Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

That was the big Spring announcement when, as kids, we found the Burpee Seed Catalog in our rural mailbox at the end of winter.   Eager for anything colorful, we poured over those pages - fodder for dreams of garden flowers and foods, for new life and the promise of a new season.   Now, hovering in mid-Lent, my dry soul/garden needs a version of the Burpee Catalog and I realize I have one, we all do   – it’s called the Gospel.   But unlike a package from the seed catalog, we don’t have to wait for it to arrive, we don’t have to be in the best possible condition to plant or harvest.   Because our God doesn’t work that way;     God’s mercy and grace abound even when we feel like we’re in a perpetual February or snowy March.   Gardens of every kind appear everywhere in scripture and the Holy is found there in all times and all seasons.   Take the time to ponder, sit with, and image these words of Catherine of Siena for your...

Last week at the end of a particularly busy day, I remembered a task I still had to do.   Realizing it would take half the time to accomplish with someone else helping, I asked another sister from my house to join me.   “Of course!   I’ve got your back.” Just a few days later I left town but had some seeds germinating that needed to be watched closely.   A few sisters volunteered to keep an eye on them.   Not wanting to burden them, I tried my best to make sure everything was in place, but inevitably a problem arose with the lights.   One of the sisters took care of it and has been keeping me informed via texts: “Don’t worry, I’ve got your back!   You just enjoy your time away.” For me, like for many others, it isn’t always easy to take the vulnerable step and ask for help.   But whether or not I ask for it, my sisters show their love and support for me through their daily actions.   In big and little ways, they prove that they hav...