Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I’m someone who loves autumn, who revels in cool temperatures and “jeans and sweater weather,” who savors the deep blue of an October sky and colors of leaves in the changing light of shortening days.  I love autumn because it signals change, and I believe that we need change.   Whether we want to admit it or not, we grow because of change.   Change challenges us, whether it’s colder weather or a new idea.   As autumn changes give us diversity of colors, the gift of ephemeral beauty, so the changes we experience give us opportunities to rethink, re-evaluate,   re-wonder. Life lived in community, with women of shared values but diverse opinions, with those of shared faith but diverse insights, is life lived in the paradox of “stable changes.”     From the thermostat setting to what’s for dinner, to quirky senses of humor and musical tastes, the differences are always there, but layered through all that diversity are the deepest realities...

I have been on a diet, some diet, any diet, for most of my adult life – always looking for that elusive hopefully painless way to get rid of my excess fat!  I know there is no such magic, despite the ads and the TV shows and the before and after pictures in magazines that always catch my eye.  It is a task I simply must take on, by myself, with discipline and courage and a willingness to forgive when I fail.  I need to know what I truly hunger for – and devote myself to searching for that instead of “all the things that fail to satisfy.” Living in community, in religious life, in any life, requires the same discipline.   Think of it as a kind of diet – of trying to eliminate the junk, of breaking free of what is unhealthy in my spirit, my life, my relationships, of giving the time and attention to the Source of Life; to feed my deepest hunger – to know God, to know and to search for God together with good companions.   For what are yo...