Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

“What plunges have you taken in your life?”  “What incredible things have you seen because of the plunges you’ve taken.”  These were the questions given to participants of Sinsinawa’s recent Health Summit to ponder and sleep on overnight.  They sent me to a review of my life journey! The first significant plunge that came to mind was entering the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa.   At 18, I left home and everyone and everything that was familiar to me. I was both excited and terrified about what lay ahead. I could never have imagined the incredible things that I’ve seen because of that plunge and all of the subsequent plunges to which it has led.   I’ve seen: ·       Our world is so much bigger and more complex than I ever recognized growing up in Peoria, Illinois; ·       God’s gifts in the beauty of the natural world that surrounds us and of each person in whom the divine resides, including me; ·       Both the fragility of life and the power of the hum

Some of the most interesting people I know live in Wisconsin State Prisons.  I’ve learned many things from them, including this: “They may be ashamed of who they were, but what is important, what really matters, is who they are now and who they want to be.”  And that’s just as it is with all of us, isn’t it? This is a reminder to me of so many things I never would have known, so many people I never would have encountered, so many institutions I had never even noticed or known anything about before I took the risk of going inside the walls. Like many, I went inside with all kinds of preconceived ideas. I first went into a maximum security prison for men about four years ago.  Since then I’ve been inside eight prisons, for men and for women, many times.  Sitting in a circle with them, I never know what they have done in the past, unless they choose to reveal it.  I’ve learned to listen carefully to what they have to say, and to trust the wisdom in the circle.