Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

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...

When I was a sophomore in high school a sister invited me for a walk, and we sat down together at a shrine of the Sacred Heart. She began to talk about her relationship with Jesus and shared her deep faith with me. Later she continued to invite me for more walks and her sharing encouraged me to want to know Jesus as a person in my life. This eventually opened me to the desire to become a religious and give my life to God.     Helen Marie Raycraft , OP

These are such unusual times for us all.  And while our local freeways may not be as congested, I find my mind and inner spirit can become clogged.  These are times that require deep faith.   Jesus struggled in the garden.  He knew things were way out of the ordinary.  Even some of his close friends were not so trustworthy.  I believe he then knew to turn to the One who is All Trustworthy. He leaned into letting go of fixed ideas and absolutes.  This was a time to step into the unknown and to invite change!  The Jesus of History did not know the how or where of this Change nor do any of us. The key?   Remembering that I am loved and lovable is so vital during these times.  This awareness can then allow me to gradually let go of the way I want things to be and edging into openness, possibility, and Blessed Assurance.   How do you edge into openness? What helps you remember you ar...

“Practice” – how many times as kids were we told how important it was to practice if we wanted to learn something new!  From piano scales to riding a two-wheeler, from driving a car in the church parking lot to secretly learning new dance moves in our bedrooms, we all had to learn that it took a lot of practice to truly master something we cared about.   We also well remember the tasks or skills we didn’t practice, because we just didn’t care about them! So now we come to this time of an upside down world, where we are called to practice the holy intangibles of patience, charity, and faith in the unknown as well as the personal challenges of self-control and self-discipline.  Probably the best admonition for this season of both Easter and the pandemic is a line from a poem by Wendell Berry:  “ Be joyful, though   you have considered all the facts.  Practice resurrection.”   How we practice  that  is a life-long task, I believe, ...

These February days in Wisconsin are pretty cold!  I imagine it was just as cold during February nearly 170 years ago when a small group of young women made a decision with significant implications.  They decided to remain together in their small, fledgling community. They were all novices: Sisters who had not yet made vows. They were young: the oldest was 32 years of age; the youngest, 17 years.  Seven months after their fateful decision, four of this group remained to make their first vows together. These four young women, Margaret, Mary, Judith and Ellen, took new names and became our “cornerstone” Sisters: Clara, Ignatia, Josephine and Rachel. The word, “cornerstone”, means a feature on which a particular thing depends or is based.   Together with the Dominican priest who founded our Sinsinawa Congregation, Samuel Mazzuchelli OP, these women launched a project that continues today.    The qualities that we recognize in these Cornerstones are ...

In the past week, I’ve received the gift of diversity in music by listening to a ten-piece brass ensemble, a symphony orchestra, and a chamber choir.  As my ears, my head, and my heart resonate with all the kinds of music I heard I’ve been pondering the connection between these experiences and being a person of faith.  One of the singers said to me, after I complimented her on the great sound her group created, that it is “as much about listening as it is about singing.”  As Dominicans we pay special attention to listening – for that is the root meaning of obedience. I can listen to music mindlessly – it’s simply background noise -- but I can also listen mindfully – trying to hear the different voices of viola, cello, French horn or the altos and tenors amid the sopranos and basses.  When I do that kind of listening, I am awarded with an “aha!” moment when the multiple layers stand out and then blend together, when I realize how rich and deep is the sound because ...

As a Dominican I am growing in awareness that I am called to witness to a community of faith and love.  This week I was home alone.  One member of our household was at the White Privilege Conference in Kansas City and another was the dog sitter a few miles away at our friend's house.   In a way it was nice to leave dirty dishes in the sink, have TV on or off completely at my own choice and eat whenever I felt like it.  We did pray together and for one another by phone at 7 am each day.   There will be joy when we are all together once again.  We will listen to each other’s adventures and rejoice in what each of us learned while away. Jesus calls us to love one another and to even wash each other’s feet when needed.   We believe He is risen, indeed, and has sent God’s spirit to walk with us in the way of faith and love. What a blessing it is to witness to the world by being community of faith and love. How can we g...

  For the past 3 months, I have intentionally engaged in reading and reflecting on collective hope, resistance, and resilience. I am currently re-reading a book about spiritual resistance and hope. It is food for my heart and soul, and I have shared it with several friends. Last night I was invited to have dinner with two of my Sinsinawa sisters and a guest who is in town to speak on her advocacy work, insights, and current social justice lobbying efforts.   There were several times, before and during dinner, when injustices and collective or communal hope entered into our conversation. It has become increasingly clear that I am definitely not alone in being comforted and energized by the power of hope, grounded in faith and community. In my daily work, I encounter significant loss and worry, individual and collective grief, and way too many “isms” and biases to count. But reflecting on the power of spiritual resistance, collective hope, and resilience reminds me what...

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...

“Doubt is not the opposite of Faith; Certainty is the opposite of Faith.”  This is one of my favorite axioms and it’s never felt as true as it does this morning.  Like so many other people I fully expected that Clinton would be elected president last night.  I was not enthusiastic about it—she was not my first choice for multiple reasons—but I recognized that it’s the way things needed to be.  Because of her election I anticipated another, protracted wave of division, violence and ugliness in our country—also part of the inevitable outcome of where we’ve found ourselves as a nation.  These were certainties in my mind that I begrudgingly came to accept. This morning I find myself humbled and mystified by the outcome—what was unfathomable to me yesterday is the reality today.  Today I will push aside the feelings of dread, cynicism and fear that are creeping into my mind and I will focus on accepting and embracing my meekness.  God ...