Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Today over lunch a Sister asked me why I joined the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters.   I responded as I always do: the Sisters here laughed and hugged more than anyone I’d ever met.   They were so down to earth, so human, and so joyful .   Being around them made me feel at home, brought out my own joy, and left me wanting to be a part of their life and mission. The Sister I was with listened knowingly, because like many around here it was the joy that first drew her, too.   She then shared a fresh way of understanding an individual’s attraction to the charism (or spirit) of a community. Charisms are like magnets, she said, and individuals as well as communities have them.   Vocation happens when my little charism magnet and the big charism magnet of the community are attracted to each other.   It might be a mystery, and it’s different for each person, but somehow we just know the attraction is there. I continue to discover if and how my little magn...

Maybe you have heard about the recent humanitarian crisis at our U.S. borders.   Children fleeing violence and hardship are making their way to the U.S.   Who will set an example for our country to be a welcoming and inclusive place?   Women religious from all over the country have answered the call to drop everything and be willing to go to the borderland.   This is what it means to be a religious sister today.   We point to peace, justice, love, joy, and hope.   We must unveil the way for the gospel to be lived here and now.   And in our sharing, in our opening up to the lives and needs of others, we find mutual bonds of love, strength, and solidarity.   We receive the “one hundred fold.”   Stay tuned for next month’s post on my border trip!      What are you being called to this summer?         Peggy Ryan, OP Whitefish Bay, WI