Carla Mae's Blog

September is the time in the Church Year when we are reminded of the power of the Cross and the clear decisions we need to make to live our baptismal commitments. The structure of the cross is worth some pondering. First there is a vertical beam. This connects heaven and earth. But it also separates: land from sea, light from darkness, possession from divestiture, power-over from compassion, going away from coming home, order from chaos. Then there is the horizontal beam. It reaches out to gather in, like some continuous hug. And finally there is the Body. Someone is hung between the two beams, helpless, wounded, bleeding, with a heart open “like a window without shutters,” says Catherine of Siena, so that we can climb in and find refuge anytime. The One hanging on the Cross holds the two beams together. No one seeks after pain, but suffering is different from pain. Suffering can be profound when there is no physical pain. Suffering can be love’s bonding no matter what...

It’s a good question. What reasons do we have to hope? Why should we be a community of hope? Francis asks this question, and so should we. The answer might surprise us. If we look at our little selves, frail, the future full of mist and even darkness, we search in vain. So we are not the answer. The answer rests in an assurance that comes from our faith. Faith is the substance of what we hope for. The answer comes from beyond ourselves. We have an assurance that we are held in love, and this enables us to “whistle in the dark.” The reason for our hope is this hidden God. There is this kind of ache in our hearts. We long for something and we don’t know why. Yet the heartache is there. We long for something that we can’t even name. Maybe it’s that we as a community become something new, something we have been growing toward all the while. Just as a child dreams of “growing up” yet has no clear idea what she shall be, so we too long to be what God wants for us. But if asked wha...