Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

It has been almost two years since my congregation's General Chapter in which Sisters gather to set the direction for the next five years and to elect leadership to enable us to move in that direction. What comes from the Chapter are Enactments mostly directed to leadership to take on and help Sisters to accomplish.   But one Enactment was to the Sisters directly to gather among themselves using the practice of contemplative study in order to decide together what issue they want to work on. With so many needs among the people where we serve as well as global issues and care of the earth, how do we choose?   It is the call to contemplative common study that will assist each group which calls for each Sister to both bring the issues they are passionate about and a deep listening heart to the others with whom she will decide on an issue and how to proceed. This work include prayer, study, listening, leadership and willingness to let go and follow - all together! If y...

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...

Earlier this month, Sr. Toni Harris. OP talked about involvement in the democratic election process in our country for the sake of the common good.   Since she wrote that blog entry, she and I and more than 200 Sisters gathered to exercise our voice and vote at our General Chapter.   Chapters like this one occur every 5 years as we Sisters consider our future, especially the next 5 years.    Then we elect a Prioress and Council to lead us in the direction we said we want to go. Since we held this Chapter at our motherhouse, we were well cared for, including our snack times.   Since Sinsinawa is in Wisconsin, it was fun to see cheese curds make an appearance one afternoon.   And we had choices of three flavors. Chapter days were filled with choices, “ flavorable ” conversations, decisions, directions and then elections. We asked Sr. Toni Harris, OP to be our Prioress for the next five years.   She said: “yes.” This summer will be the installa...

For I know the plans I have in mind for you; plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future full of hope (Jeremiah 29:11) We are in the midst of our congregation’s 24 th General Chapter, my first.  As un-Dominican as this may seem, I find myself in a space where the events of the world, while so present to me and to all of us in both our conversation and our prayer, almost seem suspended. I am finding Chapter to be an immersion experience. While in session, General Chapter is our highest governing authority, making decisions affecting the entire congregation and electing the prioress and congregational council.   Its purpose is to protect the patrimony of the congregation, understood not as money, but as the intentions of our Founder - that which we most treasure.   I love that we are being asked to look to both our Dominican identity and our Sinsinawa Dominican identity to root us in the work we are being called to do. So far, I am f...