Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

A professor teaching a class to medical interns wanted them to develop compassion and so asked them to reflect on three questions each night: 1) What inspired you? 2) What touched or moved you? 3) What surprised you? This exercise helped the interns to be more aware of their patients as persons and led them to be more caring and compassionate doctors. I decided to try this myself.  On some days it took me a while to think of what surprised me, but often it was something small, such as a smile from a stranger walking by or a pleasant conversation on the phone with customer service.  I didn't have a hard time with happenings that touched or moved me--there were many, such as parishioners warmly welcoming a stranger into their midst, a teenage boy offering to clean the church, a man tenderly assisting his disabled wife from the car.  And what inspired me most was the way a woman who is a pancreatic cancer survivor lives her daily life. Her faith and her courage ...

What can simplicity mean in this complex society and multi-cultural world in which we find ourselves? The Scripture readings just talked about women who gave food and money to others when they were barely surviving themselves. Their gift was more than generous; it was an expression of their dependence on God and God’s providence. I continue to encounter women who want change in their lives and need the support to move forward and take the next step. Here in Waukegan this means empowering women of all ages to study to become citizens; this will allow them to have so much freedom and calm in their lives. These women are throwing in the ‘cost’ of their time and energy to move forward and this takes great strength. A woman 69 years old and 12 years a legal permanent is choosing to study the 100 questions for her citizenship exam – and she knows little English.   My offer to welcome her and assist her in learning the English and civics questions is little compared to her choice to ...