Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Two of our sisters are celebrating their Jubilee year (50 years of Religious life). This past Sunday at St. Paul’s Catholic parish here in San Antonio, TX, four of us renewed our vows along with the two Jubliarian sisters) during the 10:30am Spanish mass. The mass was absolutely beautiful: the music, the professing of vows, and the preaching. There were many beautiful things that moved me during the mass and too many to share, so I will share only one. One Jubilarian gathered the total number of ministry years of all six of us. It was 263 years! I was surprised by the number of years of only six of us! In the homily our ministry years were shared with the community. The presider invited the parishioners to think of how many years of ministry in the church they have served God. He mentioned different types of ministries and ways to serve God and how people are blessed with different gifts. It is incredible if you add up all the hours/years from this one parish community in serving God ...

This past summer I spent time at St. Dominic Villa (a skilled nursing facility where some of our sisters live). Throughout my visits I got to know different sisters and spent time visiting, doing chair exercises, playing BINGO and enjoying ice cream sundaes. While I loved getting to know the sisters that would take part in these activities, I continuously was drawn to the room of one sister who did not often take part in the celebrations. I would go sit next to Sr. Teresita and hold her hand as we sat in her room quietly. Sometimes we would share a book of paintings of and prayers to Mary which she enjoyed, or sometimes she would name the family members in her photographs. I spent many days with Sr. Teresita sitting quietly in her room as she didn’t talk much. When I would walk into her room her face would light up and she would have a really big smile. She would reach out her hand and we would share each others company. This woman had so much wisdom waiting to burst forth from her. H...