Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

There’s a new consignment shop near where I live that’s called “Stuff, Etc.” What a perfect title for my life at this time!  I’m in the process of moving out of one house while a friend moves into my former house. We go back and forth with boxes and boxes and boxes. Do you want this set of pots and pans? Here, take these cleaning supplies. It’s become overwhelming.  Years ago, before I entered the congregation, each Sister was required to pack up her belongings so everything fit into a trunk…yes, one trunk! She left in June and went off to her summer assignment. In August she received a letter indicating her next assignment. If it was the same one, she went home and unpacked her trunk. If it was elsewhere she went directly to her new home and her trunk was shipped to her. Simple? Yes! Liberating? I think so!  Is it possible to return to that tradition? Is it possible to let go of all of the stuff that surrounds us and practically buries us? What would it ta...

I love Summer not for the usual reasons we hear proclaimed, but because that is the season of many celebrations of who we are as Dominicans of Sinsinawa: Community Days, Jubilees, Receptions, and Professions.  Community Days is a time we come together as a community to pray, study, plan for the future of our Congregation, and re-connect with one another. This past weekend after having said “goodbye” to the sister friends who live far away from the motherhouse where I am in ministry, as I was sorting through papers that had accumulated in my book bag, I came across a reflection I had composed 9 years ago in preparation for Final Profession.  Quite frankly, I was “blown away” by what I had written.   The Spirit had certainly been with me during the creation of that document.  Among the many thoughts I found in the reflection was a question one of the sisters in my discernment circle had asked me, “What did you learn through your experience of liv...

Yesterday as I was on my way to Dubuque, I was aware of a train on the track that ran parallel with the highway.   At the end of the train was another engine.   How odd I thought remembering the trains from my youth.   I grew up in a small town having multiple train tracks and trains traversing the town many times during the day.   Our home was situated a block away from intersecting tracks.   Needless to say, we were often stopped on our way to or from somewhere by a train.   We looked for the caboose because that marked the end of the train.    Eventually, train cars were redesigned and cabooses were no longer needed on the trains; and I missed them.   Cabooses had 2 jobs -- to mark the end of the train and more importantly, to provide stability for the train – keep it on the tracks. I began musing about the connection between cabooses and an upcoming gathering we call Community Days. Community Days has several purposes, includin...