Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I recently read an article by a young sister called “10 Things You Gain By Entering Religious Life.”   I have been reflecting on this and I have come up with a different list.   I have listed 10 ‘Aha’ moments in Religious Life.   These are some significant things over the course of my 8 years in the congregation. These are not in any specific order. This was not an easy list to make because there have been so many surprises. 1.      God as my beloved.   Not like a spouse nor a parent. 2.      Experience of communal centering prayer. 3.      Living in community is hard and a gift. 4.      Introduction to theology class 5.      Love my OP Sisters   6.      Realized I have been a Dominican all my life 7.      Internovitiate Crowd in St. Louis 8.      Giving Voice – Young Sisters 9. ...

Our congregation is fond of the saying: “Providence can provide, Providence did provide, Providence will provide.” Recently I came to appreciate this saying in an unexpected way, when a group of other young sisters and I participated in a half marathon.   Although we prepared together by designing t-shirts for our “nun run” (Team 13.nun… get it??) and having a pasta party the night before, we were all planning to run at different paces.   I had never run a half marathon without a buddy before and wasn’t thrilled about running alone. As I found my place in the starting corral on race morning, I heard someone call my name.   I turned around to see a guy I had met almost five years ago at an orientation for our international volunteer programs.   We had spent two weeks together and gone off to our respective countries of service and hadn’t seen each other since. “So, what are you up to these days?” I asked him.   “I’m a Jesuit now,” he said.   “Ho...