Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

There is this cedar tree that overlooks our garden.  Every year it sheds its leaves and produces new ones.  Every year it produces hundreds and hundreds of seeds.  I know.  They fall in our garden and I have to rake them up! When I am out in the garden among the leaves and seeds, this scripture passage about the sower and the seed comes to mind.  I am always struck by the apparent extravagance and wastefulness of God.  Why so many?  Why every year?   But, God's ways are not our ways.  Sometimes we may want to question God's ways.  "Why God?" We may even want to suggest some improvements to God's plan.  "God, surely you could have averted this?"  But God is infinite wisdom!  God works all things for good.  I am slowly tapping into this wisdom.  So whereas in the past I grudgingly raked and bagged the leaves and seeds and put them by the road to be taken away, now I pile them high in a corner of the gard...

Sifting through my clothes and belongings for the umpteenth time gets old and frustrating.  My attempt to strategically pack for yet another move is a struggle.  I’ve gotten quite good at it and each relocation involves shedding a fair amount of “stuff”.  But I focus a lot of attention and thought on sorting-out what I like, what I might need, what I should get rid of, what’s easy to pack, what needs to find a good home and what will be saved and stored.  There’s a seeming dissonance between the vow of poverty and this process of meticulously inventorying and prioritizing lots of belongings.    And then I ponder the prioress’ recent letter about itinerancy—the Dominican call to itinerancy and the different ways that we are each sent.   The forced itinerancy of our sisters in Iraq, for example.  Those ready to “journey to a new place of encounter” in great and difficult ways.  Small nudges like these help me maintain perspective ab...