Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Maori Madonna and Child, New Zealand At the beginning of Advent I gave a Day of Reflection entitled:  Advent – A Season for Everyday Mystics. I borrowed from an article I read in the journal for Spiritual Directors – Presence – in which the author (Ramona Harris) suggested these stepping stones for our inner mystic:   Noticing, Awareness, Attentiveness, Appreciation, Making Connections, Living Authentically, Joy, Creativity, Stillness and Love.   What would happen to us if we put these into our everyday lives?   Transformation! I went on to suggest four Advent mystics as guides:   Zechariah, Elizabeth, Mary and Joseph – as we read their stories in the infancy narratives of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke.   There we would see these stepping stones unfold in their lives. In these remaining Advent days – take time to nurture your inner mystic.   Invite these biblical women and men to be your guides.   Don’t stop there!   Take this in...

I was able to hear the African Children’s Choir the other night.  They were delightful! There were about twenty of them, from different countries in Africa, and appeared to be about 9 or 10 years old.  As I looked at their faces I could see the face of my grand nephew, Ofori, who lives now in Washington, D.C.  I met him first in Ghana when he was about four years old. Then I went to Columbia Correctional Institution.  It’s a maximum security Wisconsin State Prison for men.  As I sat in that circle and looked at the faces of those men I could imagineaa them as 9 or 10 years old - cute little African-American boys.  Did they sing then?  Were they loved?  What led them to this desolate place?  Are they remembered by others, by their families?  And for what?  That’s the way it is in our lives.  We go places and meet people and create bonds with them.  Then we are able to see them in the faces of others and we are able to...