Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

For 21 years I have been an associate of the Dominicans of Sinsinawa.   That means I have made a commitment to living their mission and spirituality within my life style (as a married woman) and that I stay in relationship with Sinsinawa Dominicans sisters and associates.   It has been my privileged to witness that beauty and strength of the women of this congregation and their life together.   I admire: - their commitment to serving those with the most needs, and their willingness to give up so much to do so.   - their love   of each other and the way they gather around each other during the good and bad events of their lives. This happens even after troubled times when they have hurt each other deeply. - their study and discussions as they plan for the future. I have attended several chapters during which they make decisions about their life together and their mission focus.   The dialogue goes o...

Today is the feast of St. Matthew, named in the Gospels as one of Jesus’ apostles.  The Gospels tell us that Jesus picked twelve men as his closest companions who traveled with him and after his death & resurrection proclaimed the Good News of the reign of God everywhere.  But what about the women?  One of my favorite Gospel passages is Luke 8:1-3, which tells us that Jesus traveled with the twelve but also was accompanied by some women, Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna, and “many others” who provided for them out of their resources.  What an amazing thing in first century Palestine, where women were considered no more than possessions, to have Jesus treat them as partners in ministry. For 2,000 years the Church has benefited from the ministry of women – as teachers, nurses, social workers, ministers of hospitality and many other ministries.  When Sister Geri and I do workshops with catechists, mainly women, I like to tell them that St. Martha is a g...

The big news in our church here this past week is the ordination as archbishop of Fr. Joseph Harris  CSSP, our new coadjutor archbishop. When I was a child Fr. Joe’s sister, Ann, and I were at school together. In our late teens   Ann and I began to share our dreams of how we would give our lives to God. She planned to go to Ireland to enter there the novitiate of the St. Joseph of Cluny sisters hoping that they would send her to work in Africa. My dream was to enter the Dominican monastery here in Trinidad and spend the rest of my life there.  We had fallen in love with God. What is your dream? Ann became a missionary working in West Africa for many , many years .Her missionary work continues today In the Caribbean. Ann’s brother, Joseph, entered the Spiritan novitiate, was ordained priest and went to work in Paraguay. I entered the Dominican monastery and lived there for 5 years, 5 months and 3 days.  Today...