Carla Mae's Blog

Reflections On Some Responses to Francis’ Amoris Laetitia Carla Mae Streeter, OP Francis released his Apostolic Exhortation, “On the Joy of Love,” on March 19, 2016, the Feast of St. Joseph. The document was the pope’s long awaited response to the Synod on the Family, which concretized Francis’ vision of the Church as a participative community engaged in a participative event. A questionnaire was issued beforehand, with the explicit invitation to speak freely on the issues. It was to be an experience of a truly listening Church.   What followed the publication of the Exhortation was a variety of responses. I will name two that the reader might want to pursue, while commenting mainly on one of them. The first response I reference appeared in Commonweal on May 20, 2016, and was entitled, “A Balancing Act: Reading ‘Amoris Laetitia.’ The article featured perspectives from Peter Steinfels, Paige E. Hochschild, William L. Portier, Sandra Yocum, and George Dennis O’Brien. ...

As September comes, we look toward the harvest in the fields, and liturgically toward the fruit the Spirit has coaxed into ripeness in the spiritual gardens of our souls. We have just celebrated the Transfiguration of the sacred humanity of Jesus and the Assumption of the humanity of Mary, his mother. Both of these feasts point to what we ourselves shall be.   As if the Church is deeply pondering this remarkable revelation, she offers us three more feasts of the Mother of God in this month: Mary’s birthday on September 8, the feast of her Holy Name on the 12 th , and then the feast of her Sorrows on the 15 th , right after the feast of the Holy Cross. Could the Church be trying to tell us something as the Sunday readings look for sweet fruit from us? Then, as though three were not enough, in the earlier calendars there was a fourth feast of Mary: Our Lady of Ransom on September 24. No longer on the liturgical calendar, this was the ancient feast of Our Lady of Mercy. It comm...

Have you ever wondered why Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is so prominent in Dominican spirituality? Yes, there are the stories of Mary’s appearances, guiding Dominic in the foundation of the Order, and the use of the prayer beads that became the rosary, to give folks access to scripture before the printing press arrived in 1443. But why would Mary take such an interest, not only in the Dominicans, but in other Orders as well? We might find a helpful clue from the lay woman Chiara Lubich, foundress of the Focolare Movement, who died recently in Rome. Chiara calls Mary the transparency of God. Her insight suggests that Mary’s present state as a risen human is something like a “see-through lady.” Her humanness has become the very radiance of God, who shows in her and through her. This would give us a hint of our very own future. Is that how it will be with us? Will the grateful love we have lived day by day, and the faithfulness we have struggled to maintain, be the agents of our tra...

How often these words come tumbling out when children are full of expectation …a party, a treat, a trip…to hold us to our word. After all, our honor is at stake. As adults, we continue to make this plea in turn to God who has made promises, too, and has literally given us his Word. This month of August brings us two feasts that at first glance may not seem related: The Transfiguration of Jesus and the Assumption of Mary. But a closer look reveals a similarity. Both feasts have something to do with the human body. In the Trans figuration we are given a glimpse of what is behind the veil of the sacred humanity. Jesus literally shines. In the Assumption we are shown that the body that had been the temple of the Incarnate Word would not be allowed to corrupt in the grave. It is carried into eternity, risen and transformed. We need these two feasts this year in a special way. The news has been filled with violence. The human being has been destroyed, the body desecrated by ...

the one thing necessary… Summer is in full swing…ordinary time rouses itself day to day like a stretching cat. The Church is like the bride turning her wedding ring every which way to catch every facet of the diamond her spouse put on her finger. She is wedded, and her beloved is away. Every Sunday liturgy is another facet of the diamond she wears to keep his presence ever in mind. What is that ring that keeps her bonded to him? During the waiting time one must be faithful…full of faith. All the readings are presenting aspects of that faithfulness. We lose something precious in English translation of the Greek word for faith. It means much more than “intellectual assent.” The word in Greek is pistis and it means “to adhere to, as with glue; to cling, to hang on.” What marvelous meaning comes when we realize that faith is like a magnet on a refrigerator door…it keeps us so pressed to God that it takes quite a pull to dislodge us! Go to your refrigerator door, and...

  The Blessed Scandal of the Ordinary Carla Mae Streeter, OP   The blessed Feast of the Body of Christ (Corpus Christi) has been celebrated. The spectacular feasts of Pentecost, and Trinity too are behind us now. We are plunged into Ordinary Time, and summer comes upon us quietly with rain showers and the silent blooming of lilacs. The Friday and Saturday after Corpus Christi bring us the feasts of two hearts: the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary – a fitting entrance into the scandal of “ordinariness.”   The heart is the center of the human person. Where your heart is, there is your treasure, goes the old saying. So where is Jesus’ heart, where is Mary’s heart? They are love-centered. These two human beings are caught up in a compassionate love. We are given them to show us where the Pentecostal fire resides. It resides in our hearts, unless we douse it with the dampness of unforgiveness, complaining, or blaming. We need to keep compa...

…she pondered all these things in her heart… Carla Mae Streeter, OP What was Mary, the Mother of Jesus, thinking about in the time after her son’s resurrection? Was she marveling at how things had turned out? Was she learning from those dark days when the temptation to lose trust in God was so strong? Was she knitting everything together with one “Aha!” moment after another? First, there he was, her beautiful son, alive…wounds shining. Did she sense that he was no longer just “hers”? Did she realize that he was not just for the Jews, not just for any group anymore? That he belonged to the whole world now? Did she understand that of course he would return to his Father, taking our humanness with him to prepare for all of us to follow? Did she grasp that the Spirit of God that overshadowed her was now loose in the world, forming bonds between people? Is this what she was thinking about? What are we thinking about? We began our Paschal Mystery in the darkness of Holy Satu...