Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Every year as Christmas approaches, I remember Howard Thurman’s reflection about the challenges laid down like a gauntlet by the arrival of Jesus in our world.  When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the Kings and princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins: To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among people, To make music in the heart. We know the truth of this. Even while we celebrate with family and friends and colleagues during this season, we are aware underneath it all that our world is hurting:  refugees are without homes and welcome, people are starving in spite of abundance, our border with Mexico is a place of fear and violence for asylum seekers, politicians have forgotten their responsibility for the common good, our beloved Earth suffers from our refusal to ...

During October I had the chance to participate in the  Nuns on the Bus  project sponsored by Network, a Catholic social justice lobby founded by Catholic Sisters [Check out networklobby.org] This was the 6 th  cross-country bus trip led by Sr. Simone Campbell, the Executive Director of Network. This year the theme was promoting “reasonable revenue for responsible programs,” a response to the tax law passed in December 2017 that will have devastating effects on programs for poor and middle-income citizens.   I joined a group of 9 other Sisters and some amazing staffers for week 3 of a 4 week journey. During week 3, we traveled through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, and finally, Washington, DC.  We did lobby visits with legislators, held rallies in which local constituents spoke about their concerns, and had town hall meetings to help educate people about the tax law and how we can encourage the new Congress to change...

These are uncertain and troubling times in our nation and world – even a cursory glance at the headlines reveal that.  Speaking of joy might seem naïve.  Yet joy is not a happy-go-lucky, carefree attitude or a Pollyanna-ish perky positivity ungrounded in reality.  Ultimately, joy is not something that we can manufacture from within ourselves.   Joy comes from the Holy Spirit, as we are reminded in Galatians 5:22.   In Jesus’ last discourse, he speaks tenderly to his disciples: “these things I have spoken to you, so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be full” (Jn 15:11).   Immediately before Jesus suffered and died, he gathered those he loved and spoke of the fullness of joy!   Clearly, the joy Jesus spoke of can coexist with pain and suffering. “Be joyful though you have considered all the facts,” wrote Wendell Berry in his poem “Manifesto: the Mad Farmer Liberation Front.”   As Christians committed to the common good, with a p...

“What if at the Apple store, as part of the display, we saw a photo of the factory worker who made the iPhones?” This question was posed in class by one of my Clarke undergraduate students as we discussed Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si , (On Care for Our Common Home) and the social and ecological impacts of consumerism.   “Yeah, and what about clothes?”   Another student chimed in.   “We see the label that says ‘made in El Salvador,’ or whatever, but what does it mean?” We live in an interconnected world.   When we get up each day, we may put on pants made in Haiti and a shirt made in Bangladesh. Then for breakfast we eat a banana grown in Costa Rica and drink coffee from beans grown in Kenya.   That’s three continents before we even step out the front door! Yet, as my students astutely noted, it’s easy to be oblivious to these connections.   It’s easy to find the bargain and not ask questions about the people and systems behind our pu...

Some days ago, I completed and returned my absentee ballot because I won’t be at home on the day that my state holds its primary elections. Do you sometimes feel overwhelmed by the continuing barrage of campaign ads and the unending media coverage of primary elections and caucuses leading-up to the July political conventions? The many political action committees and individuals who use enormous wealth to influence campaigns and elections make me wonder whether our “government of the people, by the people, for the people” still exists. My tendency toward cynicism was brought-up short in recent conversations with the two Dominican Sisters from Vietnam with whom I live in community. Both Sisters are college students. One Sister has received course assignments related to our US political parties and current candidates. Discussing an assignment with her, I realized how difficult it must be to understand all this political activity when a person has spent a lifetime in a country that fo...