Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

By now we are used to signs outside of hospitals and skilled care facilities that state “Heroes Work Here” (and they do).  But as these weeks of Advent have gone by and we have experienced losses, deeper worries, greater anxiety about an unknown future, I think we need to put that sign on our own hearts, on our front doors, on our bathroom mirrors.  To me a hero is a person who exhibits courage without first weighing the cost.  A hero takes a leap of faith and turns it into a tumbling routine of courage plus faith plus love.  Isn’t that what we are all trying to do every day so that the Word of God can be born anew into our world?  So that the Word of God can be born within each of us, and so dwell within us, and help our ordinary lives always proclaim the extraordinary mercy of God?  Let us pray for the courage to give life to that Word, to be midwives of hope and deep peace. Priscilla Wood, OP Dubuque, IA 

As Dominican Women, we strive to live our lives grounded in the Word of God.  Lent becomes an opportunity for deeper reflection on our relationship with the Source of All Being.  One of our sisters, Marta Alken, OP recently wrote an article in which she highlighted four points that reflect a life centered in God: -  we strive for relationships that are enlivened by creativity – the ability for self-reflection, for change, for giving and receiving, for solitude; -   we have a capacity to experience a wide range of emotion – feel all of life for ourselves and others, -  we have the ability for self-transcendence—the capacity to lay down our lives for others and work for the common good, -  we recognize a healthy self-esteem – we understand that we are part of God’s web of life. ¹ I have used these four points as my daily reflection during Lent.   A life centered in God is a life that inspires joy, vision, imagination, detachment, disposs...