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 ...

  Finally, in reflecting on our expanded Mission Statement, we come to the part we know best: …we are committed to truth and compelled to justice.   To be committed to something means to be dedicated to it, focused on it, drawn to it like a magnet. But what “truth” are we talking about? Well, there is mathematical truth, economic truth, scientific truth, racial and political truth. No doubt, we have been, and still are committed to these truths in our educating and advocacy activities. Yet even more as Dominicans we are committed to the Person who said, “I am the... truth…” We seek to take on his mind, form our values with his heart. The truth we are committed to is a person, not merely a proposition.   It is this relationship that compels us to seek a just world. Like the barking dog, so symbolic to the Dominican heart, we cannot be silenced. We cry out to God for justice, for the reign of God to come, for peace. We doggedly search it out in our study ...

Some time ago Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, S.J (Pope Francis has removed the monitum on him) wrote of human suffering. He was a seminarian conscientious objector in the First World War, so was assigned as a stretcher bearer in the trenches. At night he would write by lantern-light.   As we prepare to enter into our Lenten season, what he says might surprise us. He reminds us that in our youth we are very busy. We teach, minister, care for our families; we are “on the move.” But in our later years, “We just can’t do what we used to do.” Guilt builds up. How can I be of service now? What good am I when I just don’t have the energy I used to have? We are diminishing, and this causes us sadness.   Then he turns this on its head. Pointing to the strange flow of Jesus’ life, he points out that Jesus had only three short years of active ministry. Then comes the diminishment of the passion. This is certainly not the way we would do things. But it is in that diminishment that Je...

  Our newly expanded Mission Statement first identifies a gate, a doorway: “ Through a communal and contemplative presence…” The word through surrounds you, like a blanket in a chill wind. It’s a way to be.   Next we identify our Dominican-ness: “Rooted in God’s transformative Word.” A subtle play on the meaning of the French word, Racine, yes? And take note, Word is capitalized. That means more than the scriptural word, although that is a primary place we find the Word-in-person. The Word here is the One who has come to be with us. The Word is Christ Jesus. How do we stay “rooted” in a person? Being rooted means being where your life-source is. It means you lose your life if you get “uprooted.” It means we have identified our life-source, the reason for our existence. We have also used an important adjective in front of it. This Word does not stand still. It moves. It moves in us and transforms us day to day. That means we are itinerant in the deepest meaning of...

The winter solstice has come. The light has shifted. Now the days grow longer. Light has won out, and the darkness slinks away, getting ready to return another time. Lights are everywhere. Christmas lights are still up, filling the night cold with multicolored beauty.   We are celebrating the greatest Light of all. The words of Genesis ring in our ears: “Let there be…Light!” Did you ever wonder how there could be light when, according to the ancient account, there was as yet no sun? What is the Light? Could it be the very Wisdom of God made manifest, and from this Wisdom, this very substance of God self-expressing in a Word, all creation spills out? Is it all made from Light? Now lest you think this is mere new age jibberish, scientists seem to be moving in this same direction. They keep looking for the most primary particle. So far the most basic they have found they have named the quark. And what is this very basic element in the universe? They have identified it as ...