or not. But when we do know it, it gets inside us. We are bonded with it. Our mind is bonded with it. When we come to know this One who is the fullness of Truth, then we are in him, and he is in us. So John is spot-on in putting the...

In the world of fake news and compromised truth, how do we sift through the pseudo-world that surrounds us? As one example, integrative medicine is expanding by leaps and bounds beyond the American Medical Association model in its discoveries. We welcome the return to health solutions that are natural and an alternative to prescriptions and/or surgery. We’re looking for the authentic, for the really real, and it’s not Coca Cola! To being with, we need a way to sift through data, and if Lonergan is right, we have a consciousness made to do just that. So let’s stick to our integrative medicine example to explore how we can really be real. Physically, the human person needs to consider three areas in seeking health. First, the structure of the human person, second the brain and nerve extensions, and third, the chemistry of the body’s hormones, enzymes, vitamins and minerals. If the bone structure is out of alignment, then the nerves and brain are affected. To use drugs alon...

Our prayer during community days in June focused on the four “pillars” that give us an inside view of our Dominican charism. Another metaphor is the beauty of four shades of light within the whiteness that pieces the darkness: Common Life, Common Prayer, Study, and the Mission of proclaiming the just word. Long ago we learned that common life meant the sharing of budgets, of food, of living space. What will common life mean as we enter the time after our 800 th Anniversary as an Order? I suggest we are being challenged to “widen the tent” of our early understanding. We live in a world of instantaneous communication. We can be in Syria during the evening news grieving with the refugees fighting famine in their camps. We are no longer just living in our community residences. We are citizens of a world in great pain. Called to this wider sense of family, we extend our love and prayer to wherever it is needed. No boundaries prevent us. We can go to the fringes, to the fron...

As the summer readings of Ordinary Time are given to us, we are reminded of what makes for the basic healing and health of our souls. We have been reminded that even our faults and sins, the “manure” of our live, grows wonderful things. To our embarrassment even this is turned to our good by a gracious God. Another reminder during these ordinary weeks that are not so “ordinary” is the fact that God’s pace in responding to our concerns is not to our liking. God really tests our patience. Why doesn’t God take care of these awful things…right now! How can God put up with all this suffering? Doesn’t God notice how all these people need food?…and on and on. So impatient are we that we are tempted to doubt the very existence of God, and if not this, then we might at least question God’s compassion. Our faith gets tested. Is God really there, or not? Yet once again we are called to look at the fields and watch things grow. They have their pace, and no amount of our complaining wi...