Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

The motto of the Dominican Order is veritas…truth. We are truth-seekers. This week could be called a week of veritas, of truth-seeking. June 14 is Flag Day, a day celebrating the first flag resolution passed by the Second Continental Congress, made official later in 1949; a day regarded as one way to teach children about history. June 19, also known as Juneteenth, is the oldest known celebration honoring the end of slavery in the United States, the day when the Civil War ended and slaves were ‘set free’, even though people of color are still fighting for equality and justice. The problem I see is that our history has most often been taught through the lens of those holding power, through the perspective of white people. In our pursuit of truth, we must ask what history is  not  being taught? Who/what people are invisible in our telling of ‘history’? Whose very real and painful stories are not being told?  I wasn’t taught about white supremacy (except in relationship to Hi...

For the last several years, (since I began getting old) I have been enrolled in a continuing education program for seniors, sponsored by the University of South Alabama. I have enjoyed classes in Art History, Music History, and History. In addition to classes in genealogy, birding, and local aquatic life, my favorites are often those classes centered on poetry and fiction. This quarter I’m taking a class on the Southern Gothic writer, Flannery O’Conner. I love her. Her works and books about her take up an inordinate amount of space on my bookshelves. So you might imagine that I looked forward to enjoying a chance to delve deeper with other Flannery fans. The professor, an Episcopalian priest, and I seem to be about the only people in the class who really appreciate her writing.  I’ve figured out that one of the stumbling blocks is a lack of understanding of the concepts of Grace and living out what we call a Sacramental Life. Those two elements live at the heart of my life...

This past week the RFM team brought together the new members for a series of activities and chats around congregational history and finance.  We did a lot of reading about the historical context and origin of the Sinsinawas Dominicans and visited several sites of Fr. Mazzuchelli’s footprint in the area.  Various groups of sisters graciously shared their experiences of the more recent history of the congregation and the different challenges that emerged.  There was also a session with our Treasurer to discuss how we live the vow of poverty and how the congregation as a whole manages its resources.  In Sister Mary Ellen Butcher’s remembrance she describes our kind of common life as one of “high-risk living” in which we lose control and “do not feather our own nest”.  What a wonderful and true depiction of what I’ve seen in all the sisters I know. The past couple of days I've been pondering it all and questioning what it means moving forward.   I've ...