Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Recent blogs, asked us to consider hopeful connecting and spring feasting. Recently I feasted at a student lead talent show at Edgewood High School in Madison WI.   The auditorium was filled with 14 to 18 year olds.    When the two student MCs spoke one could hear a pin drop. Then the acts began-- a young Egyptian woman sang a Coptic song, one from Korea played Amazing grace on an amazing stringed instrument, 3 Chinese did a traditional dance, two presented a critique of society in spoken word, a Korean drummed enthusiastically.   Finally, a woman RN who loves to play guitar and sing was welcomed. The second MC returned to the mic to say, “and she is the other MC’s mother.”   When she asked students to sing with her, they did.   They sang “marching songs” of the 60’s, and when in the end they stood to sing “We shall overcome” one by one students raised lit cell phones. WOW! I was lifted by the appreciation of the students for their classmates. It...

I checked the calendar and yes, it’s true, Lent is just a couple of days away! How do you prepare for it?   I had a dear friend who always said, “I HATE Lent” and I don’t quite think that is the attitude I want!   But Lent can turn into a negative if we focus only on what we can’t do, or shouldn’t eat, or have to “give up.”   This Lent, the Motherhouse community is focusing on two sides of Lenten discipline – fasting AND feasting.    Some examples on the prayer card we each received:   “Fast from wanting more; Feast on being thankful…Fast from anger; Feast on patience…Fast from gossip; Feast on silence…Fast from discouragement; Feast on hope.”    None of these are any easier than before, but by reminding me, challenging me and all of us, to feast as well as fast, I face Lent with a different perspective.   The origin of the word Lent is connected to the word for spring.   Can you make this holy season a spring time experience for...