Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

A couple weeks ago we participated in an event for the youth and young adults of the Archdiocese.   Religious and Priests were asked to set up booths around the perimeter of the auditorium.  The energy in the room was high, the music was electrifying, and the 2000 or so who came were charged!  We shared a booth with two other congregations, the Dominican nuns of Rosary Monastery and the St Joseph of Cluny Sisters.  Presence!  For all of us, this was our main motive for being there. There was a friendly camaraderie among us.  It was obvious that even as we were promoting our various congregations there was that sense of being in this together.  At one point we even crossed over into each other's space, explaining to the many young people who came, about one another's life and mission.  There were no competitors that day, only friends. The harvest is indeed rich but the Vineyard is the Lord's; we are mere laborers.  Lord o...

Typically I’ve conceptualized my life as a linear progression of the places I’ve called home—it’s been a convenient way for me to catalogue my experiences and gauge my personal growth.   As I’m wrapping up my first year of Candidacy and preparing to move on to the next steps in my discernment, I’m noticing a subtle shift in that perspective.    A growing awareness of the Sinsinawa Dominican focus on relationship has influenced how I view these various epochs of my life—including this most recent one as a Candidate.   There’s a vast network of relationships associated with each of these places which I’m realizing provides a much richer lens for thinking about my past.   In fact, it was those relationships that actually defined my experiences and led to my personal growth—the geographic locations, as much as I loved them, were just backdrops.  As I contemplate the idea of “itinerancy” as a way of life, I no longer think that the defining factor is ...