Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

As Dominicans we are called to the Holy Preaching.  How many faces there are to this call.  Recently I was invited to this sitting at the bedside of my critically ill sister.  There I sat so aware and grateful for her and the love and history we share.  There I sat as witness to her pain and struggle.  There I sat acknowledging the many health care professionals as each did their various duties.  There I sat helpless in the face of her pain and shortness of breath. There I sat listening to the quandry of physicians wondering how they might better serve my sister.  But then I realized that   my yearning presence there was a preaching.   More importantly I was there to listen and hear the Holy Preaching.   There in the bed was a Holy Preaching.   Her faithfulness to Life even in aching and discomfort was the proclamation.   Her influential sentence “I haven”t helped enough people yet”:   the potent preaching.   A...

Okay, I admit it: I have a secret soft spot for weeds.   I’m not talking about the armies of weeds that wreak havoc on your garden; I’ve waged war on plenty of those.   But whenever I see a lonely little weed poking up through a sliver-thin crack in the pavement, I can’t help but cheer for it. I think it’s because it saw an opportunity where no one else did.   Other plants wouldn’t dream of taking root in such an inhospitable place, where even if they do manage to grow, they’re likely to get pulled or sprayed with weed killer.   But this little weed… well, not even pesky humans with all their concrete and chemicals could get in its way.   It sunk its roots deep and grew up boldly to the sunlight.   I’d like to be more like that little weed.   So my prayer today is not that God would make me strong and majestic like the trees or lovely like the flowers.   No, I just pray that God would take me, in all my weakness, amid all the obstacles of...