Carla Mae's Blog

We enter a new liturgical year and the great season of Advent. It is a twilight time, a time of fertile darkness, a time of waiting, of looking for something. Culturally we find ourselves in a kind of mist. We strain to make sense of what is going on. So what are we waiting for in 2020? We want peace…we want order…we want truthfulness and honesty. We want to be saved…from ourselves. Advent is a time of hope, a time that tells us that what we want is already on the way. It’s message centers on the birth of a baby, not an army, not a new foreign policy, but a baby. The Mystery that is saving us bends down, wrapping itself in our DNA. Infinity binds itself in littleness. We ponder this, amazed. We know what’s coming. There will be the growing up, the ordinary eating, sleeping, being in the family. There will be living the limits of being able to do only so much. Then there will be the bending into rejection, arrest, conviction, and execution. And because such love can’t di...

To speak of hope to those who are desperate, it is essential to share their desperation. To dry the tears from the faces of those who are suffering, it is necessary to join our tears with theirs.                                                                                                                                      ...

When I first read 1Thessalonians 5:17-18 I caught my breath. I could do OK with “Rejoice always (actually a little hesitation here…), pray without ceasing (I protested, after all, I do need to do the laundry…), and give thanks in every situation, for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.” Now here is where I caught my breath. Really…? In EVERY situation??? When this happens with scripture, you can go one of two ways: either you dismiss the text as pious exaggeration, or you question if you really understand what is behind what it is asking of you. Guess what I chose. November is the month of thanksgiving. We celebrate gratitude as a national holiday. I figured it would be good if I ate humble pie and admit I was rolling my eyes and protesting this text because I really didn’t understand it. So here is where that took me. Actually, it turned my life on its ear. Now about this “Rejoice always…” thing. I don’t think I’m the only person who would rather wee...

“Hope opens new horizons, making us capable of dreaming what is not even imaginable.”    -Pope Francis Were you amazed when the Berlin Wall came down? Me too. It was beyond my wildest dreams. No war, no fighting…not a shot fired. People just came and started to knock that wall down, and the soldiers guarding it did nothing to stop them. I think this is what Pope Frances means. Hoping when that little inner voice says we are crazy is not easy. Poor Abraham waited and waited. Still, no child as God promised. But in due time that child came. Recently our liturgy reminded us, “Write down the vision clearly...for the vision still has its time…it presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late.” (Habakkuk 2:2-4) Our difficulty is like Abraham’s. When, O Lord? Yet the timing will be perfect. God is faithful, and so we wait. We live in hope. The Christophers describe what hope really looks like: “Hope looks for th...