Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

So ... do you like these colorful beads? They are made in Somanya, Ghana from recycled glass. This picture reminds me, each time I look at it, of my participation in (maybe I really mean "belonging to") a colorful web of connections. I am part of a group of women who support this mission in Ghana. I was invited to join this group through a friend who took spirituality classes with me at Spring Hill College. Almost like looking in a series of mirrors, that connection was fostered through other connections, and on in a seemingly unending pattern. I am enriched beyond measure by those connections. I am influenced for the good, affirmed, and called to stretch beyond my comfort zone. The strands of my web stretch back, long before I was born, to my birth family, my Sinsinawa sisters, my Dominican family. I believe that through these connections, my connection to God is revealed. What does your "web" look like? How does it sustain you? Sr. Ann Henkel, OP Mobile, Alabama

Every once in a while I find myself being cranky and out of sorts. For some reason it is easier for me to do that with my sisters while I will put on the ‘happy face’ at work. I was reminded of a very helpful way to deal with this. If I have an irritation I want to be free of…I pray for that person or thing that is bugging me. I ask in prayer for everything I want/need for myself to be given to that other. I do this over and over again…even when I do the words are only words, I just keep doing this. It is amazing how my attitude towards the other and towards life begins to change. It is one of the gifts of community and growing that keeps me growing in truth. Sr. K.C. Young, OP Seattle, WA