Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

On the return home from a very long international flight I found myself standing at O’Hare baggage claim with the rest of the passengers waiting for my bag to slip down the chute onto the carousel. I became alert once the mechanism activated and the first of the bags started their descent onto the carousel. Everyone crowding around the edge, eyes all focused on each piece of luggage. Would mine be there? Did it make the tight connection?  Hundreds of bags slowly presented themselves, slipped down the chute and onto the carousel. All bags as different as the passengers. Different sizes, shapes, softness, colors. Each containing the belongings of those tired travelers. No sign of mine.   Slowly bags are claimed and removed. Less people now and I’m trying not to worry. I’m looking for a large, soft sided, dark blue case with some red yarn tied to the handle. Lots of dark blue cases but  not mine. I found myself mesmerized by the slowly circling bags and reflecting ...

When I was a child fall/autumn was my least favorite season.     It was too cold to go swimming and too warm to go ice skating—my two favorite activities.     Now as an adult, I love fall.     It tells me so much about life.     The trees are radiant with reds, oranges, yellows and browns.     Then they graciously drop those leaves, and give them back to the soil.     In these days of change and challenge, we, too, are asked to drop our radiant adornment, to let go of what would not survive the winter so we can be transformed in the spring.     It’s a perfect season for long walks, of enjoying the colors of October, then the letting go of November.     What will you be challenged to let go of this fall?     LouAnne Willette, OP Austin, TX

  I like to swim laps. I love moving through water and reminding myself of Catherine’s words,  ” As the fish is in the water and the water is in the fish, so I am in God and God is in me.”   At the end of my daily swim, I turn onto my back and for a few moments just float on the surface. I allow myself to be conscious of the water supporting me and I practice letting go. I relax my arms and legs, hands and feet, neck, and head.    I focus on my breath, each slow inhale and exhale, and I practice letting go.  For one day I will need to let go of all things. I will let go of my body, of my final breath, deeply trusting that just as the water supports me in this moment so too in my final letting go, I am held and supported always in God’s love.   We humans are born with a prehensile grip and cling tightly to things. No matter how I may try to let go of things, plans, control, I find myself soon grasping and holding on again. I guess it take...

As I was trying to decide on what to write for this blog my mind took to me to the book some of us sisters are presently reading. Ted Dunn’s book,   Graced Crossroads .     In his book Ted writes about religious life today in U.S women congregations.     Ted shares about the “Great Turning.”     In one chapter in which he is considering all that is happening and changing in the world today.     In the book he examines how U.S. women religious congregations are fearing and are they going to survive or not with all the challenges they are facing today.     I see religious life like a living and breathing organic system that is an organization and like many organisms it goes through various changes and how it handles those changes will decide if it survives, dies, or thrive.     This living organism goes through mountain tops and valley experiences.     Now we appear to be in a valley experience.     What ...

This week, as we celebrate All Saints and All Souls Days (Nov. 1/Nov. 2), I am mindful of the vocational call God asks of each of us. All Saints Day is a day to remind us how we're supposed to live – as patient, kind, virtuous people. All Souls' Day calls us to pray for those who have gone before us and to remember their life here on Earth. Both days call us to connection while at the same time calling us to some letting go.   In the last 10 days, we’ve said goodbye to several beloved sisters at the assisted living facility where I minister. We’ve said goodbye to many others at our congregation’s skilled care facility. We celebrate them as we remember their lives among us. Our vocational call – no matter what path we find ourselves on in life – is essentially the same. We are here to be present to each other, and - in the words of Ram Dass – to walk each other home.   Kathy Flynn OP Madison, WI

Although autumn isn’t happening here in Texas yet, I know that up north fall has come with all its splendid colors.  I have often reflected how trees change their colors from the green of spring and summer to the golds, reds, and browns of fall, then let go of their leaves, one by one.  It’s a beautiful image of our life and death.   Fall is a season of letting go. This last week five of our sisters went home to God.  Each of them, Meg, Jessica, Philip Mary, Dorothea, and Pat, led wonderful lives of prayer and service.  Each of them was unique and reflected God’s image in different ways.  Each of them was loved.   So, as we are now in the process of saying goodbye to each of these lovely sisters, celebrating all the seasons of their lives, we thank God for each of them and rejoice at the many colors of their letting go.   LouAnne Willette, OP Austin, TX

Recently I looked at a show called “Tidying Up” with Marie Kondo.  As a person who wanted order in her life I was attracted to this show because Marie took a holistic approach to tidying up the clutter in many of her client’s homes and by extension their lives.  It is amazing how attached we become to things, even a seemingly trivial item as clothing.  One guy in the show while they were sorting out clothing and having to let go of some saying that a particular T-shirt was very comfortable and he wanted to keep it and his wife chimed in asking when was the last time had he worn that T-Shirt. It is very easy to become attached to many things and to people and begin to believe that I cannot live without it or them.  This came home to me when I recently changed ministry (job) and I realised how attached I had become to this particular position of the ministry.  In retrospect I now see that I had found my identity in that position and had be...

Several years ago one of our elder Sisters asked Sr. Ann Willits, OP this question:   Are we coming or going?   Ann was in the process of writing a presentation for an event as the Order of Preachers was celebrating our 800 th anniversary worldwide.  She said the question was just what she needed for her presentation. I have never forgotten this question and in times of transition it especially comes to mind.  For me this summer is a time of transition as I move from a long-time retreat ministry in Florida to my hope of developing an itinerant preaching ministry…and…moving back to the Chicago area. (Oh my – the artic vortex!) This time of transition is filled with the question – am I coming or going?  The only correct answer is: YES!  That little connector – “OR” --  belies the truth about transitions because these times in our lives include both. They include goodbyes and hellos, letting go and going forth, p...

For me, September always feels like the beginning of a new year.  It might be those years spent in a classroom where I absolutely loved getting ready for school, setting up my room, eagerly preparing for a new beginning. But it’s the change of the seasons that makes me truly feel a new year is starting.  I loved my years ministering in Alabama and Louisiana but this Minnesota girl always ached for the change of seasons.  That first day I smell autumn, feel it in a cool breeze, savor the warmth of jeans and sweatshirt, I know – it’s time to begin again, it’s time to be open to change, to letting go. The trees teach me this, as do the shorter days, the harvesting of crops I’ve watched grow all summer long, the long shadows at sunset. I can’t stay in the past, but how I need God’s grace to help me move forward!   What challenges do you face this new year? What does Autumn ask of you?  And where do you find the grace that always finds us?...