Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Here in Wisconsin, in the USA, North America is cold and snowy in December. The days are getting shorter. That’s not true everywhere, of course. In the darkness of the early morning each day we pray about all that we are seeing and hearing – in our dreams, in the gospel, in the daily news. We pray for those who do not feel they belong – who do not feel comfortable in their own skins, who are estranged from others, and who do not have a sense of the presence of God. We pray for peace – in our own hearts, and in the hearts of all who live with fear and for those who exercise power. We pray for all – whose needs we know and for those whose needs we do not know. We pray because Sophia, Wisdom, is with us – and we want to be awake enough to notice how that makes a difference in our world. What do you see this Advent? Ruth Poochigian, OP Madison, Wisconsin

I am grateful for beginnings - opportunities to start anew - to drop old baggage and trust the next step into the future. Advent has become a more important 'new year' beginning in my life than the one that comes in about a month on our ordinary calendar. As the new church year approaches - as I assemble anew the parts of my eclectic Advent "wreath" - these words of Thomas Merton come back to me: " Advent is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ." Merton's words bring me hope both personally and as part of the human community. We are reminded that God's healing work of Love is actively engaged in our lives and in the world. Just as Mary received the child in her womb upon hearing and believing the Word of God proclaimed by the Angel Gabriel, so too do we experience God desire to advent in us. Yes, God is "adventing!"  God is always "adventing" - starting something new - in our lives. May we respond by ta...