Carla Mae's Blog

 As the saying goes, “What goes around comes around.” But make no mistake, when Ordinary Time appears at this time of the liturgical year there is a new twist. The Church is telling us something. Keep in mind that an Ordinary Time period follows the two central mysteries of our faith: the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery. Ordinary Time is ‘absorption’ time…time to soak the soul.  Our New Year begins with the celebration of Mary, Mother of God. Now why would Mary be placed before us to begin this time? Ah…because Mary is the one who ponders in her heart…and that is what we are invited to do. She is the Mother of believers, and that’s us.  The Word has bonded with our DNA…our carbon and calcium, our double helix. He asked Mary for a body so he could be part of our day-to-day struggle. Only by bonding with matter could he suffer from the inside, not just as a compassionate observer. The Epiphany reveals that this is universal…for everyone. On our side, we bond with him...

The New Year is here. We again receive the gift of time. As women and men of the Word, as Dominicans, in these reflections we have been keeping our ear close to the heart of the Church by listening to our Shepherd. Francis. This attentiveness has brought us smack against the topic of synodality, for this is where his developing thought for the Church leads in what he has written from Joy of the Gospel, to Laudato si, to Fratelli tutti, to Let Us Dream.  The ancient name for the Pope is Pontifex , which means bridge-builder, and that is exactly what this present Holy Father is doing: he is building a bridge. From what to what we might ask? He is bridging from Vatican II into the future of this community we call ‘Church.’ He is leading us into a future we must create as we walk it- together. The time is past for just taking ‘orders from headquarters.’ We need to listen to one another…to what the Spirit might be doing in one another, and pay attention. This is very new for some ...

This year Christmas is on a Sunday. Yes, we are remembering the coming of the Christ in history, and the Church will be reminding us during this month of the final coming in majesty. The humanness and powerful images captivate our attention. Yet there is a subtle coming that can escape us if we do not intentionally heighten our awareness of it. The risen Christ in his transformed humanness meets us in a thousand disguises. His Easter message was “Now I will no longer be with you the former way. I will be wherever you are.” This nearness, this intimacy, can be unnerving, because it is so personal. He is always at my side. He accompanies me as I fold my laundry and brush my teeth. He holds me in grief. He guards me when I sleep. This mysterious ‘coming’ is something he decided long ago. It is I who am out and about. It is I who forget and mistakenly think I am alone. The result is often anxiety, worry, fear, and sadness. These unwanted guests are in my house all too often. But there is ...

  As preachers, we’ve been putting our ear to the heart of the Church, in listening to Pope Francis dream in print. He has led us back to the original spirit of the early Church…the synodal Church.   His book, Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future , has an epilogue. We’ll now take a look at his ‘last word.’ Sometimes a thinker gives us the summation of his/her thought in an Epilogue…!  Francis does not disappoint. He gives us two words, and they both identify us as ‘pilgrim.’ The two words are decenter and transcend. In giving us these final words, he distinguishes between someone going round and round in a labyrinth, and someone on a pilgrimage. The first can return to where one has started and remain the same. The pilgrim returns different. The pilgrim is changed.  To decenter means to intentionally shift from concentrating on myself to becoming more and more aware of everyone around me. In our time, this means resisting the narcissistic urge. Decentering ...

 In section II of Pope Francis’ Let Us Dream: The Path To A Better Future, we ended last time in considering his concern for the voices and gifts of women. (See August Community Connections. ) Remember, he is building a point of view that provides the wisdom for some important ‘Choosing.’ Get ready. Francis is building up the qualities that equip us to tackle synodality. This is where he is going. Synodality is the focus of the whole end of section II. So, what is the bridge? The pope’s concern about the vital role women must play is but lead-in to two ideas that speak to the heart of the evening news: fraternity vs. individualism, and what he calls the “isolated conscience.”   Fraternity is “the sense of belonging to each other and to the whole of humanity…(It) is the capacity to come together and work together against a shared horizon of possibility…It’s a unity that allows people to serve as a body despite differences…preserves and respects plurality, inviting all to co...

 We’re in the second half of Ordinary Time, and sure enough, the Church brings us back to center: the Cross. It is not by chance that the Exaltation of the Cross is a central September feast. The whole of Ordinary Time is a formation in discipleship flowing from the Cross and Resurrection. So, what are the formation points for us this month? First, we’re reminded that we can’t be part-time disciples. We need full-time resolve. Then we are given the powerful parable of the Prodigal Son, to remind us that we are to be Reconcilers wherever our families, communities, work, or retirement take us. Then the last two Sundays make sure we understand where true riches lie…inwardly and outwardly in our public lives. But we are not to lose sight of the Cross. Why? Because the Cross is the fullness of revelation about God and ourselves. About God, because nowhere, in any other religion, is God revealed as hanging on a tree, dying. Here the hidden God is revealed through the Word...

In June we explored Part I: A Time to See of Francis’ Let Us Dream: The Path to a Better Future. We learned that three conditions distort our vision of these times: They are narcissism, discouragement, and pessimism. Narcissism is drowning in your own image. Discouragement is seeing only what you’ve lost, and pessimism shuts the door on the future.  Once we’re wise to these three ‘dis-eases’ infecting our vision, and intentionally resolving to avoid them, we’re ready for Part II: A Time to Choose. Between the third step, to heal and repair, however, there is an important middle step. We need a firm set of criteria to guide us:      Knowing we are loved by God       Called to serve in solidarity       A healthy capacity for silent reflection, and      Places of refuge from the tyranny of the ‘urgent.’ Francis then takes us back to foundations: the Beatitudes and the Catholic Social Prin...