Carla Mae's Blog

Pioneering in 2017...? In a recent article on religious life sent to us by the Executive Team, the word “pioneer” is used several times. It brought back an image that was used after Vatican II to describe what was happening in the Church as a result of the Council. From being quite “settled” as a result of colonization, writers were calling us to become “pioneers,” a “Church in the World.” So we roused ourselves from our security and “got on the road.” We began to go to public universities. We started talking to folks in other faith traditions. Dominicans founded Network in Washington, D.C., and the term “political ministry” became part of our vocabulary. Women’s Dominican communities took this pioneering call very seriously.  We are entering a new year. It is 2017. What might the term “pioneer” mean for us now, 52 years from the close of the council? In a time in our history when religious life as we have known it is not receiving candidates? Where are we to “go?” Wha...

Pray, Ponder, Preach for January, 2017, Carla Mae Streeter, OP                                                 …your Light has Come… Thomas Merton once wrote that people would be surprised if he told them they were walking around shining like the sun. I suspect they would be more than surprised – they would be incredulous. We don’t feel lightsome. We don’t see light streaming from us. It’s just not our experience. Yet feeling and seeing and our experience are often far from the facts. The Christmas season is about light. Our light has come. The scriptures proclaim it, the songs sing it, and the decorations, indoors and out, celebrate it. So what is this light, and if it is already ours, why do we feel so heavy, so enveloped in darkness? Th...

How we Do it... The word contemplation can mean different things to different people. How do Dominicans understand it? As we continue to more intentionally reclaim this core of our spirituality in all our deliberations, it is good to revisit the distinctive take we Dominicans have on contemplation. Clarifying this would be an important step as we complete the celebration of our 800 th Anniversary. The recently deceased Paul Philibert, OP, in his research has uncovered something rather interesting. The way Dominicans understand contemplation is revealed in Dominic’s Nine Ways of Prayer. For the perceptive eye, there is a flow in these ways of prayer. First, there is reverencing, shown in our customs of bows and prostrations. Then there is pleading, in the raised and outstretched arms, and finally there is the silent and absorbed meditative reading and study which ends up witnessing. The movement is a bit like breathing… reverencing, pleading, witnessing . The Dominican...

A Sign will be given you…a baby… Carla Mae Streeter, OP, Promoter of Preaching What?! A baby??? A baby is the long-awaited sign of God’s answer to millions of prayers for a redeemer…for thousands of years? Yes. And come to think of it, how ingenious. Not lightning from Mt. Saini, not a warrior on a white stallion, not even a powerful prophet thundering words of warning. A baby…a baby as a sign of God. What newness might grasp us as we gaze at the crib? What might we see that we haven’t noticed before? If this baby is the visible sign of the invisible God, we need to take a long, loving look. This child is the bridge, the restored link between the Divine and our humanness. This baby, wanting to play patty-cake on my cheeks until I scoop it up and cover it with kisses…is this the peek-a-boo God who knows just how to get a rise out of me? A rise out of its mother? An anonymous writer put it this way…      “ The soul’s prayer of union is someth...

                                                                        A Prudent Vote… Amid the noise and insults, the lies and accusations, what’s a responsible Dominican to do as this election draws near? It is tempting indeed to simply say, “I’m just not going to vote.” Yet we all know this is an abdication of one of our most treasured rights and responsibilities as citizens. Dominicans preach first from the pulpit of their lives, so our lives must speak from the voting booth too. The updated 2016 Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship from the American bishops can be of help to us. (USCCB website) The bishops call u...

More Than a Day…. Carla Mae Streeter, OP ‘Tis the month of Thanksgiving. It’s also the time of harvest, not only from the fields but in the community we call church. We gather the harvest of the fields, and we are approaching the end of Ordinary Time. This long series of weeks in the church’s celebration of time is the time of greening, the time of growth from the Paschal Mystery. The Easter glow is like Sonshine, cultivating the fruits of the Spirit in our souls. But thanksgiving for all the richness of field and human flourishing is not just for a day. It can be a way…of life. Scripture says it best: “In all circumstances, give thanks, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” (1Thess. 5:18 ) Now I don’t know about you, but a typical response to this is, “You’ve got to be kidding! Give thanks for a cancer diagnosis, for someone rear-ending me?” Yes. Scripture doesn’t mince words: “In all circumstances…” So for the past three years I’ve been tryin...