Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Why worry about numbers? As a Temporary Professed Religious Sister, I am asked if I worry about the decreasing numbers of Sisters. I’m sure you’ve heard about this. As for me, that’s not something I worry about. It’s all about God’s call and will. That’s why I am Sister. Presently our congregation consists of around 580 sisters, so why would I worry right? Well, let me share about a recent experience I had in May. I was in Trinidad and Tobago with some of my Dominican sisters. One of my Sisters was going to renew her vows. So all eight sisters who live in Trinidad gathered including myself and three other sisters who were visiting from the US, too. This was a small gathering of 12 in comparison to our large gatherings of 300 or so. We began to prepare by setting up the environment with colored cloth, flowers from the yard, the St Dominic statue and our constitution. We also prepared the place settings for dinner following the ceremony. The environment looked beautiful. When everyone ga...

In early July I was giving a week of service at Camp WeHawKee, one of our sponsored institutions, in Winter, Wisconsin. Girls from all over the world have been coming to camp since the mid 1920’s. Many Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa have worked at the camp in the summers, and three have been directors over the years. Volunteering at Camp WeHawKee is another form of building community with the campers, counselors, other volunteers, and our dedicated directors, Maggie and Bob Braun. I also worked with wonderful people in the kitchen! How does one catch a whole cart of plastic glasses before they fall? You embrace them…then ask for help. That’s me in the picture taken by Maggie. I didn’t maneuver the cart to miss the obstruction in the path. People in the kitchen came to my rescue and we had a good laugh. I think of this picture as a metaphor for the stages of growth on my life’s journey. For you wonderful people visiting our blog site, how have you maneuvered around obstacles to embrace...