Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

July is for picnics, fireworks and family.   In my youth, I felt God calling me to be part of a big family.   This July I am thinking of my family that includes: ·       -   a Chinese woman who we quizzed on civics questions, as she prepares for her citizenship interview ·       -   a friend who, with one of our sisters, is spending time making her Hogan in Navaho country more livable (We stayed home to dog sit.)          - men and women of EXPO (Ex Prisoners Organizing)      -  my blood sister’s family, where we share great stories of today and yesterday. A New York Times article Sunday, July 2 caught my eye.   “Wary When Alone With Worker of Opposite Sex? Join the crowd.” By Clair Cain Miller, who made the question come to life through a survey of 5,300 people. As a Dominican Sister who has made a permanent commitment to God through the gift of celibacy, I f...

Growing up in a farming community, we always heard the old saying “There’s no such thing as a happy farmer” – referring to the lack of rain or too much rain, lack of heat or too much heat – no condition was ever optimal!  I think we look at our lives like that, at times anyway, saying, “If I only had more time….” Or “If that person wasn’t in the picture it would all be easier…..or “if you would only see it my way…”  It might be easier never to admit to being happy, but it certainly isn’t healthier or wiser or even holier!  Of course we must acknowledge and embrace the difficulties, the stumbling blocks (or blockheads!) that seem to impede our path to joy – but it’s the how we integrate all of that tough stuff with a call to be happy that is the challenge.  One translation of the line from Paul’s letter to the Philippians 4:4 is “I want you to be happy, always happy in the Lord.”  Pie in the sky?  Impossible?  I think no...