Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

As we began Community Days 2022 this week with great anticipation of being together – albeit virtually - we were challenged by this statement of Parker Palmer:   “Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it,  ask your life what it intends to do with you.”   It really is an illusion to think we are in total control of our lives. We are part of the unfolding universe, living in relationship with everything that makes up the Earth community, spinning in a tiny part of the Milky Way Galaxy, among millions of galaxies, some of which are coming into view for the first time through the lens of the James Webb Telescope.   Can we learn from the universe what our lives intend to do with us? We are inextricably tied to  planet Earth, and we are called to be her caregivers and life-givers and co-creators with our God. Whatever else we intend to do with our lives, it will be in the context of that primary responsibility. May we accept it with gratitude and j...

I am standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before me  I am honored by their passion for our liberty  I will stand a little taller, I will work a little longer  And my shoulders will be there to hold the ones who follow me   A few years ago, I would have never have imagined being alive today to see the many challenges of almost these two years.  However, I can still categorically say that I am filled with deep gratitude for the many things in my life, especially for life itself, good health, family, sisters, and friends.  Things and people that I may have previously taken for granted.     The chorus of the above song by  Joyce Johnson Rouse ,  aka “Earth Mama,” beautifully describes the gratitude that I feel for the ones who  have gone before me.  I know that I am alive and well at this challenging time in life for a reason and for a purpose.  I am here to have life and to live it...

Soon and very soon we will be stepping into the Advent Season. I love this time of year when the whole universe waits in tingling anticipation for the birth of our Savior. Of course, you might say, He was born already a long time ago. He entered into the human race at a specific moment in time and in a specific place – of course! Our time is here and now and our challenge and gift is to trust that He is being born again in us. Our Dominican brother Meister Eckhart says, “What good is it that Christ was born in a stable in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago if he is not also born in me?”   When Mary was invited to give birth to Jesus her response was, “How can this be?” and we might also respond in kind. Let us remind ourselves that the power is in God and not in us and with God all things are possible. For our part, we are being invited to open our whole being to that power in order to cultivate a spirit of gratitude and a heart filled with compassion. “We are all meant to be mothers o...

Yesterday, at a gathering of some members of my crowd – current and former, I was truly overcome with sheer joy and gratitude at being together and experiencing again the goodness of these women I have known and loved for so many years. As we shared stories, I was so moved at how we have not been afraid of the kinds of questions posed by Liz Sully in her preaching on this Sunday’s gospel.  What's our heart quotient? How's the hosting of love going? Where are we serving up compassion? Are we really present to the wounds, our own and others? What's our healing touch availability? Is the listening ear in desperate need of hearing aid? Where are we exercising the power of the word, individually and communally? How is justice in action being manifest?   Today I continue the celebration of gratitude that began yesterday. Before I climbed out of bed this morning, I said to myself the words of e.e. cummings, the only poem I know entirely by heart: “I thank you God for most this ama...

This week the university where I minister is celebrating graduation.     And, it is also the week in which the United States celebrates Mother’s Day.     I saw so many ties between these two events in the past few days.  Students remembering and praising their mothers (and fathers and other family members) for the love and support they received.   Gratitude, study, and the sharing of life with another are examples of what we are called to as followers of Christ.  It is dates like graduation and Mother’s Day that remind us of the gift and privilege that is ours when we pass on what we receive.   When we allow the hope and grace and goodness that we are filled with to overflow onto and into the lives of those around us.  The Catholic Worker Founder, Dorothy Day, said, “the best things to do with the best things in life is to give them away.”   This past week I saw such great examples of what our lives can...

I live in Austin, TX.     Normally I go north for the summer and spend a month at our Camp WeHaKee in northwestern Wisconsin.     It is a wonderful place where girls are surrounded by beauty and can be themselves, make new friends and learn new skills.     I love being there.     As with most things this year, camp was cancelled, so I’m still here in Texas.  However, thanks to technology, the camp staff, helped by many others, has put together “Bring WeHaKee Home” and made it a part of my summer.  Even though it is not the real thing, it has brought together many campers, counselors, parents and camp alumnae to create and participate in some significant camp experiences.  I’ve especially enjoyed the council fires and evening prayers. So in the Texas heat and in spite of Covid, I’ve been a part of camp in a new way and appreciate all the work of the many people who made it happen. What are you grateful for this summer?...

These days of national, global, environmental upheaval are a challenge for me. Yes, some days the messiness of life can be challenging and very disconcerting.  It is an invitation for me to lean into where I feel rooted.  It is there where I need to breathe.   First, I lean into gratitude.  Where is it pulsating around or within me? I take hope in the witness and the work of my vowed sisters.  Look at what good work they are doing down at the border with our ‘southern’ sisters and brothers.  Or note the teaching that is happening with young children.  Can I  hear the compassion and empathy spoken to our service to the elderly? Whether in Bolivia, Trinidad or Washington, DC, who is speaking truth to power? Meditation, mindfulness, contemplation is also salve to this messiness.  It is before the Holy that I learn . . .                   "to hold...

Birthdays and the end of the year for me is always a time of review and reflection of the year past and looking forward to new things in the year to come.   The year 2019 have been an exceptionally great year for me, in that my ministry challenges me to become a better version of myself.  I am in a ministry that I am passionate about, because hopefully I am making a difference in our archdiocese.  My ministry challenges me frequently to bring forth gifts I didn’t even know that I possessed.  I think it is truly ironic that a ministry, that at first, I didn’t want, I am now passionate about and I am told I am very good at it.  I tend to believe it when one of the persons is the archbishop among others who tell me this.  God really works in mysterious ways. Relationships are truly vital to me and to who I am as a person.  I lost one of my dearest friend and sister this year, she saw the good in me, she saw my gif...

So often this time of year there is a lot of focus on gratitude. However I have been pondering differences and acceptance. Perhaps the more pointed question is How to celebrate and appreciate what is?  All does not have to be a seen solely through ‘my lens’.   I visited a couple recently who had been bickering with each other. ‘Why doesn’t he compliment me?, Why does she not do things my way?’  Such opportunities to pause and to remember the goodness we see in the other. Just as we each have acquired talents or taste, so too we can explore differences and deepen acceptance.  In our congregation we post remembrances of a sister who has gone before us. What an acceptance treat!  Let’s glory in who we each are. KC Young OP Kirkland, WA

Each moment of each day I can tap into the grace of my life. I try to be aware of the ordinary blessings and my gratitude grows. Sometimes the blessings are so commonplace that I take them for granted. As I write to you today I have a visitor with me who comes each month and makes a “mini” retreat at Sinsinawa Mound. Her presence here makes me aware of many aspects of my daily blessings. She articulates the blessings she notices: . . . the beauty of our land, . . .the friendliness of our community, . . . our daily chanted community prayer and meaningful Eucharist. The more she comes the more blessings she expresses: . . . the broad experiences of our Sisters, . . .the wealth of our education and the opportunities we have to grow as life-long-learners, . . .our awareness of critical concerns of our world and cosmos. . .commitment to peace and justice. Most of all she notices the love and care of our Sisters for one another. When she leaves, my heart is filled with gratitude for my ...

There she was On the ground Hurt Frightened Vulnerable. I took her in my hands She clung to my finger Breathing, resting. There I was Talking to her Stroking her breast, her back Feeling her wings. Are you hurt? How can I help? Silence Presence Ministering Being ministered to. Connection Compassion Love. A while passed. In humble adoration. Then she turned her head Looked me straight in the eye And flew away. A bird in the hand… A word of God. Broken, Spoken, Received. With Gratitude. “This is  the season for letting our prayer be inspired anew  by closeness to nature, which spontaneously leads us to give thanks to God the Creator. Saint Bonaventure, that eloquent witness to Franciscan wisdom, said that creation is the first “book” that God opens before our eyes, so that, marveling at its order, its variety and its beauty, we can come to love and praise its Creator (cf.  Breviloquium , II, 5, ...

So much nostalgia and warm fuzzy feelings come into play during this season of Christmas. It is all good because they have to do with relationships, with the joy we get from giving, with our gratitude at what God has done for us. One especially unforgettable Christmas for me was my first Christmas in the novitiate. I was dwelling on past Christmases with family and getting not only nostalgic but homesick. We went to chapel a half hour before Midnight Mass began, and the first thing I noticed was the Nativity window that was lit up with a special light. Then the music started. One of our sisters played the harp and another played the violin. Being in the midst of such awe and beauty, I almost felt I was in heaven. I came into contact that night with the true meaning of Christmas and the utter awesomeness of what the birth of Christ means for all of us. A Blessed Christmas to each of you! Do you have a treasured memory of a special Christmas? If so, what made it speci...

One surprise of religious life, for me, has been getting to sit with sisters who are dying – that very sacred time of keeping vigil. Sitting with a couple of our sisters recently caused me to reflect more deeply on what it actually means to “vigil” - to stay awake, pay attention and to simply offer a constant presence to the one approaching that very thin veil between this world and the next.   To vigil is to sit with love and gratitude in the presence of Grace. If true, then aren’t we called to vigil every single day? At the sound of the wind, the rain, children’s laughter and bird songs, we are called to vigil, to pay attention with a posture of gratitude. At the brilliance of a starry night sky, the glow of the moon, in the warmth of the sun, we are called to vigil with a posture of gratitude. Yet we are also called to vigil in solidarity with those among us clinging to the margins of society, people who are dying - physically, mentally, and spiritually - as a res...

Yesterday was Administrative Professionals Day, “a day originally created in 1952 by the International Association of Administrative Professionals.   It’s a day set aside for honoring those wonderful, dedicated people who do so much to keep businesses running at peak efficiency.”   So said the back of a card I found on my desk yesterday.   Yes, I serve in the role of an administrative professional for the Leadership Council of our Congregation.    The verse in the card and the individual messages of each of the sisters I support evoked so many smiles in me.   I felt total joy, and my day was certainly made bright.   So I began to reflect on what a wonder it is to express gratitude and what a difference it can make.    I don’t know about you, but I often say “Thank You” without even thinking about it.    What if each time I expressed my thanks to someone, I also looked that person in the eye and let him/her know that I really ...

I never feel like I do a good job at being grateful.   I work with volunteers and I am always wondering if I adequately express my deep gratitude for each of them.   I have started a new practice this Lent.   I want to stop and make sure my thanks is not rushed or stuck in at the end of a task or an event.   I want to look the person I am thanking in the eye, sit with her or him, and take time to relate the importance of their presence and actions.   And, most importantly, I want my gratitude to come from a deep well within that knows God’s Providence.   The Dominicans of Sinsinawa have a saying:   “Providence can provide, Providence did provide, and Providence will provide.”   Gratefulness is expressed wholeheartedly when one believes that God is the source of every need.   Trust, openness, mercy, hope, joy – these are the characteristics of a grateful heart.   So, this Lent I am cultivating the practice of gratitude as a way of li...