Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

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...

A few days ago, I celebrated my seventy-fifth birthday. Seventy-five is a robust number, a solid number. After all, it’s three quarters of a century, isn’t it! I have nothing against the number, but to have to attach it to my person seems bizarre.     When I think of a seventy-five-year-old woman I think of my grandmother, but that’s not who I am. There must have been some mistake in the records. But wait! What’s wrong with being seventy-five? I now have seven and a half decades of experiences to hold onto. I have, as we say, been there and done that. My bucket list is getting shorter, and I feel a deep sense of satisfaction in the realization that my life has been fruitful. I give thanks for friends and family and for my Dominican Congregation that supports me more than I deserve. Seventy-five is a ripe age and it’s time for the harvest – drawing in the wisdom and the gifts as well as the challenges that have shaped me into the woman I am. Come to think of it, I like being se...

Can it really be that the Advent Season has already come upon us while we have been waiting and watching – waiting for this horrible virus to die out, watching in horror as the numbers of people infected soar.  As we continue to wait and to watch.  I reflected upon the words “wait,” “watch,” and “alert.”  It seems to me that we human beings spend a good amount of time waiting.  As a child, I waited for my birthday, for Christmas, for my turn, for “hurts” to heal.  As the first born in a large family, I remember watching my mother wait for the arrival of the next child to be welcomed into the family.  We then were alert to that child’s first tooth, first steps, first day of school.  We hear in the Advent readings from the prophet Isaiah the Israelites waited for release from captivity in Babylon for 50 years.   That was a lifetime for most.   About 20 years ago, the Sisters in our congregation committed ...