Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray. Rumi Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks As we all pray for Scott at this time, these words from the Essential Rumi , translated by Coleman Barks , seem to capture his predicament. He is largely silent yet his wife, who is a wonderful writer, keeps us abreast of his every moment of progress.   We knew when he spoke his first words after the stroke.   Who would think that a man shaving himself would be news, or that a request by him would bring his beloved dogs, Smokey and Sophie, to participate in his healing? What do YOU really love? How is its STRANGE PULL leading you? Ruth Poochigian, O.P. Madison WI

The realization that a Pope’s Lenten message found its way to Time magazine raises interesting musings, and I love it! ‘Fast from indifference and make room in our hearts for the concerns of others, so that we can begin to feast on love.’ What preaching! There is so much global suffering that I sometimes wish I could close off feelings of heartache for a while. Instead, I simply change the channel. My ministry includes providing job counseling to those who are struggling, including women and men currently incarcerated. Their faces and stories live in my heart. In a country that incarcerates more people than any other country in the world and more men of color than any other group, I wonder why more hearts don’t ache from the stories and their concerns. Mass incarceration is a social justice issue – a human rights issue – that demands our attention, prayer and action. As a society, we cannot afford disillusionment, indifference, or to choose blindness to injust