Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

When I was a child fall/autumn was my least favorite season.     It was too cold to go swimming and too warm to go ice skating—my two favorite activities.     Now as an adult, I love fall.     It tells me so much about life.     The trees are radiant with reds, oranges, yellows and browns.     Then they graciously drop those leaves, and give them back to the soil.     In these days of change and challenge, we, too, are asked to drop our radiant adornment, to let go of what would not survive the winter so we can be transformed in the spring.     It’s a perfect season for long walks, of enjoying the colors of October, then the letting go of November.     What will you be challenged to let go of this fall?     LouAnne Willette, OP Austin, TX

I’m sure you, like me, can tell by the change in the air, the amount of sunlight, that summer is leaving us again.  This ease into autumn is a gift that triggers reflection on change, on time, on journeys ended and begun.     I’m reading a memoir by Kathryn Schulz entitled   Lost & Found .     She divides her small book into three sections:   “Lost” – “Found” – “And.”     I relish those divisions, especially the last one.     How much of our lives is filled with “and” – we think we are headed one way and then we realize we need to rethink; we are absolutely sure we are right about an issue or a plan and then something reaches our mindset and we realize we need to rethink.     I hear echoes of the Gospels in these three words…how many encounters of Jesus embrace “lost, found, and” – choices laid out before cured lepers and rich young people and sophisticated Pharisees and those possessed by the evils of their day. ...

Although autumn isn’t happening here in Texas yet, I know that up north fall has come with all its splendid colors.  I have often reflected how trees change their colors from the green of spring and summer to the golds, reds, and browns of fall, then let go of their leaves, one by one.  It’s a beautiful image of our life and death.   Fall is a season of letting go. This last week five of our sisters went home to God.  Each of them, Meg, Jessica, Philip Mary, Dorothea, and Pat, led wonderful lives of prayer and service.  Each of them was unique and reflected God’s image in different ways.  Each of them was loved.   So, as we are now in the process of saying goodbye to each of these lovely sisters, celebrating all the seasons of their lives, we thank God for each of them and rejoice at the many colors of their letting go.   LouAnne Willette, OP Austin, TX

During these days of the pandemic I have had a lot of time alone. I live with a younger sister who is currently working on a master's degree in counseling. She has many responsibilities and commitments, so she and I are on two different schedules. We eat and pray together and are grateful for each other's presence in our lives, but other than that we don't connect often during the day. With all this quiet time I was surprised one day when I realized a great desire to get away to a quiet place where I could spend time with God and with nature. Didn't I already have this? Something inside me urged me to think about this seriously and to seek a different environment. I ended up going to a retreat center near me for three days. I brought just one book that would help me to go deeper into my relationship with God. Each day I walked around the grounds, marveled at the various hues of autumn, watched a flock of geese overhead, and thoroughly delighted in God's creation...

This past week as I drove to a meeting, I saw trees with colorful autumn leaves peeking through snow laden branches and thought “This isn’t right!”  This past week I worked through my November calendar and kept adding lines for meetings and events and “to do” items that have seemingly popped up out of nowhere and thought, “This isn’t right!”  This past week I determined to tackle that closet with doors that can barely close but it is still a mess and I say to myself, “This isn’t right!”  Do you too ever think there is too much to do in your life, too much stuff in your life, too little time in your life, and it isn’t right? Ain’t it great to be human!  When we get stuck on this track of grousing about all there is to do and wondering how to find time (it’s normal and natural), we must stop and find the deep calming center in it all.  We must stop to breathe in and breathe out the Spirit, to realize that all the “whats” are because of the ...

This past week I had a wonderful retreat opportunity.   I was gifted with a week up at Whistler in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.   It is located very near the Pacific coast, north of Vancouver, British Columbia.   Geologically it is an amazing area with gorgeous woods, glens, snow-covered mountains, wild life that all intermingles inside and outside of oneself.   One afternoon, I and a friend went on a guided eco hike through the misty rainforest.   I got to stand and be at one with a very tall, (60 foot) old cedar.   I saw the place where First Nation peoples gently took a small piece of the cedar bark to make their clothing and basketry. They then gave thanks and were careful to not do enduring damage to this regal friend of theirs.   Mostly there was the quiet and the rush of water to invite me to deepen that inner quiet, so I might delight in the outer and inner creative work of the Divine. What invites you to pause?   How do you br...

For me, September always feels like the beginning of a new year.  It might be those years spent in a classroom where I absolutely loved getting ready for school, setting up my room, eagerly preparing for a new beginning. But it’s the change of the seasons that makes me truly feel a new year is starting.  I loved my years ministering in Alabama and Louisiana but this Minnesota girl always ached for the change of seasons.  That first day I smell autumn, feel it in a cool breeze, savor the warmth of jeans and sweatshirt, I know – it’s time to begin again, it’s time to be open to change, to letting go. The trees teach me this, as do the shorter days, the harvesting of crops I’ve watched grow all summer long, the long shadows at sunset. I can’t stay in the past, but how I need God’s grace to help me move forward!   What challenges do you face this new year? What does Autumn ask of you?  And where do you find the grace that always finds us?...

What?   Happy New Year?   Yes, this is how I always feel when a new school year begins.   As a long time teacher, I still love the opening of school, the anticipation of a new year ahead, new faces, new ideas, a new season.     It always feels more like a new year than January first!    This is a time of endings and beginnings, a goodbye to summer and hello to autumn – change is in the air.   It’s a good time to ask myself what changes I need to make, to see what needs to be renewed in me as this year moves forward.    I’m very good at prolonging a project.   How often I say to myself, “I’m going to read that book (or article or website or…) soon” and then realize how long it has been ignored.   Or I realize how I promised someone who was temporarily in a rehab center that I’d be over to visit soon – only to discover those days have passed and she’s been discharged.   This new term, new season, new week asks only o...

I’m someone who loves autumn, who revels in cool temperatures and “jeans and sweater weather,” who savors the deep blue of an October sky and colors of leaves in the changing light of shortening days.  I love autumn because it signals change, and I believe that we need change.   Whether we want to admit it or not, we grow because of change.   Change challenges us, whether it’s colder weather or a new idea.   As autumn changes give us diversity of colors, the gift of ephemeral beauty, so the changes we experience give us opportunities to rethink, re-evaluate,   re-wonder. Life lived in community, with women of shared values but diverse opinions, with those of shared faith but diverse insights, is life lived in the paradox of “stable changes.”     From the thermostat setting to what’s for dinner, to quirky senses of humor and musical tastes, the differences are always there, but layered through all that diversity are the deepest realities...