Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Black sisters connecting with other Black sisters or sisters of color is never a given. But when you do connect, it is a hair letting down moment.  Knowing that you will be totally accepted no matter what degree, office, committee, or ministry position you held is the first hair pin drop. You stopped checking your expressions and emotions, and you got a break from the eggshells you often encountered. The first summer I attended the National Black Sisters’ Conference and saw over 100 sisters of African descent I immediately felt at home. Listening to other sisters’ stories of how they were able to be authentically Black and a SISTER was/is a healing experience. This annual event of checking into your roots is healing, rejuvenating, and the reasons why we keep returning and are still SISTERS.   Patricia Rogers, OP Glendale, WI

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...

So begins the prayer of our morning group on Wednesdays. It comes from the pastoral of the US Catholic Bishops,  Brothers and Sisters to Us ,  1979. So many traumatic things are presented to us lately—virus, violence, climate change and on and on.  “Wake us up, Lord”  is a good prayer for  2020. The above traumas can be related to the next phrase of the prayer—"so that the evil of racism finds no home within me.”  Through listening and discerning with anti-racism groups, I wake up.  I realize that power over others is a disease that is part of all the traumas of our lives. If I think and act as if I am better than another it causes violence. If the organizations to which I belong are based on being more deserving and hoarding energy and material goods, they contribute to climate disasters. Even virus is exacerbated when some people’s dignity and health are regarded as less important than others. How can our waking up bring healing to ourselves and...

Sequestered, quarantined, moving our ministries and relationships to digital realities, and keeping a social distance in all that we do has not encumbered the Resurrection of Christ.     Nothing could ever impede God’s unending love.     Nothing ever will.     We see Resurrection in our movement from outside to inside, opening up the opportunity to deepen our relationship with the Risen Christ. We see Resurrection out the window and on our daily walks or bike rides as we witness spring happening everywhere, even with some Easter snow.   We see Resurrection in the indomitable courage and strength of the hospital workers and first responders who are bringing healing and hope.  We see Resurrection in the community spirit that fills balconies and porches every night to applaud these heroes and heroines of goodness. We see Resurrection in the naming of long-term disparities and the sin of racism behind them, which this global crisis ...

It has been such a strange Lent Everything seems turned on its head. I have been home for four weeks  socially distancing. Privileged to have a home in which to stay safe. I have been out for a solitary walk each day noticing as the signs of Spring begin to show themselves. Robins come to my balcony,  still the juncos and chickadees and woodpeckers and purple finches and nuthatches. I’ve seen green creeping into the tops of trees, buds  barely visible, yet all waiting. I have been trying to focus on what is important.  Staying connected through FaceTime.  Praying with our sisters via Zoom.  Trying to connect with and teach my students online. It’s still surreal.  Watching the liturgies streamed from our mother house Praying for their safety and for all who are working so hard to support us during this pandemic. No end in sight. We wait. We all wait as we move through these holiest of days. We wait in expectation...

Recently, I attended a Circle Keeper’s gathering at Sojourner Family Peace Center, my place of ministry, a gathering based on the circle model of restorative justice. The group that evening was racially, economically, gender, and experientially-diverse. As each participant, in turn, picked up a talking piece, full attention was given to that person alone until they had shared what they wanted to share. Wounds buried surfaced and were held up to the light, which began the process of healing ragged edges. I was struck by how similar and universal our individual woundedness seemed and by the healing power of circles. We must have been created to be part of circles, rather than lines. Lines can be relational but only at the point of intersection. Circles, on the other hand, embrace. Lines can lengthen, but only on one end or the other. Circles widen, making room for more. Lines are not very welcoming. When we stand in line, we see only the back of the person in front of us but when we...

Residents of Fourth Floor Siena Community who meet daily to share Scripture readings I recently needed to take time out from my ministry to have surgery.  I came home to our Motherhouse and spent six weeks on one of our assisted living floors.  Healing is often a journey, full of ups and downs.  Throughout this sometimes painful, sometimes slow process, I was surrounded by the love and healing energy of my sisters. Encouragement, hope, courage, strength, and deep prayer were shared with me each and every day.   We heal in community.   I am so very grateful for my time at home.   I am so very grateful for the love and affection of my sisters.   How about you?   How do you heal? Peggy Ryan, OP Waukegan, IL

So, I had the students who came on retreat dream about a world where peace prevailed.  What might that world look like?  And they, with crayons and colored pencils began to create that world together.  In their world they did not litter, they shared their snacks with each other, they went to church and some even spent time meditating in beautiful natural surroundings!  In the discussion that followed these 12-year-old kids came to understand that peace takes some doing! That peace began with each of them, one small act of peace at a time.  They recognized that they had to leave behind old habits that did not bring peace and begin to form new habits of love, care and consideration for themselves, for earth, for each other and for God who is our peace.  The reality of Easter with its renewed hope and promise of new life, of deep peace and joy, takes us beyond the violence and hatred around us, to a place where we can dare to dream of a different re...

Many years ago I came to realize giving up chocolate for Lent was not really helpful for anyone including myself.   I began to see Lent as a time to take up a good habit, to form a new way of being, and/or to learn something useful. At Pope Francis’ suggestion, I am giving up indifference for Lent.   And…I am trying to allow this to be a Spirit led process. Prayerfully, I am asking more questions of myself:   How am I indifferent to needs in my life, in my congregation of Sisters, in the Church, in the neighborhood, and beyond?   What are systemic evils that I choose to ignore?   What systemic evils do I need to do more than I am doing already?   What do I need to learn so that my indifference may be healed? Yes…healed! And will I be patient and trusting in the healing needed? One systemic evil the Sinsinawa Dominicans have called ourselves to face is our own internalized racism - not only personally but importantly as an inst...