Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Last month (July 21 Post), I wrote about women religious from all over the country responding to the call to help out with the recent humanitarian crisis occurring at our border with Mexico.  I was privileged to have been able to go and spend ten days in El Paso, Texas, welcoming families from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico, as they arrived in this country.  The welcome offered by myself and other women religious was nothing more than a listening ear, a clean pair of clothes, a hot meal, and a safe place to sleep. Good Dominicans ask questions!   During these ten days of accompaniment, I had so many questions.   Why do we have borders?   What can the U.S. do about the reasons children and families are fleeing their countries?   Why won’t my country be more welcoming or inviting?   How can someone else travel with only a mochila or backpack full of everything they own and I have so much?    I am so grateful to have had...

Maybe you have heard about the recent humanitarian crisis at our U.S. borders.   Children fleeing violence and hardship are making their way to the U.S.   Who will set an example for our country to be a welcoming and inclusive place?   Women religious from all over the country have answered the call to drop everything and be willing to go to the borderland.   This is what it means to be a religious sister today.   We point to peace, justice, love, joy, and hope.   We must unveil the way for the gospel to be lived here and now.   And in our sharing, in our opening up to the lives and needs of others, we find mutual bonds of love, strength, and solidarity.   We receive the “one hundred fold.”   Stay tuned for next month’s post on my border trip!      What are you being called to this summer?         Peggy Ryan, OP Whitefish Bay, WI