Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

As we began Community Days 2022 this week with great anticipation of being together – albeit virtually - we were challenged by this statement of Parker Palmer:   “Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it,  ask your life what it intends to do with you.”   It really is an illusion to think we are in total control of our lives. We are part of the unfolding universe, living in relationship with everything that makes up the Earth community, spinning in a tiny part of the Milky Way Galaxy, among millions of galaxies, some of which are coming into view for the first time through the lens of the James Webb Telescope.   Can we learn from the universe what our lives intend to do with us? We are inextricably tied to  planet Earth, and we are called to be her caregivers and life-givers and co-creators with our God. Whatever else we intend to do with our lives, it will be in the context of that primary responsibility. May we accept it with gratitude and j...

In the Midwest this week, the ice and snow are melting.     As I go about my day, I watch the dripping outside my window.     I hear the seeping water and, sometimes, huge icicles crashing down to the ground.     As temperatures rise all over the world, melting ice is contributing to rising sea levels.     Global ice loss has increased rapidly over the past decades, and scientists can connect human activities to the root of this phenomenon. Specifically, since the industrial revolution, carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions have raised temperatures.   Can I allow what I witness outside my window to connect me to the plight of the universe?  Am I willing to become one with the polar bear and the glacier, uniting in a creation web of interconnectedness?     How will this experience of communion change my behavior?  Will I try to conserve my use of water?  Will I find ways to avoid traveli...

I have lived as   a Sinsinawa Dominican for 50 years and am celebrating this with the Congregation, family and friends in one week. I have been unpacking the meaning of "Jubilee" in my life these past months and I have found one of Rilke's Poems relevant.   The first three lines are:                   I live my life in widening circles                   that reach out across the world.                   I may not complete this last one                   but I give myself to it.                                      Rilke's Book of Hours, Lo...