Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Advent is a pause, but not an empty one. Rather, it is pregnant with need and possibility. As I write this, Brittney Griner has just been released from a Russian penal colony and is on U.S. soil. We rejoice yet should be acutely aware how, in other circumstances, her race and sexual identity still leave her on the margins – in this country and abroad. The Advent pause is pregnant with oppression and injustice that begs our attention.   One of my dear Dominican sisters recently wrote that her twin is facing a serious heart problem. Even in the midst of her own worry and anxiety, this Sister reminds us of her family’s gratitude for the privilege of healthcare to which they have access. Her generous heart points to the dire circumstances in which many people in our own country find themselves without access to adequate or affordable health care. The Advent pause is pregnant with real people facing social injustice and need. This pause begs our attention.   In  weeklyprayers@...

Some things not to love: “Fall back” in time (takes me days to readjust!), colder weather, no leaves left on the trees, and the apocalyptic readings in the lectionary leading up to Advent!     All of these require a “reset” of my body, mind, and spirit.  Each of these asks me to face change and challenges me to refuse to whine or complain, or to waste time wishing for warm weather and beautiful colors and only parables with happy endings.  I believe the cycle of seasons and the cycle of our liturgical life are essential to growth – in faith, in self-understanding, in willingness to look at hard truths and harsher realities.   I do not eagerly jump into these changes and embrace all that requires, but I know jump I must – except maybe for me it’s more of a slow and reluctant stroll.  I do think we each have to ask ourselves at this time of year, “Would I be content staying exactly the same?”  “Do I never want to experi...

At St. Elizabeth’s Manor, we’re making a journey through Advent using hand labyrinths to help us reflect on and guide us closer to our essence, which is union with the Divine. The first ‘stage’ of this journey, moving from the outer edges of the labyrinth to its center, is one of shedding … shedding whatever impedes growth and movement toward union with the Divine. Shedding doesn’t mean forgetting; rather, it means becoming conscious to the experiences, circumstances, reactions, things that now prevent us from moving forward, to honor the gift they have been in our life for what they can teach us, and then to gently lay them aside, into the arms of God. This is not always easy, and it’s rarely a ‘one and done’. Shedding is a lifelong contemplative practice that can bring us closer to the One we can never shed.   What practices are helping you in your Advent journey? What do you need to shed in order to bring you closer to God?   Kathy Flynn, OP Madison, WI

I learned to value and appreciate the liturgical year when I first entered the convent.     Those early days of training focused a lot on the liturgical seasons. We steeped ourselves in the Scriptural readings of the day   and seasonal music.     It was there I identified the grace of longing.     Ahh, I thought. I am an Advent woman.     Longing and waiting have been a key faith identifier within me to this day. Whatever does that have to do with this Christmastide?  Again, in the Novitiate years, I came across a great spiritual writer:  Rainer Maria Rilke and his ‘Letter to a Young Man.’  I have leaned into this quote of his for decades now.   “. .   celebrate Christmas  in this  devout  feeling, that perhaps God  needs  this very anguish of yours in order to begin, . . .  It has not always been ‘anguish’.  Though this year there has been ple...

By now we are used to signs outside of hospitals and skilled care facilities that state “Heroes Work Here” (and they do).  But as these weeks of Advent have gone by and we have experienced losses, deeper worries, greater anxiety about an unknown future, I think we need to put that sign on our own hearts, on our front doors, on our bathroom mirrors.  To me a hero is a person who exhibits courage without first weighing the cost.  A hero takes a leap of faith and turns it into a tumbling routine of courage plus faith plus love.  Isn’t that what we are all trying to do every day so that the Word of God can be born anew into our world?  So that the Word of God can be born within each of us, and so dwell within us, and help our ordinary lives always proclaim the extraordinary mercy of God?  Let us pray for the courage to give life to that Word, to be midwives of hope and deep peace. Priscilla Wood, OP Dubuque, IA 

Can it really be that the Advent Season has already come upon us while we have been waiting and watching – waiting for this horrible virus to die out, watching in horror as the numbers of people infected soar.  As we continue to wait and to watch.  I reflected upon the words “wait,” “watch,” and “alert.”  It seems to me that we human beings spend a good amount of time waiting.  As a child, I waited for my birthday, for Christmas, for my turn, for “hurts” to heal.  As the first born in a large family, I remember watching my mother wait for the arrival of the next child to be welcomed into the family.  We then were alert to that child’s first tooth, first steps, first day of school.  We hear in the Advent readings from the prophet Isaiah the Israelites waited for release from captivity in Babylon for 50 years.   That was a lifetime for most.   About 20 years ago, the Sisters in our congregation committed ...

  REALIZE DEEPLY THAT THE PRESENT MOMENT IS ALL YOU HAVE.  MAKE THE NOW THE PRIMARY FOCUS OF YOUR LIFE.       Eckhart Tolle COVID-19 has stolen so much from so many.  How many had an empty chair at the Thanksgiving Day table?  Who had to search for food or shelter this Thanksgiving because of the economic crisis this disease has brought upon us?  The Center for Disease Control tells us that long-standing systemic health and social inequities have put many people from racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19. This week begins Advent, the liturgical season in which our church joins together to wait for the coming anew of God in our midst.   It is such a struggle in our COVID-ridden world to wait for anything. Eckhart Tolle, spiritual guide and author, calls us to stay in the present moment.  All we have, he says, is the “now.”  Looking...

This time of year has mixed messages for me. “Hurry up and get ready for Christmas.”  “Slow down and “be” attentive to the season of Advent waiting.” This week the message is “Rejoice!” My heart likes the feel of finding joy. In our Dominican congregation we are in a time of transition. How blessed we are to have assistance in how to “be” in transition in a healthy way. In September we had a virtual assembly, an opportunity to tend to our heart and spirit in our transition. Our facilitators, Dominican Sisters Joye Gros and Teresa Tuite,  inspired us in a process of prayer, reflection, with music and story. At the end they left us with a song: “We Can Be Kind.”  This song is taking root in me. In my pastoral ministry at the Mound and Villa I promote  Mindfulness.  One of the aspects in living in the NOW is to have a daily intention. Since our September assembly I have encouraged the sisters to set an intention to “Be Kind.” Focusing on kindne...

Often, a day spent in D.C.—living in a diverse community of 14 and working on Capitol Hill—feels like a multi-chapter chronicle.  Life hasn’t felt this full, ever.   Any given day is rife with interpersonal encounters and dynamics.  I’m almost always engaging with others or navigating relationships and interactions between them.  Multiple encounters with strangers—scheduled and ad hoc—add a delightful element of surprise to a day.  I often show-up at special, powerful events—whether intentionally or by happenstance.  I attend meetings with a variety of people—I may know some of them and I might know the reason we’re meeting (but not always).  Several circles of people welcome me as a member.  I could spend time in multiple locations throughout the District in very different environments in a day.  There’s also a constant buzzing of political intrigue and activity that’s consuming “the background”.  At the end of the day, I’m ...

Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Annunciation Every year, it’s the same: the intensifying liturgical readings, the weekly lighting of another candle, building anticipation. For all its predictability, Advent is my favorite season. It never ceases to awaken something that lies dormant deep within me. But why? After all, I already know what’s waiting at the end, so why go through the annual charade of suspense? For starters, it’s the way that Advent invites me to practice patience and presence before rushing headlong into parties and presents. It’s the balance between darkness and light, and the reminder that the former is every bit as important as the latter. It’s the silence and the longing. It’s because each Advent takes me deeper into the mystery of a God who loves us enough to meet us on our turf, becoming human so that we might come to know God. It’s the already-not-yet paradox of Advent: even as we stand in awe of past and present incarnation, our souls long for a union w...

I don’t know about you, but this time of the year tends to be exceptionally intense for me.  Keeping the “wheels on” in everyday life in addition to preparing for Christmas leads me down the path of overwhelming.  During my daily commute to the Mound, morning reflection time, and before I go to sleep each night I am praying, “God, let me serve with joy, and let me know your peace.”  Fortunately, our good and gracious God, in infinite kindness has bestowed peace and patience upon me.   In addition, God has used both ordinary and exceptional events during Advent to remind me of what is really important.  One of those exceptional events occurred yesterday on Gaudete Sunday.  We were blessed with the perpetual profession ceremony of our Sr. Kathy Flynn.  What joy, peace, and excitement we experienced through the music, Word of God, preaching, and words of commitment during that ritual! In the program distribut...

This past summer, in Washington State, we continued with the now annual smoke filled air brought to us from wild fires that prevailed all through July and August.  In fact, our air quality rating registered five times higher than China’s.  The smoke from our fires combined with smoke from Russia, Oregon, Canada, and California, as the jet stream blew where it would. Typically, I can see way beyond the local Catholic Church that offers a view of golden wheat and varying shades of green as the sun dances across the lawns, trees, and fields that give way to tree covered hills and mountains. Most notably, Baldy - a sheer cliff of Quartzite that towers over the east side of Chewelah was not visible. It was like where’s Waldo, but this was where is Baldy? We could even smell the smoke inside the hospital, where I serve as a Chaplain.  We saw our natural surroundings only a few times and waited longingly for the light. It was Advent like....

My life at the Mound and Villa is unique. Each day is different and yet meals and prayers are regulars that everything revolves around. Every night I connect with my two sisters on a 3-way call. We each share about our day. My sister Elaine says to me, “You are getting older yet your life seems to be fuller. Shouldn’t you be getting ready to retire?” They both comment about all my social “engagements.” Before I came here I knew that my life would be different, however I didn’t realize the many blessings I would experience each day. The Isaiah readings during this season of advent have new meaning for me here. On this “holy mountain” we call the “Mound” I know a peace-able kingdom.   Our co-workers and sisters are often reaching out to each other, offering support and wisdom, prayers and affection. We had an opportunity to come together for a retreat day during which Ann Willets invited us to reflect on the Mound-Villa community as an “Advent Village.” The sharing revealed ...

There is a woman living in one of the temporary housing units where I minister who I have never seen cry, despite the extreme challenges she has faced that would bring others to their knees.  It is easy for some to dismiss this woman as cold and uncaring, though I know that is not true. Reflecting on her lack of tears, I am reminded of a conversation two years ago with the mother of a childhood friend who had died at the tender age of 62.   As we embraced at her daughter’s wake, this loving mother did not shed a tear.   She looked at me with deeply sad eyes and in what seemed both an apology and a plea for understanding, explained that due to a physical condition, she was no longer able to cry – outwardly - choking instead on the saltiness of her silent tears.   I could only imagine how that compounded her deep suffering. Both the client with whom I work and the mother of my childhood friend remind me that judging on outward appearance is as unfair as it i...

What difference does it make? How many times have we heard that question?  Do I admit that I think it at times even if I don't say it? These days of Advent - with the O Antiphons - are a kind of novena - a final preparation for the coming of Christ among us.  But wait - he came 2000 years ago - you might be thinking.  Yet for me every Advent is a preparation for Christ's presence in me and in the world. What difference could these closing Advent days be for you and for me?  What yet do we need to ask of the Christ child - Emmanuel - God with us?  What might we do on Christ's behalf? We need to cast away the question I used to start this blog.  The real and true and holy declaration may be (and read the first words carefully):  What a difference it makes because I know Christ is in everyone - because there is a need in the world for mercy - because God has been compassionate to me . Contemplating this declaration moves us to this que...

Driving to work the first Monday in Advent, I was pondering what it really means and for whom we are waiting when I noticed the ‘hippie’ car ahead of me.  Its back window was plastered with peace symbols and colorful psychedelic flowers but it was the lone rear bumper sticker that caught my eye, which read:                                                 Don’t Postpone Joy Advent is a time of re-centering, of quiet, and of waiting – waiting for the Christ child.   But might it also be a time of action?   Of sitting up and taking notice of life around us?   Of paying attention and responding to the needs of others, to the needs of planet Earth?   Of speaking up for the most vulnerable among us? At the same time, might Adven...

As a Dominican, I too have learned to love Advent.  The lights of Advent are especially encouraging.  Since I live in the northern hemisphere the sunlight is progressively less and less until the solstice, when we again can look forward to more and more of the sun’s light. Meantime we have the custom of lighting another candle each week, and neighbors all around are lighting the dark with green, red and blue lights. In morning prayer in our household (which also includes two more people on a free conference call), we read the Gospel for the coming Sunday. As we read the Gospel for this week and lit one candle, we read that we are baptized with fire.   We send one another out to be the fire of the Holy Spirit to give light to our world. We will also send one of our prayer group members to be with the Water Protectors at Standing Rock this week.   She joins thousands of others who are also on fire with the courage of the Great Spirit. How are each of u...

It’s come around again, that lovely liturgical season called Advent.   It is the time when, amidst all the activity of our lives, we strive to contemplate the meaning of waiting, the meaning of time itself, the meaning of the once and always arrival of the Christ into our world, into our lives. I had never really given Advent a second thought before I joined the community; it was simply what I checked off before Christmas finally came.   Only within this Dominican frame of reference did I learn to sit with the dark days of December, to ask myself what was worth waiting for, to open myself to the Spirit of expectancy, of hope, of the mystery of “inbreaking.” Years ago I was given these lines from a play by Christopher Fry which I use every Advent to focus my prayer awaiting the Word.   I invite you to wait with it too. The human heart can go the lengths of God...  Thank God our time is now when wrong comes up to face us everywhere, never to leave us...

Dominican Novice, Quincy Howard, and  Dominican Sisters,  Peggy Ryan and Kathleen Long  attending the Justice Posada in downtown Chicago I started out Advent with an article that asked the question, “What do you long for?”  Is it crazy that I long for a nation and a world where each are welcomed and given dignity and respect?  When I attended the Justice Posada in Chicago, Bishop Manz (he is the guy with hat on in the picture) reminded us in a talk that the story of the birth of Jesus includes struggle and difficulty.  Oppression, injustice, and greed are all part of the story. I believe the most important question is, “Where will you be this Christmas season?”   Are you in the streets marching?   Are you praying for peace and justice?   Are you working to make a difference?   How do you bring the Christ child to birth with your life? So, what do you long for right now?   Come join the Dominican S...