Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Hello from the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate (CDN) in St. Louis!  The last three weeks have seemed more like three years given the activity, number of acquaintances met/friendships formed, house meetings, Dominican Life Seminars, and classes at Aquinas and Intercommunity Novitiate (ICN), among other things, that have been packed into them. Today (Sunday) was a special day starting with morning mass at St. Alphonsus Liguori (The Rock), a mainly African-American Catholic Church featuring wildly wonderful liturgy, music, hospitality and preaching … all of which took me to spiritual waters previously uncharted.  What grace! This evening, our entire house attended the Third Annual September 11 th Interfaith Commemoration in Music: An Appreciation of Religious Diversity held at Sheldon Concert Hall on the outskirts of the St. Louis University campus.  This event, sponsored by Arts & Faith St. Louis, featured music performed by opera singer Ch...

This weekend our novice, Sr. Kathy Flynn, joined 4 other novices to begin 10 months of their canonical novitiate at the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate (CDN). Each year a new group of novices comes together to create its own unique experience of community with fresh spirit, abundant gifts, and eagerness to grow in the Dominican tradition.  This group has already begun! The CDN provides a quality experience of Dominican community life, prayer, study, ministry, exposure to and practice of preaching skills, and personal growth for the novices of the member groups. The process of this collaborative experience is intended to: offer a rich novitiate experience, encourage a supportive peer group, share the giftedness and resources of the congregations involved, and promote the charism of the Order.  Like any new beginning this one requires a leap of faith for this is no ordinary year.  It’s a transformational time of opening oneself and learning about God, ...