Carla Mae's Blog

We are in the Easter glow. We have just celebrated Mercy Sunday. Once more we are invited to stand with mouths open in wonder at what the resurrection of Jesus means for each of us.  We remember marveling in the past as we watched Star Wars when we heard the words, “Beam me up, Scotty!” Sci-fi worked its wonders when the human in the spaceship reappeared on the planet surface. We were watching a physics which we knew didn’t yet exist transport humans from one place to another. But this Easter season brings us a pledge of what does already exist. What does the risen Jesus, seen by over five hundred people, come to tell us? He comes to give us the first glimpse of a promise.  The risen Jesus is no ghost. He is a transformed human, wounds shining like badges of honor. He reveals a physics we know nothing of yet, a physics of what self-giving love does to the human being. He gave a glimpse of this to Peter, James, and John in the Transfiguration, when they could barely look ...

 Lent is more than half over. We are approaching Holy Week. The trees are starting to burst with buds. So, let’s reflect on trees…two of them.  The first is made of two crossbeams. It’s called the cross. It’s an instrument of execution, one of the most painful invented by humans. The victim slowly bleeds to death while suffocating. The weight of the torso so pulls the body downward that the lungs cannot fill with air.  Why are we reflecting on such a hideous image? Because our God, in the person of the Word-in-our-flesh, chose deliberately to suffer death this way. Not by firing squad, not by beheading.  Now why, you say, would the God of heaven and earth chose such a thing? Because history reveals that we do the most dastardly things to one another. This God-who-is-unconditional-love, is making a statement. This God has a final Word for us: “No matter what you do to one another, no matter how full of despair you are, no matter… I will be there loving you, and ...

 We’re going to take pause this month in our reflections on Francis’ Let Us Dream text. Several of you have been online for the Synodal Sessions for Religious Life sponsored by the National Catholic Reporter and the Global Sisters’ Forum. (I’ve seen your dear faces on-screen!) I’m going to pick up two significant questions that came from the March 31 session.   1.      Isn’t the Synodal Listening Process just moving the Church to be a Democracy where the majority rules? No. The Church is not a democracy in the sense the Greeks proposed it as a form of government. The Church is s Spirit- ocracy. It is a community permeated by the Holy Spirit where the charisms or Gifts of the Spirit are shining everywhere for those with eyes to see. Two of these communal gifts are infallibility and indefectibility. The first guides the Church to eventually discern the fuller truth on an issue, and the latter guides the Church to eventually discern how to shake off the...

With reflections on Pope Francis’ Laudato si and Fratelli tutti behind us, (See past issues of Community Connections) we again put our ears to the heart of the Church. We begin to listen to what Francis is dreaming about for the Church and the world. I suspect we will be hearing some of this dreaming taking real shape as the Synodal Movement unfolds. This month we will just look at seven major themes that come from Let us Dream: The Path to A Better Future by Pope Francis in conversation with Austen Ivereigh. They will challenge us just be reading them. Next month we will start unpacking what they might mean as we enter a time of becoming a new kind of Church as the Synodal Movement is launched.   1.     To come out of this crisis better, we have to see clearly, choose well, and act right. Let’s talk about how. Let us dare to dream.   2.     We must redesign the economy so that it can offer every person access to a dignified existence ...

As women and men of the Word, as Dominicans, we’ve put our ears to the heartbeat of the Church’s ‘Sweet Christ on earth,’ to use Catherine of Siena’s reference to the Holy Father.   We’ve been listening to what Francis has been writing to the whole world.  We’re going to review where we’ve been this month, and then look ahead to where we will listen next. First, a review of Francis’ synodal approach to the world in Fratelli tutti : I.                “Dark Clouds Over a Closed World” Francis is no Pollyanna. In this first chapter he tells it like it is from the illusion of communication to information without wisdom and more. II.              “A Stranger on the Road” Using the parable of The Good Samaritan, Francis tells us there are no final ‘borders’ among neighbors. III.           “Envisaging ...

We arrive this month at the final chapter of Pope Francis’ Fatelli tutti, his addendum, really, to his Laudato si. For following that document on care for the earth, Francis then opens to us the way to realize it: we need to do it together. Chapter eight is titled, “Religions at the Service of Fraternity.” The focus is that religions, when they are true to their values, establish the ultimate foundation for human life. They tell us who we are. They affirm our identity as one community of children of God. (#271-280) Thus any persecution of authentic religion is an affront to all religions.  Francis warns that religious terrorism comes from teachings taken out of context, breeding hatred, contempt, and the negation of others. The result is distortion. (#282) The real sources of such contempt arise from hunger, poverty, injustice, oppression, and pride. The texts are then twisted to lend legitimacy to violent behavior.  The Parliament of World Religios has just taken place...

 Pope Francis has a vision. He shared it with us partially in his first encyclical, Laudato si. There he invited all of us to reposition ourselves in the midst of our wonderful environment. Because we belong to it, and it belongs to us, we need to care for it. Then he opened the lens further with his encyclical Fratelli tutti. Here we have seen he invites us to look at ourselves…for if we are not in right relations with all in our global family, we will never be able to care for the earth. We have reflected on the sorry state of things (Chapter 1). Then he grounded us in scripture with the Good Samaritan parable, asking us to check what role we play (Chapter 2). Next he shocked us into imagining ‘an open world’ (Chapter 3). And in Chapter 4 he dared us to open our hearts to the whole world.  What next? Well, in Chapter 5 he dares to talk about the forbidden topic: politics. He doesn’t shy away from it, nor must we. He calls for a ‘better kind’ of politics, one that puts th...