Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

A few weeks ago I boarded a plane and couldn’t help but overhear the two women in my row reminiscing about the Catholic sisters who had taught them in grade school.   “You just don’t see many sisters anymore,” commented one of the women. I don’t normally strike up personal conversations with strangers, but being a young sister-in-formation heading to a gathering of young sisters, I would’ve been remiss if I didn’t chime in. J   I introduced myself, and what followed was one of the most unexpected, honest, and engaging conversations I’ve ever had with a stranger. As my formerly-Catholic-now-Evangelical seatmate and I talked it became clear that we came from different places ideologically, but we asked honest questions and listened to each other’s answers.   Her warm, open, and respectful manner drew me out and encouraged me to take the risk of this conversation, and so we had a real dialogue, right there over airplane pretzels and ginger ale.   When we la...

I am part of a virtual community of nine Sisters from Alaska to Florida.   We use technology to keep connected and meet once a month for two hours.   We have been doing this for more than four years.   It has allowed us to attend to congregation works & processes as well as support each other even with the distances. As we began our January meeting, during our ‘check-in’ we were asked to share any resolutions or hopes for 2014.   Some wanted to be more faithful to checking email, especially to keep up with congregation life. Some expressed hopes for personal improvements.   I shared that what I started in 2013 – I hoped to continue.   I have been ‘down-sizing’ what surrounds my life. While I have done a lot one of my last major tasks is going through files.   Paper seems to mount up in startling ways! Perhaps none of these seem holy or pious.   But to developed spaciousness for The Holy – The Divine we need to attend to and consider what ...