Carla Mae's Blog

 As People of the Word we have been reflecting this past year on Pope Francis’ challenges to us on Hope. How can we proclaim a word of hope in these times? We have reflected on this great virtue, a power given us by that hidden Mystery of God we call “Father.” As the Father cannot be seen, so hope cannot yet see what it longs for. Yet we cannot be still. We preach the Word, in season and out, because if we don’t it burns within us, needing to get out to those around us. As Dominicans we learn in our formation that our first preaching is from the pulpit of our lives. Our lives speak. We bring a presence to the kitchen, the phone, and online. This is the first Word others hear. Then some among us write, speak, teach, or preach liturgically at liturgy. Pope Francis shocked the world with his Laudato si, where he called us all to recognize that we are one with all of creation, and need to care for it. Now he has again challenged the world with Fratelli tutti, where he ze...

A new Year has dawned, and in the midst of the pandemic’s hold we know healing is out there, hidden in the laboratories struggling to produce the help the world needs. So much is hidden in our day-to-day lives. Could this be the reason the Word who pressed our humanity to itself chose thirty years of hiddenness? It’s certainly not the way we would plan a redemption. Thirty years, and the only detail we have is when the child got ‘lost’ and caused his parents unbelievable pain? Perhaps there is more here than we might think as we hurry on through this little snatch of ordinary time to the great season of lent. But, to think of it, these hidden years of the life of Jesus have much to tell us. The liturgical readings of January might serve us well if we look for ‘hidden treasure.’ The ordinary is just so…ordinary. We take it for granted. We just do it. We do our laundry, we shop, we open mail, we brush our teeth, we make supper…and so on. But didn’t the Word do just the...

  We have entered the season of Advent. Its color is purple, but not the penitential purple of lent. It is the magenta or sapphire blue purple of longing. Advent is about the heartache of hope’s longing to find the One my heart loves .   The human family knows deep-down what it wants. It longs for peace. It longs for collaboration. It longs for healing. It longs for the communion that authentic relationship brings. ‘Advent’ means to come or coming to. So the obvious question is “When?” When will these things come, and who will bring them?    Various religious traditions have various answers. The answer given down through the ages in the Christian community called Church has been that only God can bring these things, and God will do this in the broad expanse of time: in the past, in the present, and in the future. But to answer this longing, God will have to enter time. God will have to endure its limitations, be bound by its step-by-step process, suff...

  What makes it possible, when all is chaos around us, when war is present, when the virus persists, when corruption abounds…to cling firmly in faith? We are told we are to trust. What makes it possible for us to do this? The sacred texts this month will speak of perseverance to the very end. We will be remembering our loved ones who have gone on into a type of life beyond our present experience. In the face of the losses that death inflicts upon us, what will prevent us from scattering like a flock of frightened sheep? One thing only…the assurance given us by the enduring presence of the Word. We are told to grab hold of him, to hide our frightened faces in his tunic, near to his heart. We are told to take refuge in the reality of a mystery many of us spend a good part of our lives trying to absorb. He will be with us, he says, until the end of the age. “You in me, and I in you,” he says. What would happen in my life if this day, this week, this month, I took that ...

We all know the intoxicating smell of autumn leaves. Pope Francis uses fragrance to tell us that hope too has a tell-tale ‘breath.’ Where the Spirit is, there is delightful fragrance, and the Holy Spirit, says Francis, is hope’s breath. How is this so? The Holy Spirit, like some lingering fragrance in the air, keeps before us the steady content of our hope. Without this presence, it would be dark indeed, and the stench of our sin would overwhelm us. But the Spirit promises new life.  We don’t have to look far to see the effects of our sinfulness. In our selfish woundedness, we pollute the very land and water we have been given as gift. Yet, like the oil and wine poured into the wounds of the robbers’ victim, the Holy Spirit comes to save us from ourselves. We groan, but our groaning is that of a woman in labor, for the Spirit draws new life from our groaning. The Spirit makes sure we see beyond our sinfulness. From our destructive greed the Spirit draws new life. Death and d...

 As women and men of the Word we have been reflecting on what Pope Francis has said about hope in our lives. What faces us in the coming weeks is no exception. The stakes are high, and at such times, Satan often struts around as an angel of light. Dominicans above all cannot allow themselves to be duped at a time like this.  It seems the media is presenting us with the news that some priests are telling their people that Catholics will sin mortally if they vote for pro-choice candidates. Sadly, these misinformed clergy are using their influence to misguide, and have not read or heeded the directives of their own bishops. These directives are found on the USCCB website. If you don’t have time to read the entire Voter’s Guide, check out #7 and #35. The latter was drawn from a principle given by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (formerly Pope Benedict XVI) which is important enough to quote in full: A Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in evil, and so unworthy to present...

We’re into the seventh month with no end in sight. It’s hard to believe we’ve been living with this virus for six months. But those are the facts. We wonder when it’s going to end. Liturgically we are at that mid - point between the events of the Great Paschal Mystery and Advent. It’s the time of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, and right alongside, several feasts of Mary, the Mother of God: her Birthday on September 8; her name’s day on the 12 th , her sorrows on the 15 th and that ancient feast of Our Lady of Ransom on the 24th .  What is this Great Mother we call the Church thinking? First of all, who on earth wants to exalt the cross, that instrum ent of torture? And then, what does this humble woman have to do with the cross? I think a lot. Mary is always ourselves – fast forwarded. Yes, she is what we shall be after struggling through the agony and darkness of faith. She is us...come to fullness aft er hanging on for dear life by our fingernails. She stands there......