Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

So now whether we are celebrating Lent, the time of prayer, fasting and almsgiving or Spring the time of green shoots, pussy willow buds and robins, today is our day with its glorious diversity.  It makes me think of change.  The daily paper wrote, “Turn over a new leaf” What do I want to do differently this year?  How can I be more supportive to the people in my life?  How do I respect earth? How can I be a stronger part of movements that call for making our systems more human? How can I turn a business call into a moment in which I acknowledge another human being? I celebrate that I get to be in a multicultural community. The Sinsinawa Dominicans have roots from African countries, from Trinidad and Tobago, from Spanish-speaking countries in Central and South America, from First Nations from Asian countries, the Pacific Islands, and from many European countries. Diversity is Dominican.  We come from and are sent to the diverse world wit...

I am borrowing words from the St. Croix Objibwe, Big Drum People.     I just finished hearing and seeing the eyes and faces of Mitchell La Sarge and Wanda McFaggen     from a PBS Wisconsin series   Tribal Histories.    My heart is full.     What does that have to do with sharing about Dominican life?   Yesterday I participated in an all-day virtual assembly of Sinsinawa to facilitate our ownership of a new land acknowledgment that connects us to the people who enjoyed the place we call The Mound long before we existed. We were led to ponder what will enable Sinsinawa  community to connect with or support Indigenous Resurgence and Justice? Mitchell La Sarge shared a great love and concern for the younger generations of their people, many who are turning to drugs or leaving the traditions of the Big Drum People. He searches the youth to learn what are they passionate about. Dominicans might also ask new generations. What are you passi...

At my Golden Jubilee (50 years of professed life), I realized, “I’m going to be here a while!” I was happy and my heart was at ease. When I made my first profession, I was a little nervous. For me, the best part of religious life is that I am never alone. This year, I am celebrating my 60 th   anniversary of the profession of my vows! Elaine Taylor, OP

Since the beginning of 2020 and COVID following shortly thereafter, we Dominicans of Sinsinawa have said good-bye to 53 of our Sisters who entered eternal life.     Three of those Sisters left behind a biological sister who is also a member of the congregation.     This becomes an even more significant loss for those Sisters.     We, both as a community and also as individual human beings, are mourning our losses.     Our beautiful wake/remembering services and funeral liturgies do help.     Since COVID restrictions have become less stringent, we have been able to accompany a Sister’s remains to the cemetery.     This also assists us saying our “good-byes.”   Although we are happy for the Sister who has entered eternity, nevertheless, we are grieving.  Today, I gathered the memorial cards for all of these Sisters, held each of them and all of them in prayer, and recalled my connection and encounters with each Sis...

I never wanted to be a religious sister (nun) because I felt I would never be happy.     This calls me to reflect on what is happiness.     Some say that happiness is a feeling.     It is when you feel good and cheerful about something that happened or is happening in your life.     However, I think that true happiness comes from when you make others happy.     After I went out of my way to assist someone and they unexpectedly tell me how much my helping meant to them.     I experience an unexpected warm feeling inside.     True happiness I think is a sense of fulfilment you feel even if what you did was not acknowledged, yet you know that deep down inside you did and gave of your best to help someone without any conscious ulterior motive.     You did it because it was the right and necessary thing to do at the time. Everyone searches for happiness and many know that true happiness cannot be found in things,...

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...

“Let us wake up then, open our eyes in apostolic charity, and if we are called, set out for any place where the work is great and difficult.” That statement by our founder, Samuel Mazzuchelli, has challenged me lately. Ministry with victims of domestic violence has been both life giving and energy sapping.   At times, I feel like Alice – not of Wonderland but of the Looking Glass.   Every day I am impelled to look into a mirror and claim what I see; to acknowledge some of my internal reactions to people I’ve met, situations I’ve encountered, and to the culture in which I find myself - a culture so different from my own experience and one that is negatively impacted by the effects of racism, poverty and white privilege – including my own.   This work, while so necessary, is painful for me.   Honestly, sometimes, it just seems too great and too difficult.   A friend recently suggested that perhaps the great and difficult work I am being called to is...

A line from a Leonard Cohen song, Anthem, entered into our General Chapter that ended a couple of weeks ago. The refrain resonated among those gathered and was frequently repeated as we talked about our present and future together: “There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” Systems and institutions (including our Congregation and organizations in which I have worked), often appear rock-solid and immovable. There are things that seem to work fine, so why change? Systems like our criminal justice system, among others, are indisputably very broken. There are also individuals in every system who stand firmly and unyieldingly in rigidity and intolerance of differences. However, cracks show themselves and light gets in. Imperfections inspire curiosity and imagination. Disruptions help us discover connections. Forces of divisiveness and abuse of power spark voices that advocate for justice and right-relationships.   Rays of hope shimmer from within t...