Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

This past weekend I was blessed to take part in the annual L’Arche Jacksonville Living Nativity.   This simple yet moving performance helped me to understand and experience the wonder of the nativity in a new way. L’Arche, which has been my place of ministry for the past four months, is a community of adults with and without developmental disabilities who share life together.   Those with developmental disabilities are called core members because they are at the heart of the community.   LArche is a place where people are authentic, where gifts are revealed and affirmed, and where those whom the world places at the margins can find a true home.   This spirit of welcome makes L’Arche a sign of hope to the world. The Living Nativity performance allowed us all to shine.   The narrators proclaimed the story with conviction, Mary was radiant, and the Star of Bethlehem danced his way to the stable with an infectious joy.   And I was reminded that as God made a home among us in the

Throughout this Advent season, I have been listening closely to the birthing dreams presented by many of the prophets in the daily readings.   Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, and others dream of a new creation, a new way of being human.   In their dreams, rivers flow with justice, war is replaced with a massive effort to find food for the whole world, and archenemies, like the lion and the lamb, become friends.   So, I started looking for birthing signs around me.   Here is what I saw: ·       A gay couple feels totally at home and accepted in a convent of “elderly” nuns; ·       A high school basketball team shows good sportsmanship despite a jeering crowd; ·       Two long-time friends continue to work at their relationship by overcoming differences; ·       A prisoner of Apartheid becomes President and teaches the whole world about reconciliation; ·       A couple finds new paths to begin the long journey out of some old ruts. This is Christmas.   It is the birth of peace