Working to eliminate the death penalty, no matter what the crime
Race relations in the south were still poor and sometimes dangerous back in the 1970’s. Black residents were often targets of police harassment. They might be stopped for driving. They might be frisked for walking down the street. They might be jailed for … existing.
And they were the first suspects in any heinous crime. Continue Reading
Wednesday last week was one of those days where you want to go home, go back to bed and start over. (I sometime think if we could get a free restarts in life it would be great. Then again, maybe not – it might end up being a rewind of what just happened. 
)
Read Sister Stefanie’s (very) Benedictine response to a chaotic and difficult classroom!
By Sister Catherine Cleary, OSB
lst Reading Acts 6:8-15; 2nd Reading Rev 5:11-14; Gospel John 21:1-19
The Gospel for the 3rd Sunday of Easter is wonderful, all of it. But let’s focus on one line in particular. The disciples had spent the whole night fishing, to no avail. At dawn they saw a man standing on shore. Although they didn’t recognize the man as Jesus, they did what he advised them: “Cast the net on the other side of the boat.” They caught more fish than they could easily drag to shore.
What did Jesus really tell them? What is he telling us? To “do something new.” (Isaiah 43:19) Continue Reading
By Sister Catherine Cleary, OSB
While Sunday’s gospel (John 20: 19-29) is often known as the “Doubting Thomas” gospel, John, it seems to me, places emphasis on the words, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. … He breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.” Continue Reading
By Sister Catherine Cleary, OSB
This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice in it and be glad.(Psalm 118:12)
lst Reading Acts of the Apostles 10:34a, 37-43; Col 3:1-4; John 20:1-9.
As I walked over to my office last week, I saw yellow crocuses and spiked green leaves heralding irises and tulips not yet in bloom. Patches of snow linger on the north slopes, but the ground seems to be unable to keep new life hidden any longer. What wonderful signs and reminders of the Lord’s resurrection: the earth, for so long encased only in snow and ice, now erupting with new life. It is as if the earth itself is resurrecting! Continue Reading
Introduction by Sister Susan Hutchens, OSB
From the 1st Sunday of Lent to Holy Thursday, we are asked to recall the life and words of Jesus. Now we walk his last part of the journey. We do not celebrate this week merely to “re-live” the mysteries of the Passion. We celebrate only because we know the ending, and the ending is JOY. Continue Reading
By Sister Catherine Cleary, OSB
lst reading Is 43:P16-21; 2nd reading Phil 3:8-14; Gospel John 8:1-11
All 3 readings for today’s Eucharist are filled with reminders of God’s goodness and love for us. In the first reading we hear, “See, I am doing something new … Now it springs forth, do you not perceive? I put water in the desert, rivers in the wasteland for my chosen people to drink; people whom I formed for myself.” Continue Reading
As a Catholic girl growing up in Peoria, Ill., Margaret Mary “Marmee” McGrath (shown in red at left) never dreamed of becoming a nun. Nicknamed for the mother in Little Women (“My mother loved that book!”), Marmee attended Catholic school, prayed the rosary before morning Mass, and helped her teacher Sisters keep the sanctuary clean. She also had 2 cousins enter religious life.
During her junior year in high school, Marmee’s choir director even asked her point blank, “Have you ever thought of religious life?” Marmee said simply, No.
“And the question didn’t get me started thinking about it, either,” she laughs today. Continue Reading
By Sister Catherine Cleary, OSB
Josh 5:9a, 10-12; 2 Cor 517-21; Lk 15:1-3, 11-32
Rejoicing, joy, gratitude, forgiveness and new life are the themes for the 4th Sunday of Lent, Laetare Sunday. In the entrance antiphon we are greeted with, “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful all who were in mourning.”
Throughout today’s readings we hear good news: the people of God have entered into the promised land, no longer eat manna but “the yield of the fields of Canaan.”
Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians, “Whoever is in Christ is a new creation, the old things have passed away. Behold, new things have come.” How will we recognize the new things? Continue Reading
By Sister Catherine Cleary, OSB
First Reading: Ex. 3:1-8, 13-15; 2nd Reading: I Cor 10:1-6, 10-12; Gospel: Lk 13:1-9
Remember the story of the Burning Bush in Exodus? We read it on the 3rd Sunday of Lent, and wonder what it has to do with us. Let’s consider first the story.
Moses had been asked to lead his people out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, an unheard of and impossible task. He accomplished that, guided by the cloud of God. Then, despite his people’s rebellion and anger at being led “to a barren land where they were starving and groaning of hunger,” Moses prayed and God fed them. Continue Reading
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