The Price of Secrecy

Blog by Sr. Judy Morris, OP
Blog by Sr. Judy Morris, OP

On a gray Monday morning I found myself seated in a waiting room of a Louisville judicial center – definitely not a typical Monday for me! This journey had its beginning a few weeks earlier at a meeting of PATH (Persons Against the Trafficking of Humans), a group of Sisters, Associates and concerned citizens in Louisville who are working to reduce human trafficking in the area. One of our members is a survivor of human trafficking. As a five-year old she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by her father and handed over to other men to rape. As often is the case, this is a story wrapped in secrecy. A powerful, intimidating father easily persuaded his daughter to keep his behavior secret.

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Posted in Peace & Justice Blog

What Makes the Human Intelligent?

Catherine Arnold, OP
Blog by Sr. Cathy Arnold, OP

Recently, I spent some time with Franciscan Sister Ilia Delio’s book “The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love” and Jalaja Bonheim’s “Evolving Toward Peace: Awakening the Global Heart.” Ilia bases her work on the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ. Both authors touched in different ways on the question I used for the title, “What makes the human intelligent?” Their question touched me because I often get discouraged when I read the newspaper with article after article about humans using violence against humans. If humans are so intelligent, why are we not smart enough to stop purposefully hurting each other and Earth? Continue reading →

Posted in God Calling?
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God’s Holey Church

Janet Schlichting, OP
Blog by Sr. Janet Schlichting, OP

We celebrated Dominic’s feast day on August 8. This year marks the 800th year of the Order of Preachers, and we remembered together Dominic’s story, his passion for the preaching, his joy, his vision, his life of poverty, and his steady and strong belief in his call to preach the Gospel to all nations…and Christ’s accompanying promise heard at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: “And know that I am with you always, until the end of time.”

It was Matthew’s gospel Dominic carried with him, and this season we’ve been hearing it at daily Eucharist. This week we read Chapter 18: how to be church. We hear the disciples’ query: who will be the greatest in the kingdom of God? Certainly not the high and the mighty, Jesus answers, but the children and the childlike, needy and vulnerable, aware of their weakness and desperate for God’s love and the care of others. We could put it thus: God’s holy ones are the holey ones. Continue reading →

Posted in Weekly Word
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Always our Children

Carol Gaeke, OP
Blog by Sr. Carol Gaeke, OP

A couple of decades ago the US Bishops wrote a pastoral letter for parents of gay children. It was entitled Always Our Children.

In the flurry of US political conversations and polarization in this upcoming election season there seems to be a disconnect in how we talk about different categories of people in our country. As a nation we seem to make categories of people as “other” – as the undeserving, the illegal, the wrong color or sexual orientation, the wrong gender. Continue reading →

Posted in Peace & Justice Blog