Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

This beautiful tree and friend of mine can be seen from almost every window in the home in which I live.     I have had the great privilege of watching the tree move into spring.     What a gift to see the dormant beauty of winter turn into springtime splendor.     First were the buds, then the flowers came, and now, the green leaves are moving in… I am reminded that each part of our journey holds grace.  Each step we take is crucial and needed.   As  Dominicans, we are called to be open to finding God everywhere.  During springtime, that means being open to finding God in the sunshine and in the rain, in the warm weather and in the colder days…wherever we turn, God is there.   How about you?  Where are you seeing, feeling, hearing, tasting, or touching God these days?     Peggy Ryan, OP Dominican University River Forest , IL 

My journey started with a determination to respond to God’s call. I would follow the steps and see if doors would open to a Black woman requesting membership. I would follow all the steps and if the doors did not open, I could say with a clean heart, God I tried. I requested to experience living in “community” that was granted. I lived a semester with sisters and experienced their prayer life, daily routines, celebrations, house meetings, ministries, and concerns. We became family together.     When I asked to start the entrance process the answer was yes and the rest is history.   There is not only room for sisters of color, but also a need for representation of sisters of color in religious life.   Pat Rogers, OP Glendale, WI

The pandemic has distinctively changed my perspective on life. I find blessings that I used to take for granted and welcome new learnings. Relationships have strengthened and new ones formed. My spiritual life is deepening as well.   Each summer for the past 20 years I have participated in a retreat entitled  Nurturing Life’s Blessings . Last year we had a “virtual” retreat and I missed being together, in person, in a place that is  extra  holy ground at Siena Retreat Center in Racine, WI.    This summer we gathered at Siena Retreat Center. What a difference! We adapted to the new protocols for safety and also appreciated being together. The gifts of nature and being with others truly nurtured my spirit. I celebrate this sacred time. Being on the team and creating the rituals for each day expands my love of life. I am also privileged to companion women on their journey and learn from them. The Spirit’s presence was palpable.   Lake Michigan graces the ...

One morning I was on my 8:00am weekly transformational leadership growth group conference call.   Where some of us who are leaders in the local Catholic Church were sharing on what was our mission and purpose in our life.     When it was his turn to share the youngest member of our group who was in his early 30’s then proceeded to tell us that he did not subscribe to having a mission and purpose for his life.       Well, to say the least I could not believe what I was hearing.     Why would this thirty something year old not think that there was a purpose for his life?   It made me think of myself and my journey to discovering my purpose.  I did not always know what it was until I realized that you and I are here on this earth now for a reason.  It is not by chance or coincidence, it is to fulfill our purpose.  We are not called to merely exist, but to thrive.  Figuring out and living our purpose in lif...

For some, the title words will quickly bring the song and its' melody to mind.  I'm thinking about the last time I heard that song and who I was with.  It was recent. There are so many ways we connect as Sisters and in this time of Covid-19 some of us in the Chicago area zoom a couple of times a month to share our news.   One of the Sisters in our group got news that her cancer had returned.  It was hoped that treatment would bring her some time, but it was soon clear that was not to be.  She made the decision to enter hospice.  And many of her friends, colleagues and Sisters took turns being with her around the clock. During my first visit, we could hear a guitarist and singer visit another patient.  At one point she began the singing: "I can see clearly, now..."  Michelle opened her eyes and looked at me, I began singing the song and to my delight, she tried a few words herself.   As we shared th...

If you haven't read the previous blog for July 20th - I encourage you to take time to read it.  The Sister who wrote it is part of my "crowd" - we entered/joined the congregation together. As I considered what to share for this blog entry, I wanted to see what Sisters wrote in recent blogs as we continue to live in these days of pandemic and calls for racial justice.  Seeing Peggy's beautiful posting had me turn toward a constellation (yes, stars) of memories and ways our lives have crisscrossed.  It was a good journey - an arc of our particular relationship. During these days, weeks, and now months of living through pandemic(s), we might find our world closing in and forget the many people who have "populated" and indeed, enlivened our hearts and minds. There is a long arc of relationships worth nurturing.  Who has crisscrossed through your life?  Are there some whom you haven't seen for a long while?  Reach out - be in touc...

For many January 6 is just the day to put away the Christmas decorations and/or contribute our tree to the community bonfire.   But wait! What is this thing about some wise folks coming to see and then returning by a different way? When they found Jesus they offered their gifts. January 6, (first Sunday) is the day MOSES, (Madison Organizing in Strength, Equality and Solidarity) invites all to a general meeting.  We catch each other up on how we are doing on the mission to change the criminal justice system.  How can the system honor the dignity of each person? It is my job to find a clergy person to open the meeting with prayer/reflection. This time I feel called to do the opening myself.  I am especially honoring our member congregations that partner with another that is different by race/culture. Then members from two congregations that are currently working on an event together lead us in the song, “Let there be peace on earth.” ...

Yesterday I traveled 50 kms by car, 35 kms by train, and more than 8000 kms by plane.  It took me just under 18 hours in fits-and-starts of waiting to board high-speed modes of transportation to arrive in Chicago.  That’s a stark contrast to the last month in which I walked 550 kms in 25 days—just over a half-marathon each day.  I’m struck by how different these experiences of travel were and how poignant the metaphor for moving through life. Each leg of my journey yesterday was meticulously planned based on exact arrival/departure times.  At the airport, I joined the elbow-to-elbow crowds of people waiting in line and avoiding eye-contact or personal interaction.  Airport lines have a way of blending stagnation with rushed anxiety to meet check-in deadlines.   I then spent hours in a tightly packed space moving at inhumanly high speeds to most efficiently arrive at a specific destination.  While flying, the only way to know where you a...

Here we are again at the beginning of another new year.  This year I decided to upgrade how I make and most importantly keep my resolutions/goals and so far except for one it seems to be working. I started off as usual by making my list of resolutions and then thinking to myself what do I need to do differently this year to make sure that all my resolutions or goals are achieved, hopefully, before the end of 2017.   This time I have decided it is about the journey and not so much the destination.   Meaning that I am not so much looking at the end results, but concentrating on how I am doing each day on every resolution/goal that I have made. I am being more mindful of the people and things that I experience in my daily life.   I am enjoying the everyday seemingly simple things in life that I so often take for granted.   Usually when the year comes to an end, most times it is very difficult to know what I have done or achieved. This year already ho...

I’ve been joking lately that I am becoming a very good Dominican: between visits to friends and family and getting ready for another move, I’ve taken itinerancy to a new level! All this travel brings to mind a favorite poem by Jan Richardson, called “For Those Who Have Far to Travel: An Epiphany Blessing.”   The first two stanzas read: If you could see the journey whole you might never undertake it; might never dare the first step that propels you from the place you have known toward the place you know not. Call it one of the mercies of the road: that we see it only by stages as it opens before us, as it comes into our keeping step by single step. How true!   I could scarcely find better words to describe my journey into religious life.   Many times I have longed to see just a little further ahead; yet I realize that if I could have seen the whole picture perhaps I wouldn’t have dared to take the first step.  ...

A year ago, shortly after beginning my itinerant Dominican journey, I ran across a passage from Ephesians about being rooted and grounded in love, and wrote a post about it. Two weeks ago I moved again, this time to the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate in St. Louis.   This year I join two novices and two co-directors from other Dominican congregations across the country.   At our opening prayer ritual, my ears perked up as I once again heard the words being read: “May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love…” What timing, to hear these words almost exactly one year later!   Kelly, Chuc, and I (the 2014-2015 novices) mingled soil from our various motherhouse grounds and planted small succulents that we’ll keep in our chapel throughout the year.   They will be reminders of our own growth, nurtured by soil from the holy places we’ve begun to call home. As we begin our novitiate journey, I’m glad that little ...