Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Are you aware of the “certainties” in your life? What can you really count on? We live in a time of remarkable change so perhaps “change” may be one of the certainties in your life. Living in a world of uncertainties we question, worry and doubt arise. Our trust and faith may be shaky. Last summer I participated in a retreat as a team member.  The particular theme was “Living in the Certainty of Grace.” resonated with me and has been an inspiration of three other retreats that I have led in the past six months. I realize that living in the certainty of grace enables me to move into an unknown future with hope. Grace is not a thing.  According to Karl Rahner “grace is the Spirit of God dwelling at the heart of our existence.” Elizabeth Johnson says: “Grace is the animating force of all of human history.”  And Miriam Brown, one of my Dominican sisters, says: “Grace is that in which we and all of creation “live and move and have our being.”  Grac...

The parable of the prodigal son is my all-time favorite.  What does “prodigal” really mean?  According to Webster, prodigal is “characterized by profuse or wasteful expenditure” or can be a recklessly spendthrift nature. In the parable then, prodigal aptly describes a son who claims a premature inheritance, leaving his family to “party hardy” and to enjoy a wasteful and self-indulgent lifestyle in the process. He completely turns inward to self and away from the grace of God.  Been there, done that. As Paul Harvey might say, however, now for “the rest of the story.” Prodigal is also defined as “yielding abundantly,” “characterized by abundant growth,” and “abundantly and often extravagantly rich.”  Sounds pretty good! This parable might just as aptly have been titled, “The Prodigal Father”.  The father’s love for his son was infinitely abundant, infinitely extravagant as he welcomed him back home with open arms. At Lent especially, our focus often seems to b...