Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

This is my second attempt at blogging and I wish to share today a very special experience I had over the Easter weekend.  My brother, John, is a priest for the Sioux City Diocese and has always worked in small parishes in rural Iowa.  After 46 years of ministry, he will be retiring.  Saturday, I drove to Wall Lake, Iowa where my family gathered to celebrate this occasion.  John and I are less than a year apart in age and we grew up like Irish Twins. There were six children in our family and we were blessed with loving parents and a marvelous education by the Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters.  Both John and I began our religious vocations right after high school and I celebrated my final vows at his first Mass. The prayer card that we created for this occasion expressed our hopes. Dark and cold we may be, but this is no winter now. The frozen misery of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move; the thunder is the thunder of the floes, the thaw, the flood, the upst...

I recently attended the wake of a friend’s father, where I ran into several other friends whom I had not seen for a while.   Laughing while swapping stories, one who knew I was newly professed said to another, ‘See, I told you she wouldn’t have changed”, to which I replied, “I might be a Sister but I’m still the same person!” As I drove away from the funeral home, my response echoed rather hollowly in my heart, a sure sign that it wasn’t exactly the truth.   Our essence is of God.   That doesn’t change, yet there is no denying that how I am in the world now does look and feel different…much like a rose bud in the early morning differs from one in full bloom in the late afternoon sun.   While each is still a rose, one is opened more fully to what it was meant to become. Religious life is one of the many ways God might call a person to be in the world.   Prayerful discernment of and responding to that call has opened my heart more fully and led to so man...

It feels like a long time since I’ve been able to say that!  AND, to say it with pride and not with regret!!  I had time to sleep in, time to visit with friends, time to admire the flowers and vegetables at a Farmer’s Market, and time to drive out to the country.  What I discovered in the process is how much I needed this time and, more importantly, how much time I had been squandering…because I had so much to do! Taking time off no matter how important your work is, is refreshing and clears the mind.   Even those who “go to where the work is great and difficult,” need time to relax!   And to discover that others are doing similar work, and enjoying it. The poet, Hafiz, says “Everything in existence does point to God.” Why can’t I remember that?! Can you remember that? When was the last time you took time off from your “important” work? Ruth Poochigian, O.P. Madison WI

Pope Francis just announced 2015 as the Year of Consecrated Life. In a class I’m taking, I’ve been reading literature addressing the decline in numbers of women religious in the U.S. since the mid-60s, from a sociological perspective.   While many valid theories have been proposed, some empirical studies have focused on decreased numbers only, but not on what drives those numbers. Others have asked the question, “Why did you leave?” Why a woman chooses to leave religious life is as much a personal call from God as are her reasons for entering. Those reasons are so important, but they are also frozen in time. They are what they are. An equally important question, which seems more dynamic and visionary, is:   “Why do you stay?” I suspect that many women would respond differently to “why did you enter?” than to “why do you stay?” We evolve, our understanding of life and our place in it evolves, our relationship to God evolves… we simply are not the same people today th...

As I write this blog I look forward to gathering at Sinsinawa this weekend to celebrate Community Days with over 300 Sisters and Associates.  It can be overwhelming – especially the first minute we walk into that formidable building!  And yet, once the initial entry is completed, the days are filled with prayer, friendship and challenge as we look to our future together as a community. This summer Sister Geri and I have been privileged to lead a number of retreats for faculty and staff of Catholic schools of the Owensboro diocese and religious education programs of small parishes in our diocese.  These persons, the majority of whom are women, are committed to nurturing their own faith lives and discipleship as they minister to young people.  They inspire me as they plant seeds of faith, knowing they will never see the outcome of their labors but are assured that as these young people grow they will be guided by God’s hand.  As the Sins...