Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

In the Pax Christi USA   Guide Our Feet Into the Way of Peace: Reflections for Advent & Christmas 2021,  the reflection for Epiphany Sunday, January 2, tells a story about Robert Louis Stevenson. When he was a little boy, he “would watch the lamplighter walk through the streets…lighting each of the village street lights. ‘Look, Mother,’ he would say. ‘Here comes the man who punches holes in the darkness.’” What a great image for Christmas! In the Incarnation, God and a woman punched a hole in the darkness in birthing Jesus for the world. It’s a delightful idea to think of us, followers of Jesus, punching holes in the darkness as we do works of justice, when we help bring about reconciliation, when we bring peace and remain calm in the midst of the turmoil and division that swirl around us, when we express a spirit of joy even though the world offers so many reasons to be discouraged. In this season celebrating the coming of the Light of the World, let’s invite each other t...

Our liturgical calendar for the beginning of February starts off with the Feast of the Presentation.   It remembers and celebrates the bringing of the child Jesus by his parents to the Temple and links us back to the feast of Christmas. That got me thinking about all the times we present – emphasis here on the second syllable.  We present a child for Baptism, we present a married couple at the end of the wedding ceremony, we present a graduating class to the assembly.  We make presentations, we make presents.  What connects this world of Presentation to our lives in these weeks of Ordinary Time?  The connector is this amazing truth:  Everything is a gift and all is connected to the ultimate gift of Incarnation, to the gift of God’s humanity that transforms our own and the entire universe forever.  We are challenged to make present, in our own daily lives and common experiences, the beauty and the reality of thi...

Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Annunciation Every year, it’s the same: the intensifying liturgical readings, the weekly lighting of another candle, building anticipation. For all its predictability, Advent is my favorite season. It never ceases to awaken something that lies dormant deep within me. But why? After all, I already know what’s waiting at the end, so why go through the annual charade of suspense? For starters, it’s the way that Advent invites me to practice patience and presence before rushing headlong into parties and presents. It’s the balance between darkness and light, and the reminder that the former is every bit as important as the latter. It’s the silence and the longing. It’s because each Advent takes me deeper into the mystery of a God who loves us enough to meet us on our turf, becoming human so that we might come to know God. It’s the already-not-yet paradox of Advent: even as we stand in awe of past and present incarnation, our souls long for a union w...