Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

This coming Saturday, November 7th, Dominican laity, nuns, sisters and Friars worldwide will officially begin the 800th Jubilee Year of the founding of the Order of Preachers.  Here in Trinidad we have been preparing for this great event for some time now.   Our celebrations will officially kick off on Saturday too with Eucharist at the only monastery here on the island.  In fact most of the celebrations we have planned will take place at the monastery to facilitate the nuns' participation.    The history of Dominicans in Trinidad is as old and as rich as the history of the Church here!  Dominicans Friars, sisters and nuns sent out on mission, built many of our churches and schools.  I have vivid memories of the excitement it generated among us as children when we would see the parish priest, fully robed, coming up the road to visit with us at home.  Those were the days!  As I reflect on this time ...

This morning, I found myself in a quiet house, with a cup of good coffee, a book of poetry, and a window inviting me to simply sit, be still and reflect on the goodness of God. A gnarled knot on the thick tentacle that was a maple tree branch stared back at me, like the eye of an octopus.   While neither the tree nor the ‘eye’ was God, I could see God in both.   In that moment, a connection was made between God, a tree, an ocean creature, and me – reaffirming the interconnectedness of all Creation.   The pregnancy of that moment birthed thoughts and images of so many people who are part of my life – family, Sisters, friends, former co-workers, people with and for whom I’ve ministered - life-long connections and connections only days old. Those connections between a wood knot, an octopus eye, God’s omnipresence, and the people in my life, prompted me to ponder the meaning of St. Paul’s exhortation to “pray without ceasing”, a challenging one for me.   Could ...