Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

The past days have been like a Sabbath.   It was truly amazing to watch the leaves turn from green to gold, orange and red – some days in sunshine and some days in rain.   Every day offered hours of quiet, walking remote roads, looking for four-legged critters, “seeing” with more attentive eyes (and the eye of my camera), watching the fire and reading.   Companionship, conversation and silence.   It’s been a good retreat. Now that the leaves are brown, how can I take some of this retreat home with me?   How can it become a more regular part of my life? I want to do what Donna Scharper suggests in her book SABBATH SENSE: to knit back together what has been separated in work and play to reunite doing and being to refuse to let all time be the same time A challenge for me is to greet each day early and with both enthusiasm and ritual.   That’s something I can do.   (And it’s something I can do while still honoring ...

They are all around us and they span every race, creed, culture and nationality. They possess hearts of compassion and they willingly give of their time, talent and treasure, particularly their time to help to make a difference in people’s lives. Often times their service is free and on a voluntary basis.  I felt privileged to witness a group of such people during the days that I visited the St Francis Center in Redwood California. I also felt honored to volunteer to teach Math to some little “cuties” who attend school there! This Center is run by two of our Sisters and what an amazing work they are doing!  During the course of the week 122 volunteers, young and old, male and female give of themselves, tutoring, cleaning, sorting clothes for the poor, doing clerical work, packing grocery bags and lots more.  Then there are the many who donate food, clothing, money and their expertise so that the center is able to be managed in the efficient, skillfu...