Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

It is a cave of sorts. A Global collection of people are crammed together with luggage piled floor to ceiling.  Unlike the donkey, trains were on strike.   All faces glued, to the fine print of the ever changing billboard, announcing arrivals and departures.   People with a mission and a purpose like Mary and Joseph. The door swung in, edging us closer together, and the door swung out, making room for anyone who came knocking.   Are you waiting for an arrival, or for a departure?  Is your purpose being lived?   Here is what I gave birth to, as I waited to depart:   Like Mary and Joseph, we carry a call.   All we know, is something beyond our womb is calling us.   We find ourselves whether male or female pregnant once again!   Do we abort? Do we carry to term?   We worry.  How will we feed this call?   Wakening, we hope all is a dream.   It is a reality.    We've been here before. Over and over throughout our...

Lately, the concept of   Hospitality   has been in the forefront of my days.     Even the Scriptural readings for this past Sunday have focused on offering hospitality – Abraham and Sarah greeting and providing a meal for travelers outside their tent, Martha and Mary providing food & beverages and a listening ear when Jesus came to enjoy their company.     I recently read a novel called  Martha  based upon the Mary, Martha, and Lazarus stories in the Gospel. Throughout the story, gracious hospitality was extended to guests who appeared at their gate.     My sisters and a cousin came to visit the home where I live last weekend.  In that case, the hospitality was reciprocal.  Since I am still in full-time ministry and they are retired from full-time employment, they brought the first evening’s supper and ideas of “adventures” they’d like to explore during the weekend.  I provided beds, showers, a...