Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I am a dawn watcher. I like to get up early, when it’s still dark. I like to sit and watch the sky slowly almost imperceptibly lightening. It’s the quietest part of the day. Everything is waiting on this new dawn.   It’s different every day, every minute. Light hits clouds and color reenters the world. Today the horizon suffuses with oranges and pinks and the few wispy clouds turn violet. Everything is impermanent, in flux. The colors change all the time. The clouds mutate, coalesce, move on, disappear.   At last a deep orange lunette shyly appears and in rising transforms into a full bright circle of orange red light. The new sun sits on the horizon line for the merest few breaths before continuing its’ majestic rise into the sky of the new morning, What a gift.   We have been given the gift of a new day. A fresh start. A new beginning for ourselves, our earth for all living beings.   How will I use this gift of life today? What awaits me as I step out int...

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

For some, the title words will quickly bring the song and its' melody to mind.  I'm thinking about the last time I heard that song and who I was with.  It was recent. There are so many ways we connect as Sisters and in this time of Covid-19 some of us in the Chicago area zoom a couple of times a month to share our news.   One of the Sisters in our group got news that her cancer had returned.  It was hoped that treatment would bring her some time, but it was soon clear that was not to be.  She made the decision to enter hospice.  And many of her friends, colleagues and Sisters took turns being with her around the clock. During my first visit, we could hear a guitarist and singer visit another patient.  At one point she began the singing: "I can see clearly, now..."  Michelle opened her eyes and looked at me, I began singing the song and to my delight, she tried a few words herself.   As we shared th...

Do you ever have a moment of ‘communion’ that you know you must take notice of?  It is not quite an ‘ahaa’ moment.  Rather it is a sort of soul-stirring that can make one ponderous, curious, scratching one’s head and insistently aware. Easter Wednesday I kept thinking about my friend ‘Pam’.  She was a thousand or so miles away from me.  She lived with a debilitating and life-threatening disease. It was no longer easy for her to talk on the phone.  So occasionally I would send her a phone text.  Easter Wednesday morning I sent her a text writing ‘a gentle hug and my love. . .no need to reply’.  The very next day I learned that she had requested an ambulance ride from the hospital back to our Motherhouse.  Once ‘home’ Pam quickly and quietly breathed her last. What I failed to recognize is that Pam had in fact ‘initiated the contact', this communion.  It was her life-loving spirit who had...

For many January 6 is just the day to put away the Christmas decorations and/or contribute our tree to the community bonfire.   But wait! What is this thing about some wise folks coming to see and then returning by a different way? When they found Jesus they offered their gifts. January 6, (first Sunday) is the day MOSES, (Madison Organizing in Strength, Equality and Solidarity) invites all to a general meeting.  We catch each other up on how we are doing on the mission to change the criminal justice system.  How can the system honor the dignity of each person? It is my job to find a clergy person to open the meeting with prayer/reflection. This time I feel called to do the opening myself.  I am especially honoring our member congregations that partner with another that is different by race/culture. Then members from two congregations that are currently working on an event together lead us in the song, “Let there be peace on earth.” ...

A few weeks ago we turned our clocks back an hour.  That meant we had an extra hour.  What should I do with that extra time? One of the assignments I gave my class of high school students one year was to write an essay on whether or not they would like an extra hour added to their day, and if so, what would they do with it.  After they thought about it almost the entire class concluded they did not want an extra hour added to each day.  They thought they would probably only waste this added hour. What I learned from reflecting on this question is that time is a gift, and that God has given me enough time to do whatever God has intended for me. I don't need another hour, except for that one day a year when daylight savings time ends.  The time I have each day is sufficient and I hope I use well the time I am given.  The extra hour?  I can't even remember how I used it. What are your reflections on time? Marie Lucek, OP ...