Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

This week is a very special week in our congregation because two of our sisters are making their final, or perpetual, profession.  This is a most joyous event, but also a solemn one.  We are filled with joy that God has chosen them to join us for the rest of their lives, but we also stand in awe at their courage in this time of uncertainty. Since I live with one of these sisters, I have been personally involved in her discernment process, and because of this, I have reflected on my own commitment made more than 50 years ago. What a gift and a grace it has been in my life, and I pray that our two sisters will always see this as gift, too. Our whole congregation joins together in asking God's abundant blessings on them.   Marie Lucek, OP Madison, WI

My son did a bit of ‘guerrilla gardening’ in Iowa City some years ago, planting a variety of plants and seeds in what was once a trash-strewn concrete slab next to an alley. Acorn squash grew up the chain link fence separating this ‘plot’ from a transforming station. Neighborhood residents and passersby were fed. An older brother had a pumpkin vine growing in a crack between his concrete driveway and the side steps to his house. The vine bore fruit. In New Orleans, I remember seeing beautiful oak trees upheave sidewalks to continue their growth. Today, March 14, signals the end of Catholic Sisters Week, a week highlighting the vocational call to vowed religious life. Honest, intentional discernment in the company of supportive communities may lead a woman to vowed religious life or it may lead her to another vocation, another relationship altogether. Each of us is called to bear good fruit. Discernment is a lifetime call to listen to the voice of God. When we do that with trust and fai...

“YOLO” – an acronym for “you only live once” - is a piece of slang my undergraduate students taught me during a class discussion about mainstream cultural values.  “People use it as a hashtag on social media.   It means that you should get out there, take risks, and make the most of life,” one of my students explained. YOLO was popularized by the rap song “The Motto,” but this term is only the most recent expression of the perennial idea that we should seize the day and remember life is short. Poet Mary Oliver closes her poem “The Summer Day” with this challenging question:   “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”   Oliver’s question and the YOLO phenomenon both point to the ongoing work of discernment – seeking to hear God’s call as we say “yes” or “no” to various possibilities and opportunities.    For me, considering the question has led to my “yes” to begin candidacy at Sinsinawa.   Our time ...

Three years ago I began to journey with a Juneau-ite who was interested in exploring Associate membership in our congregation.  He filled out the initial questionnaire and downloaded the Associate Handbook.  We began meeting on a regular basis to go over the material in each of the chapters. After we finished working with the Handbook I asked him if he would like to begin the application process, but he wasn't ready for that step. Since I am the only Dominican of Sinsinawa he knew I made it a point to introduce him to anyone from our congregation who visited Juneau--at this point he has met 3-4 others.   We continued to meet periodically and had good conversations about the church, his faith life, and spirituality in general. During these conversations he never again brought up the subject of Associate membership, so one day I asked him where he was with a decision. He said he needed more time but to continue to check in with him, so this is what I have been doin...

I’ve lived in four communities of sisters during my discernment with the Sinsinawa Dominicans: my local community at the Mound, as a Candidate in Atlanta, as a Novice in St. Louis, and now as a second year Novice in Denver.  As I begin this third year in community, I’m reminded how creating community is a somewhat awkward process—especially at first.  Learning about each sister—her personality, how she adds to the “mix” of the community and how I can best relate to her—is often a trial-and-error process requiring patience and intention.  Developing new relationships is a time of great excitement, requiring both openness and vigilance.      Today it strikes me how integral community-building is to being human, not just a woman religious.  Right now I’m visiting my cousin in California during the birth of her second child—yesterday she and her husband had a beautiful, healthy baby boy.  I spent the day with their 3-year-old daughter, Gabrie...

Not gifted with a good sense of direction I sure do appreciate signs when I am driving!  Otherwise, I can easily lose my way.  Sometimes I am so deep in my own thoughts that I miss the sign and have to turn back.  Still other times the sign is hidden or obscure.  Many times I either have to swallow my pride and stop to ask for directions or am grateful to have a companion traveller who can guide me along the way.   It's no different for me in religious life or any other pathway along life's journey.  The signs are not always obvious.  Prayer time is very distracted.  My thoughts are very scattered.  Busyness obscures the signs.  I feel lost.  "Lord what are you asking of me now, in community life? In ministry? In my relationships?"  At times like these, I turn to my companion traveller, someone who can help me to read the signs and discern a path through the maze.  Inevitably I am able to find my way again.  And ...

Two sisters reminded me this past week that I am called to be a life long student. I stopped in to see Sr. Margaret.   We greeted one another and before I could start a conversation, she asked me to wait. She slowly began to speak in Spanish and was able to complete a whole sentence.   A few years ago, she told me she hoped one day to converse with my parents in their Spanish language culture.   Sr. Margaret started learning Spanish in her 90s in spite of her vision impairment. I visited Sr. Catherine next.   She told me she was learning how to use her new IPAD.   This was a birthday gift from her nephew “to stimulate her intellect.” She asked if I could show her how to take pictures and email them to her family so she could keep in touch with them.   As I walked her through each step, she would write them down. Sr. Catherine just celebrated her 100 th birthday in May. These two sisters are life long students and they share and use what they l...

Typically I’ve conceptualized my life as a linear progression of the places I’ve called home—it’s been a convenient way for me to catalogue my experiences and gauge my personal growth.   As I’m wrapping up my first year of Candidacy and preparing to move on to the next steps in my discernment, I’m noticing a subtle shift in that perspective.    A growing awareness of the Sinsinawa Dominican focus on relationship has influenced how I view these various epochs of my life—including this most recent one as a Candidate.   There’s a vast network of relationships associated with each of these places which I’m realizing provides a much richer lens for thinking about my past.   In fact, it was those relationships that actually defined my experiences and led to my personal growth—the geographic locations, as much as I loved them, were just backdrops.  As I contemplate the idea of “itinerancy” as a way of life, I no longer think that the defining factor is ...