Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

On Memorial Day weekend this year hundreds of people     came to Sinsinawa Mound.     It was the first time for some, and home coming for many. The Chapel was filled with people, song and light reflected from richly colored windows.   People came from as far away as Washington, DC and Portland, Oregon to witness perpetual vows of Christin Tomy and Nicole Reich. It would take all the electronic space in the world to write all the wonders of the day, but best was being able to personally greet these two graceful women who had begun to discern a lifetime commitment to being Dominicans nine years ago. You might watch the ceremony yourself at  https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sinsinawa/portal.htm?eventId=690739&streamType=video Then pause and ask, “what stands out for me”? I especially love this question they were asked -- Through apostolic poverty, do you choose freely to live in Gospel simplicity and to be generous with the gifts of life, recognizing you...

Three of us made up a local community for a number of years. Just recently  we became four of us.  The three of us left a residence in which we formed  community in order to join another sister who  now is able to live in the parish  house where she works. How do I find all the things that I brough t with me  in boxes?     How do we form a new community?    Prayer together is important.    Meals together are important.    In both prayer  and celebration, we meet  those that each of us has met as we have gone to  the places where God called us—                    o     The homeless person who came to the bookstore o    The sister/brother ill with cancer     o    The young person in the prayer group at prison, who was sentenced for life o    The friend whose relative just died o ...

Recent blogs, asked us to consider hopeful connecting and spring feasting. Recently I feasted at a student lead talent show at Edgewood High School in Madison WI.   The auditorium was filled with 14 to 18 year olds.    When the two student MCs spoke one could hear a pin drop. Then the acts began-- a young Egyptian woman sang a Coptic song, one from Korea played Amazing grace on an amazing stringed instrument, 3 Chinese did a traditional dance, two presented a critique of society in spoken word, a Korean drummed enthusiastically.   Finally, a woman RN who loves to play guitar and sing was welcomed. The second MC returned to the mic to say, “and she is the other MC’s mother.”   When she asked students to sing with her, they did.   They sang “marching songs” of the 60’s, and when in the end they stood to sing “We shall overcome” one by one students raised lit cell phones. WOW! I was lifted by the appreciation of the students for their classmates. It...

These past several weeks have been an extended time of family celebration - a time truly representative of what religious life, Sinsinawa Dominican life, and life, in general, is about. A time of honoring the cycle of life and the family that makes that journey with us.   The Celebration of my first profession of vows on August 2 came on the heels of a huge family reunion that we call Community Days.   These distinct yet intertwined joyful events had as bookends goodbyes said to two of our beloved Sisters - Florus Castle and Jean Brennan.   As I sought the mercy of God and of all, Florus and Jean had fulfilled their profession promises, ‘even unto death’.   What an extraordinarily graced cycle of birth, life, death, and birth into new life! During these sacred celebrations, my family experienced the truth that they were not losing a sister (or mother) but are now loved by and part of a much bigger family… a family of Sisters, Brothers, Associates, Mound brot...

Before entering religious life, the word “jubilee” was not part of my customary, every-day language. Anniversary, yes, but not jubilee. We have 39 Sinsinawa Dominicans celebrating Jubilees this year of 50, 60, 70, 75 and 80 years of vowed life. Three Jubilarians live in our Twin Cities (MN) area. Jubilees are celebrated annually at our motherhouse. Some sisters, however, also choose to celebrate their jubilee in the geographic area in which they live and minister. I attended such a celebration last weekend. One of our 50 th year Jubilarians currently ministers at a local parish in the Twin Cities, where there has been almost 140 years of ministry by the Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation . (An amazing historical fact, don’t you think?) An estimated 500 people gathered to celebrate with her. Our dinner meal included Mexican and Midwestern USA cuisine, complimented by a mariachi band, and a variety of music and theater performances by the kids afterwards. I left the ...