Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

What a grand celebration Priscilla Torres, O.P. gifted us with last weekend!  Priscilla made her perpetual profession as a Dominican Sister of Sinsinawa, and there were about thirty members of the Dominican Family present to witness it, plus her family and her many friends.  Priscilla is a Texan, so everything that happened over the weekend was BIG!   She is also Mexican-American, with many of the participants Spanish speakers, so the liturgy was truly bi-lingual.  The presider and deacon had been friends of hers since St. Louis days, and the preaching, by Mary Ann Nelson, O.P., the Director of Initial Membership, was both exquisite and poetic.  There was even a mariachi band to serenade us at the reception.   And while we were in San Antonio for the celebration, we enjoyed mild temps – to say nothing of the boat ride along the River Walk!!  Priscilla spent a year living with our Sisters in San Antonio, and then later completed ...

Two days ago in San Antonio Texas, I witnessed Sr. Priscilla Torres O.P. make final profession of vows with the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa. Sr. Priscilla would have been on this journey for some years now.  Saturday's ceremony was the climax of a long period of discernment.  After all, ‘final’ translates ‘even unto death!’ During this time Priscilla waited all the while in her room for the voice of God to boom down from heaven with the words: “GO AHEAD PRISCILLA MY BELOVED DAUGHTER, THIS IS WHAT I WANT YOU TO DO AND WHERE I WANT YOU TO BE.”  Sorry!  God doesn’t normally work like that.  For important decisions wouldn't it be nice though if God did?   Rather, the process requires that we engage all of ourselves, in attentive listening to God, however, whenever and wherever God will speak. The good news is we don’t do this alone.  Priscilla, in addition to her life of prayer, wo...