Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

“God is the newest thing there is, the youngest thing there is. God is the beginning and if we are united to God we become new again.”     (Meister Eckhart) It has been another tough year!  Disparities in healthcare continue as we struggle still with a worldwide pandemic.  Our political scene shows no sign of rendering collaboration with justice anytime soon.  Voting rights, women’s rights, immigration, the death penalty, services for the homeless and hungry – so much is an uphill battle right now.  How do we not start 2022 exhausted, full of fatigue, and lacking compassion??? I think my answer is God.  The ancient, Dominican mystic, Meister Eckhart, called God the beginning and when we are connected to God, we get to start anew too.  I will sit with God each day.  I will soak in God’s goodness.  I will try to listen to God. I am full of hope and energy for 2022.  I trust in God’s love and jus...

Do you remember the book Dead Man Walking ?   Or you might have seen the movie that was made, starring Susan Sarandon (who got the Oscar that year) and Sean Penn.   About ten years ago it was made into an opera!   It recently was performed where I lived, and there were many (free) public events for almost two months leading up to the performance.   In the couple of days prior to the opening of the opera here Sister Helen Prejean (who wrote the book), longtime Catholic activist, who speaks often about her own conversion regarding the death penalty, was in Madison.   She and Jake Heggie, the composer of the opera, spoke to about 800 people at First Congregational UCC.   Helen talked about her own conversion – which began when she finally understood that the Jesus of the Gospels went about doing justice , not just being kind to people.   (And in the case of the first man she accompanied to his death he was clearly guilty !) In this country it...