Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Yesterday as I was on my way to Dubuque, I was aware of a train on the track that ran parallel with the highway.   At the end of the train was another engine.   How odd I thought remembering the trains from my youth.   I grew up in a small town having multiple train tracks and trains traversing the town many times during the day.   Our home was situated a block away from intersecting tracks.   Needless to say, we were often stopped on our way to or from somewhere by a train.   We looked for the caboose because that marked the end of the train.    Eventually, train cars were redesigned and cabooses were no longer needed on the trains; and I missed them.   Cabooses had 2 jobs -- to mark the end of the train and more importantly, to provide stability for the train – keep it on the tracks. I began musing about the connection between cabooses and an upcoming gathering we call Community Days. Community Days has several purposes, includin...

One, among the many blessings of Dominican life, is our connections around the world and the ways social media keep us connected. Recently I was at Sinsinawa for a meeting but also invited Springfield IL (Beth) and Iraqi (Habiba) Dominican Sisters to visit.  Beth and I have traveled to Iraq to be with the Dominican Family there and Habiba was a welcoming host to us. Now she is on sabbatical learning English.  Habiba also spoke to the Sisters at the Mound about life in Iraq since ISIS swept across the Nineveh Plain on August 6, 2014.  I have frequent shared news with my Sisters but the opportunity to hear firsthand account was so important. During the visit, Habiba asked Beth and I how we became friends.  I told her, that while Beth and I knew each other, it was our first trip together to Iraq and Habiba’s community that led to our friendship.  I also shared that the days we had together at Sinsinawa deepened the friendship for the three of us.  The...