Carla Mae's Blog

We’ve pinned it down for now… both our Mission Statement and our Focus Statement begin with a reference to presence. So why all this emphasis on presence , and what might it mean ? A few thoughts… Our primary of being preaching women and men is by our presence, wherever our feet take us. As part of the Dominican Family we identify with the Word; we keep our eyes on the Word; we immerse ourselves into the Word, both in our prayer and study. Then we try to walk-the-talk.   So what kind of presence do we bring as consecrated women wherever we are? And what kind of presence do we bring as associates as we are present to our spouses, to our children and grandkids, and to our dear friends? Maybe it’s time to go back to basics.   We are all vowed, folks. We all have affirmed our baptismal vows this last Holy Saturday. That’s where we all start, on the common ground of being signed, sealed, and delivered as followers of this Christ Jesus who has stolen our heart...

  That’s our name – our scriptural name. Pay attention, don’t brush it off. Remembering that it is what God always calls us can bring us out of a funk. We need to remember.   The liturgy has brought us into the brilliant light of the resurrection. We are almost blinded by the beauty of Word as he emerges from the tomb like some magnificent butterfly: the same as went in, but now so different. Pay attention to what comes after misery and death.   We almost breathe a sigh of relief. The shadows and darkness of the Passion are behind us (Really? Be careful.) and it is so great to see that this sweet Word sent to us from the Father is no longer dead. He lives. So, as beloved, why must we be careful? We need to stop a bit and remember: this is not only about Jesus. It’s about the beloved too. It’s our story, closer to us than our cheek.   Most of us don’t live too long in the blinding light of the resurrection, in the promise that one day we will be...

It isn’t the way we would plan it: the suffering of war, of political disagreement, of hurt people in the Church, the suffering of children, sickness. No, surely the human race can be redeemed another way. Surely we can be saved without all this suffering, can’t we? We are in the midst of Lent, the season that faces us with the outlandish fact that the Word of God, in the New Covenant of our flesh, reveals to us that, no, the best way is the way of the cross. Now why would God plan it this way? We are not going to presume that we know the Mind of God, but we are going to get hints. Check it out. The all-powerful Word of God getting slapped in the face. He does nothing, except stand there in the greatest dignity, when with one glance he could destroy them all. What is he trying to tell us? If Christ Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” then we are seeing a love so powerful that it refuses to be a victim and to victimize anyone else by passing the violence on. It ends ...