Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

When I look in the mirror or push my hair out of my eyes, it seems like a big deal.  Yet I know, in the grand scheme of things these days my complaint is rather silly.  During the six weeks we’ve been staying at home I’ve become aware of a lot of different realities—the heroism of health workers and people making sure we have food, the creativity of so many homebound families, the oneness of our world, the need to work together, the beauty of our planet, and the list could go on. So what am I to do?  I could whine a lot, trim my hair myself, try a new hair style, or put the whole issue in a more global perspective.   What are some of your challenges these days?  What is God calling you to do or be these days?  How will your life be changed when this is all over? LouAnne Willette OP Austin, TX

I am growing in appreciation of both sacred space to pray alone and sacred time to pray together. Before community prayer each day I walk in the neighborhood.   My Dominican prayer group (three sisters and two associates) meets for prayer each day at 7am. In one part of the prayer, a short current writing from indigenous peoples is read. Those writings have made me more conscious of the carved image, a five-minute walk away on the shore of Lake Monona.  The statue was carved from a storm destroyed hackberry tree in 1991 by Harry Whitehorse of the Ho Chunk people and bronzed by the community to preserve it in 2009. The carving is named “Let the great Spirits soar”.  It is adjacent to another image formed by people 10,000 years ago who gathered by the water and built mounds in the shape of animals in which to place the human remains of their beloved dead.  So in my sacred prayer space along Lake Monona, I have become aware that I am accomp...