Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

"Ok, I'm old."   That is what I say to the confirmation students during their retreat day prior to receiving the sacrament.   Then I tell them a couple of stories from my 'distant' past. I begin this blog entry with that thought because this past week something happened that took me to a similar memory. In the late 60's, I stay up all night riveted to the TV with my workbook from a geology class I had taken because WE were landing on the moon. Perhaps I would not have consciously thought of the two astronauts as representing the whole of humanity but looking back I do.   What happened this past week?   WE flew past Pluto.   Ok, a stellar probe flew past, but humanity has a marked moment with this event. What about the holy 'fly bys' that are happening in us and among us and around us. When someone or a group does something that is remarkable. Recently I heard about a group making a contemplative retreat who were sent throughout New York City...

I recently spent a weekend with people I hadn’t seen for many years!   And it was wonderful!! When I graduated from college I spent a year as an Extension Lay Volunteer.    My roommate, Terry, had just graduated from a college in Philadelphia and we met briefly when she and her parents made a trip to California (where I lived at the time). The year was 1968.   We spent six weeks (for orientation) in Chicago, and watched   on TV as the Democratic Convention unfolded.   Then we boarded a flight for New Orleans!   There I came face to face with the struggle for Civil Rights.   The schools were facing a Federal Injunction – either integrate or don’t open.   I saw signs that said “white only” and “colored only” and I had my first (and only!) encounter with the Ku Klux Klan!! Many things have happened since then – both in my life as well as that of New Orleans.   The biggest being my life as a Dominican, and Hurricane Katrina and ...