Carol J. Dempsey

Scripture for Life: Family relationships are often complex, complicated and ever-changing. Families today are diverse. Power relations within families are also diverse.

Scripture for Life: This Sunday's readings are about hunger, both the inability to experience it and the experience of it.

Scripture for Life: This journey is grounded in the knowledge that I am an ordinary person on the road of life, traveling alongside everyone else as we make our way in this world together.

When someone from the people of Bemba acts unjustly or irresponsibly, then that person is required to stand in the center of the village, alone and unrestrained. The other members of the Bemba people are called together and they gather in a large circle around the one who has been accused of some wrongdoing.

Scripture for Life: The themes of celebration and reconciliation come together in the parable of the prodigal son heard in this Sunday's Gospel from Luke. Jesus addresses this parable to a group of complaining Pharisees and scribes who take issue with Jesus' interaction with sinners.

We are living in a time of global turmoil as we watch some democracies being taken apart while other ones erode socially, culturally and economically. In ancient biblical times, people faced similar crises to those we face today. In the midst of wars, with empires usurping power and lands from one another, the Israelites looked for good and just leadership. In this Sunday’s first reading, the biblical writer speaks about a divinely promised new leader who will do what is just and right and bring peace and security to the land of Israel and Judah.

Scripture for Life: In ancient biblical times, people faced similar crises to those we face today. The Christian community is to lead by example, and their power as a group of people is to be transformative and not oppressive.

Elsewhere on the planet, poverty has a strangle hold on much of the world’s population. At least 80 percent of humanity lives on less than 10 dollars a day. A bi-product of poverty is hunger. 

Scripture for Life: God's prophetic Spirit is given freely and stirred up freely, to the surprise of many people who thought they were specially chosen to receive such a wonderful gift. 

I remember growing up in a family in the mid-1950s into the mid-1970s, and not until the mid-1980s did my parents have an empty nest after my sister and brother left home to marry.

Scripture for Life: A life lived in humility, with patience and the ability to bear with the other through love, also safeguards right relationships and ensures the practice of civility among the community's many members.

We are in post-Resurrection times, but the Lectionary offers us a Gospel reading that looks back on Jesus’ last days before his death. In John’s Gospel, we listen to Jesus’ prayer that he offers to God for his disciples before he makes his final journey to God. 

Scripture for Life: Those who love remain not only in communion with Jesus but also in union with God. To love as God loves, however, is not easy. For that reason, the writer of John's Gospel features Jesus praying for his disciples as Jesus' own life among them begins to draw to a close.

In our high-tech global environment, many of us have smartphones, iPads, tablets plus desktop and laptop computers for personal and professional use. Some people spend a lot of time messaging, browsing, friending, tweeting and sharing. 

Scripture for Life: Being "in relationship" offers a profound sense of intimacy and fulfillment, an experience that web surfers are unconsciously hungry to find but that can never be truly felt among one's "virtual community."

As people grow older and prepare for their transition into the next life which Catholics call eternal life, the notion of “legacy” becomes important. Some people wonder what their legacy will be. Will it be a list of successful accomplishments?

Spiritual Reflections: The readings invite us to think about family, to re-evaluate our understanding of legacy, and to believe wholeheartedly in the One whose word and promises are true. 

Mission has always been central to my life as a Dominican. I am a biblical scholar, working primarily in the area of biblical prophetic texts, while simultaneously wondering about and interrogating the prophetic text called “life.” My work as a biblical scholar and teacher is more than a career; it is a vocation.