Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

The Community's Cup is overflowing with Divine Cosmic Presence! You and I, along with all life, are privileged to sit and sip together around its rim.   Hand-picked leaves of compassionate love, forgiveness and inclusion have been seeped together to create this brew.   Really smell life's aromas.   Feel their textures. Taste their flavors. See similarities and differences in this ONE Cosmic Cup of Tea.   Eighty-five of us from twelve different countries (Nigeria, Spain, Philippines, Canada, Jamaica, Kenya, USA, Iraq, Lebanon, Belgium, England, Australia) attended an English boarding school, in Southern England. We slept, played, prayed, talked and ate together.   When Tea Time came around, each of us excitedly brought out our prized treat packages received from home to share at table.   As Sinsinawa Dominicans I believe we live on the rim of this Cosmic Cup, looking outward and looking inward. Grounded in Contemplative Wholeness. I personally imagine the Co...

One would think that this extended time of sheltering in place might teach me more about patience. However, I am finding that once again my garden is teaching me about taking time. One instance of this was planting my cucumber seedlings outside too early. I was so eager to get parts of my garden in that I placed my light-grown cucumbers in the soil before they were strong enough to deal with the outdoors. Hmmm…back to planting more cucumbers beneath my grow light. I have begun to see this grow light to be like grace in my life. Aren’t we all invited to settle in and let the Light of God’s time nurture us and invite us to grow stronger in love, patience, listening? I have also discovered another value of God’s Grow Light. Rather than chide myself about my impatience, I was able to grin and know I can keep on learning and rest assured that God’s Grow Light is ever with me.   What teaches you about gently watching your patience and presence grow? What do you know about God’s Grow Ligh...

My Aunt in England  was a little deaf, and my American accent didn't  help. On one of my visits home I was talking to her about God. "God who?" she queried. I said:" You know, Gawd."   "Oh Gawd, YES!",   Another time a little girl was busy coloring her paper, filling it in with her yellow crayon. Her wise teacher asked: "tell me about your picture." Looking up with amazement, she said: "This is God!"   For me today, The Divine Heart beats in all that was, is, and will be in the Cosmic Universe.    For you today, what color, texture, taste, smell, sound and or name have you grown to experience for "God Who?"    Until next time, let's breathe LOVE together,   Caroline Sullivan, OP DePere, WI

Valentine’s Day! This annual feast seems to hold a lot of meaning for many people. For some it is a joyful reminder that they are loved by someone special. For others it is a sad realization that they are alone in this world. It reminds me of the little game we play picking off the petals of a daisy one by one: “s/he loves me…s/he loves me not…” Let’s face it: we all want to be loved by someone special and most of us need to be reassured about that from time to time. The fact is, that we are loved and we don’t need to play games to find that out. One of my favorite verses in Scripture is from Jeremiah: “I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have called you and you are mine.” (Jer 31:3) Let us each take some time on Valentine’s Day to reflect on that promise and to hold those tender words close to our hearts.     Mary Ellen Green, OP Woodruff, WI

It was an ordinary event, a village wedding, one where everyone knew everyone else and no one expected any surprises, just a good time and some decent wine.  Except that wedding at Cana, told by the writer of John’s gospel, was far from ordinary, for Mary, for Jesus, for the wine steward, for the happy couple who pleased their guests beyond expectation – and for us.  Although we call this liturgical season “Ordinary Time” do we need to adjust our vision, our thinking, our attitude to see   beyond   what is right in front of us, to see   into   what is right in front of us, to see with the heart? Can our faith help our vision not to be completely obscured by covid exhaustion, mask frustration, absent friends and family, economic struggle – the list could go on and on.  Mary says to the steward, “Do whatever he tells you.”  We must interpret that line, that mandate, for ourselves, in our ordinary events, our time.  Love, patience, risk taking, ...

  “Whatsoever you do to the lest of these you have done to me.” Matt. 35 “Yours are the hands through which Christ blesses all the world. ...Christ has no body now on earth but yours.” Teresa of Avila I have tried to live out my religious life following these two quotes, realizing they are addressed to lay folks as well. In 100 years from now, I hope people will remember the Sinsinawa Dominicans for doing this, responding to the needs of the day with courage and love, strengthened by living the 4 pillars of the Dominican order (prayer, study, community and mission) and knowing that we have each other's back. Stella Storch, OP

Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me…”   Mk 9:36-37a Sunday’s gospel brings to mind a teaching memory from years ago.  Kenny was in my 4 th  grade once a week art class and he was, to put it mildly, a handful.  He was hyper, always moving, unable to focus – his classroom teacher couldn’t wait to send him to the art room. Although so exasperating he created some great artwork, and I displayed a drawing of his for the fall Open House knowing he would not have any other papers posted with wonderful comments or good grades.  Greeting parents and students that night saw I saw Kenny with an older man, gray haired, wearing bib overalls. I pointed to Kenny’s drawing and said to him, “Did you see Kenny’s picture?”  The man looked up at it with a huge smile and then putting his arms around this youngster looked up at me and said, ...

By now we are used to signs outside of hospitals and skilled care facilities that state “Heroes Work Here” (and they do).  But as these weeks of Advent have gone by and we have experienced losses, deeper worries, greater anxiety about an unknown future, I think we need to put that sign on our own hearts, on our front doors, on our bathroom mirrors.  To me a hero is a person who exhibits courage without first weighing the cost.  A hero takes a leap of faith and turns it into a tumbling routine of courage plus faith plus love.  Isn’t that what we are all trying to do every day so that the Word of God can be born anew into our world?  So that the Word of God can be born within each of us, and so dwell within us, and help our ordinary lives always proclaim the extraordinary mercy of God?  Let us pray for the courage to give life to that Word, to be midwives of hope and deep peace. Priscilla Wood, OP Dubuque, IA 

I am a star gazer.  There is nothing more stirring than the summer night sky full of stars.   I relish in those rare opportunities offered to see the sky without artificial light.  Peering into the night’s sky, I am moved to wonder.   As Dominicans, God’s creation, at any time of year, calls us to reflect upon our vision.  How wide is my own understanding of God?   The American theologian, Ilia Delio, asked in her book,  Emergent Christ (2011) , “How deep is the divine mystery for us? (138)  Am I open to the interrelatedness creation invites?  Being willing to participate in the furthering of truth, beauty, and goodness, is co-creating with God.  Even in the midst of a pandemic, when we are locked down and missing so much, each day offers us a number of opportunities to share in and spread the generous giftedness through which all flourishes and grows.  We can actually turn ...

In my last blog, March 15, I wrote about my passion for being a life-long learner. Then my learning experience took a sharp curve with two pandemics—the corona virus and the 400 year deadly racism virus. The blatant killing of Mr. George Floyd on May 25, 2020 set the world on fire. We cannot and must not ignore the urgent cry for justice. Learning, for me, now focuses intensely on this deadly racism virus. Over the past two weeks our sisters shared articles, videos, took part in teach-ins and dialogs about “Where do we go from here?” (Oprah’s question).  Our congregation made a public statement expressing our outrage, sympathy, and solidarity with people of color. We stand on the side of justice for all. On June 8 th  Joan Duerst, OP wrote in her blog about ways she has engaged in action for justice now. Our congregation’s commitment to being anti-racist and multicultural has reignited our resolve. Learning is not always enjoyable. Bryan Massingale, SJ has put a “fi...

There she was On the ground Hurt Frightened Vulnerable. I took her in my hands She clung to my finger Breathing, resting. There I was Talking to her Stroking her breast, her back Feeling her wings. Are you hurt? How can I help? Silence Presence Ministering Being ministered to. Connection Compassion Love. A while passed. In humble adoration. Then she turned her head Looked me straight in the eye And flew away. A bird in the hand… A word of God. Broken, Spoken, Received. With Gratitude. “This is  the season for letting our prayer be inspired anew  by closeness to nature, which spontaneously leads us to give thanks to God the Creator. Saint Bonaventure, that eloquent witness to Franciscan wisdom, said that creation is the first “book” that God opens before our eyes, so that, marveling at its order, its variety and its beauty, we can come to love and praise its Creator (cf.  Breviloquium , II, 5, ...

Do you ever have a moment of ‘communion’ that you know you must take notice of?  It is not quite an ‘ahaa’ moment.  Rather it is a sort of soul-stirring that can make one ponderous, curious, scratching one’s head and insistently aware. Easter Wednesday I kept thinking about my friend ‘Pam’.  She was a thousand or so miles away from me.  She lived with a debilitating and life-threatening disease. It was no longer easy for her to talk on the phone.  So occasionally I would send her a phone text.  Easter Wednesday morning I sent her a text writing ‘a gentle hug and my love. . .no need to reply’.  The very next day I learned that she had requested an ambulance ride from the hospital back to our Motherhouse.  Once ‘home’ Pam quickly and quietly breathed her last. What I failed to recognize is that Pam had in fact ‘initiated the contact', this communion.  It was her life-loving spirit who had...

Every Saturday when I arrive at my first communion class, this little girl runs to the car and presents me with a little note.   I smile every time.  More often than not she gives me an idea for a future lesson!  But I am also deeply touched that she takes the time to write the note, decorate it and give it to me.   So, before I begin the lesson, I sit and converse with her and the others about their lives, how their week was for them, their joys and sorrows, in their families and at school.   It is my hope that taking the time to cultivate real relationships with these kids, and to encourage them in their little acts of kindness and love is providing a model for them to value and cultivate other relationships in a world where, as Pope Francis has indicated, people have become so increasingly connected by the media, yet at the same time confess to becoming so increasingly isolated.   What drives you more in ministry, completing the task or cu...

I love Summer not for the usual reasons we hear proclaimed, but because that is the season of many celebrations of who we are as Dominicans of Sinsinawa: Community Days, Jubilees, Receptions, and Professions.  Community Days is a time we come together as a community to pray, study, plan for the future of our Congregation, and re-connect with one another. This past weekend after having said “goodbye” to the sister friends who live far away from the motherhouse where I am in ministry, as I was sorting through papers that had accumulated in my book bag, I came across a reflection I had composed 9 years ago in preparation for Final Profession.  Quite frankly, I was “blown away” by what I had written.   The Spirit had certainly been with me during the creation of that document.  Among the many thoughts I found in the reflection was a question one of the sisters in my discernment circle had asked me, “What did you learn through your experience of liv...

I recently read a reflection that has really impacted my thinking, attitude, and prayer.  The author Fr. Herbert McCabe, an English Dominican theologian and philosopher, wrote “What matters first is that we are loved.  We matter, not first because of what we have made of ourselves, but because of what God has made of us.  To serve God is to … begin to love ourselves as God loves us: not for being rich or clever or powerful, but just for being ourselves.” This week promises to be a very busy one that could, in fact, be stressful.   What will be needed from all of us is compassion for ourselves and each other as we move through the activities of the week.   I don’t know about you, but when life happens and things don’t go as I thought they would, I tend to “stress” rather than remembering perfection doesn’t matter.   What does matter is that we are loved no matter what happens in life.   So let’s make a pact today and tomorrow to be gentle with o...

Easter is such a tender day.  Children remember the eggs and chocolate bunnies, but as we mature we learn that Easter begins with remembering death and suffering before we remember forgiveness, mercy, new life and love. Today I am remembering my Polish Grandma, Magdalene. Who came to the US with adopted parents, her own parents having died in a flu epidemic.   Sometimes I would sit with her for afternoon coffee.   Of course, we always had a cookie or a piece of cake to share as well.   She taught the art of welcoming.   “It doesn’t matter what you have, always treat the visitor with kindness.   If all you have to offer is a piece of bread and a cup of coffee, offer that,” she would say. Our community has been so blessed to welcome to our house, not far from where Grandma and I shared coffee—people from China, Peru, and Colombia, --people of Lakota, Navaho, and Mohican nations, people who are African American, Turkish, and of course people like ours...

Attending Taize Prayer on January 1, 2018 If you live in the Northern Hemisphere and anywhere in the Midwest, this has been a very cold winter.  Cold is good for lots of reasons.  Our Earth needs the cold of winter.  And, as Dominicans, it is our calling to bring love and joy and hope to cold places.   Here are just a few ways I have experienced the warmth of my Dominican Sisters during this chilly winter season: Early morning cups of coffee with my Crowd (that is nun language for another sister who entered the same year you did) Phone calls in which other Sisters and I have shared our hearts and souls Trips to the gym Being welcomed home A FB message inviting me to more communication An invitation to Taize Prayer Warm hugs Sharing dessert Fun notes in the mail Sharing clothes New Year’s Eve Prayers together Phone calls What about you?    Where are you finding love and joy and hope in this season? Peggy R...