Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

 When I sat down to write this latest blog entry, so many topics came to mind…ministry, God’s love, a meaningful quote and Valentine’s Day. As I thought about it, they all are connected. I am blessed to have a ministry that I love. For the past year and a half I have been one of two Youth and Young Adult Ministers at a parish west of Milwaukee. I have the privilege of journeying with people from age 12 through 35. I am allowed into their lives and onto their journeys. My favorite part of ministry is when I can sit and talk with someone about things that are important to that person. I had that opportunity a little over a week ago when my parish sent 55 of our high school juniors on their Confirmation retreat. Yes, they were forced to be there, but these teens really took the time apart to look at their relationship with God, with their family and friends and with themselves. I was able to enter into their chaotic world and assure them their life will get better and that God i...

I never knew that other countries commemorate love on days other than Saint Valentine’s Day.  In Bolivia, South America, where the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa have lived and ministered since 1960, love is celebrated on their first day of Spring, which is September 21 st .  You can tell from this date that Bolivia is in the Southern Hemisphere.  As we grow in global awareness, it is such a privilege to learn the various customs and cultures of others.  As Dominicans, when we vow “obedience to Almighty God,” I believe we make a promise to open ourselves up to “every race, language, and culture,” as our brother Bartolomé de las Casas said.   I often hear this openness in the conversations of my sisters with whom I live.  They talk about spending a number of years on mission in a small mining town in Montana, then going to an inner city parish in Chicago, and after that, out to an East coast suburban school.  Wherever we are, we are called to bec...