Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Growing up praying the rosary with my faith-filled grandma, was something I loved to do; in fact, doing just about anything with her had meaning and was special. Her theology of “Rosary Saying” centered around her desire to “save souls from Purgatory.” Later in life my mom used to tell me to say the rosary when I couldn’t sleep. Sleep was precious to the mother of nine children; her theology of “Rosary Saying” was about getting enough ZZZZZ’s. Certainly as a Sinsinawa Dominican Sister of the Most Holy Rosary, I’ve had lots of exposure to praying the rosary as: a devotion, a meditation on Christ’s life or as a centering mantra. Lately, the Scriptural Rosary, where lines or passages from the Gospels, based on a theme like forgiveness, mercy, service, etc, and used between decades, has come to have renewed meaning for me. What’s your take on praying the rosary? Sister Christina Heltsley, O.P. St. Francis Center Executive Director

The four of us share a two flat house with a Jewish family. They live downstairs. Just as the family below us has distinctive personalities so, too, do we. I am the “youngest” of the four but age is relative when living in community. Each of us takes a cooking day or helps with dinner. If you are the cook you are leader of prayer that evening. Our meals and times together are filled with laughter and good sharing. Don’t get me wrong, living in community DOES take work, honesty, compassionate hearts, and forgiveness. It is a special part of the Journey of Life these past ten years! Come for dinner. We’d love to have you. Sr. Colleen Nolan, OP

I am a Baby Boomer and now a Baby blogger. When I hear stats that say young women are not drawn to religious life today because of the poor treatment of women in the church, it ruffles me. I do agree that women are treated pretty poorly by authorities. What has the call, the dream, to preach the gospel in the company of holy and inspiring companions that you get to have as sisters got to do with whether one can preside at Eucharist or run a parish? It is confusing that we are seen as an arm of the hierarchy, if so, it's an arm that they want to keep in a sling. I know there is a stained glass ceiling ,however, living my vocation, I do not look up to the ceiling so much as out, to the door. How we can move out to the world hungry for divine contact? Throughout Catholic history it was women, in homes and in sisterhoods who lived their joy in the gospel and made tiny in roads into hierarchical walls which allowed the Holy Spirit to seep in to the hearts of the faithful. Dear Reader, ...