Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

These are uncertain and troubling times in our nation and world – even a cursory glance at the headlines reveal that.  Speaking of joy might seem naïve.  Yet joy is not a happy-go-lucky, carefree attitude or a Pollyanna-ish perky positivity ungrounded in reality.  Ultimately, joy is not something that we can manufacture from within ourselves.   Joy comes from the Holy Spirit, as we are reminded in Galatians 5:22.   In Jesus’ last discourse, he speaks tenderly to his disciples: “these things I have spoken to you, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be full” (Jn 15:11).   Immediately before Jesus suffered and died, he gathered those he loved and spoke of the fullness of joy!   Clearly, the joy Jesus spoke of can coexist with pain and suffering. “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts,” wrote Wendell Berry in his poem “Manifesto: the Mad Farmer Liberation Front.”   As Christians committed to the common good, with a p...

So, I had the students who came on retreat dream about a world where peace prevailed.  What might that world look like?  And they, with crayons and colored pencils began to create that world together.  In their world they did not litter, they shared their snacks with each other, they went to church and some even spent time meditating in beautiful natural surroundings!  In the discussion that followed these 12-year-old kids came to understand that peace takes some doing! That peace began with each of them, one small act of peace at a time.  They recognized that they had to leave behind old habits that did not bring peace and begin to form new habits of love, care and consideration for themselves, for earth, for each other and for God who is our peace.  The reality of Easter with its renewed hope and promise of new life, of deep peace and joy, takes us beyond the violence and hatred around us, to a place where we can dare to dream of a different re...