Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

It was my birthday last Thursday.  Have you noticed how fast the years are rolling by and as you get older they seem to FLY by!!  That's how it seems to me anyways.  But it was a time for me to relish being born and to celebrate being alive.  The presents, cards, emails, phone calls, visits, and even the sometimes off key but always hilarious singing of "happy birthday" said to me that my Sinsinawa family, my blood family and my friends are glad that I am a part of their lives and I felt so grateful too, to have them as a part of mine. Today I thank God for the gift of family and friends.   With whom do you celebrate your birthday?  Gail Jagroop, OP St. Joseph, Trinidad

Hello from the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate (CDN) in St. Louis!  The last three weeks have seemed more like three years given the activity, number of acquaintances met/friendships formed, house meetings, Dominican Life Seminars, and classes at Aquinas and Intercommunity Novitiate (ICN), among other things, that have been packed into them. Today (Sunday) was a special day starting with morning mass at St. Alphonsus Liguori (The Rock), a mainly African-American Catholic Church featuring wildly wonderful liturgy, music, hospitality and preaching … all of which took me to spiritual waters previously uncharted.  What grace! This evening, our entire house attended the Third Annual September 11 th Interfaith Commemoration in Music: An Appreciation of Religious Diversity held at Sheldon Concert Hall on the outskirts of the St. Louis University campus.  This event, sponsored by Arts & Faith St. Louis, featured music performed by opera singer Ch...