Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

The parishes where I minister here in Trinidad are Holy Rosary - in the heart of the city of Port of Spain -and St. Martin de Porres in the hills just behind. One Sunday, each month, our two parishes come together for Sunday Eucharist. We alternate between the two parishes.   Today, our new archbishop Joseph Harris came to celebrate Eucharist with our parish cluster at Rosary church. It was like coming home for him, he said. As a child he had been a pupil at the Rosary Boys’ School where his father was principal. Bet he never thought that one day he would be archbishop of Port of Spain! Ministering in Rosary is for me also an experience of coming back to my roots. When I was a child I attended the parish girls’ school, St. Rose’s. It was in Rosary Church that I received Holy Communion for the first time and was confirmed. It is a Dominican church with stained glass windows of several Dominican saints.   I never thought then that one day I would be a Dominican...

Recently, at the High School where I have the great privilege of ministering, our student preachers brought the Red Thread Movement to school in order to raise awareness of the $32 billion sex trafficking industry.   Besides highlighting India and other parts of the world, this team of young men and women made us aware of the problems with human trafficking that occur in our own city.   This great initiative reminded us as a school body that we are all one and brought back the words of an oldie but goodie by Marty Haugen for me: Give us strength to love each other, every sister, every brother. Spirit of all kindness, be our guide I believe with all my heart that having the opportunity to spend each day with these wide-eyed and open-hearted youth can truly make me kinder, gentler, and even more fun!   They also remind me each day of God’s dream for us to be truly one – with God, with each other, and with our Universe.   So, what opportuniti...