Carla Mae's Blog

                        What do we do with manure…? We watch with wonder as the farmer spreads it on the fields, and lo…wonderful things grow. But what about the manure of our own lives…our foolish choices, the abuse piled upon us by the judgments of others, the dreaded diagnosis, the broken marriages, the betrayals, the cutting remarks, the sense of aloneness, the car accident, the outright sinfulness? It does no good to whitewash these things…they still smell…as does manure. So what are we to do as we plunge into this ordinary time, this time of intense growth from the marvels of the paschal mystery? Maybe we can take a clue again from the farmer. He plants, he covers the field with manure so the rains can soak it into the ground and surrounds and feeds the little seed with its nutrients, and then he goes home and takes a nap. He sleeps and waits. So mu...

“…the Spirit of truth…will guide you to all truth.” John 16   Who is this Holy Spirit? We here in the West have very vague notions of the Holy Spirit. For some of us the Spirit is an afterthought in the Trinity…a “trailer-child,” or the dove that hovers over Jesus. But we sell ourselves short. This third Something in the divine Mystery is the actual love-gift of God given to us. Just as the Father is the Singer, and the Word is the Song, so the Spirit is the Singing. They are distinct but cannot be separated. Remove one, and the whole relationship falls apart. And more, this relational wonder is going on within us .   The Church uses wild and wonderful images to try to express this in human terms. There are eight powerful biblical images that refer to the Holy Spirit. The images point to functions , the actual activity of the Spirit in our lives.   The most common is the dove . The image speaks of comfort and peace. Then there is fire, which caut...

I will send you …the Spirit of Truth… John 15 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 is all 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 ar...

They just didn’t get it. He comes, he says, “Peace be with you…” yet they are terrified. But wait just a minute. We have 2000 years of acquaintance with the idea of resurrection. They had no idea of what happened to a human being after death. No wonder they were incredulous and full of fear. Then he asks if they have anything to eat, and they calm down. He deals with them gently, according to their human need. He did the same with Mary Magdalen, with the two on the way to Emmaus, and with Thomas. “You need to put your hand here and your fingers into my wounds, Thomas? OK, here I am…do what you need to do.” He meets them where they are. In our day, and in our times, he is the same: yesterday, today, and forever. He still meets us where we are. So what really happens to a human being in resurrection? Scripture assures us that as he is, so shall we be. What happened to the physical part of Jesus, and what will happen to the physical part of ourselves? For one thing we know the...

We’re a community of vowed religious women, right? Right, and we are surrounded by associates who want us to challenge them to be everything they can be in their life-styles. Right? Our communal life-style is shaped by three gospel counsels : living simply so that others can simply live; loving to white-hot intensity with open hands; and binding ourselves to develop an ever-deepening listening heart. Right? But other religious women’s communities do the same; and other communities have associates who draw strength and guidance from these women who live these counsels. So who are we as a community of Dominican women religious, who have associates? Who are we just having celebrated 800 years of Dominican identity? What is the distinctive mark we bring to the wider Church as we turn our faces to the future? I’m going to suggest that we stand among the Jesuits, the Franciscans, the Mercy’s, the Redemptorists…carrying our own distinctive foot-washing towel. It has a mon...

As lent blooms into Easter, we are very aware that we are being saved by God’s love. This is a fact. It’s right before our very eyes. The truth of the fact is one thing, but how it happens is another. We are not used to asking the how question, because it is asking for the explanation of functioning rather than the simple description of a fact of truth. So let’s take a stab at it…let’s explore how we are saved by a magnificent Love. First, Love bends down. Bending is a function. Here is this poor Cinderella-soul, which finds itself in a drudgery state not of her choosing. Love bends down to her, and she “turns” at Love’s touch, her drudgery gone, and transformed into a princess in a party dress and at a “dance.” Locked in Love’s embrace, she follows Love’s lead on the dancefloor of her life. When she becomes “oh-so-tired-to-death,” Love sweeps her into its arms and carries her across the threshold into the safety of his Father’s “castle.” Notice that even before bendi...

                                  The context for all we are and do – charism, Spirit Marks, common life, common prayer, study, mission and ministry – is set by our vows, our commitments. Our lay associates witness to us their baptismal vows, and some, their marital vows of faithful loving. Sisters vow the counsels in addition to their baptismal vows, to witness to the entire Church a non-consumerist, wild loving, and obedient life-style in community. So what is so distinct about vowing the counsel of religious obedience? We all seek to obey the voice of God in our life-styles, right? Indeed. Yet that voice of God asks different things of different folks. Marital vows ask a listening heart for the needs of the spouse and family. The sister pledges a listening heart for the voice of God coming through her religio...