Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I believe we've been living a COVID Lent for over a year and counting.   Locked down. Restricted. Masked, and socially distant.   After some thought, I realized, we are much like my hardy garden veggies.  Transplanted from garden to pot. Placed in a greenhouse and covered in a mask of cloth.  The subzero temperatures like Covid threaten.  However all they request is to be watered!   Lent is about greening, being watered, replenished. This Lent let's treat ourselves to a good watering. Yes TREAT ourselves. Turning ourselves inside out, to expose our Winter/ Lenten growth. Will Community, friends, church, world see our greening and be changed by our example?   We, like my veggies, are all Covid transplants. Don't forget to water. Treat yourself. Our growth is already visible!   Caroline Sullivan, OP DePere, WI

Recently I was watching  Amanpour & Company  on PBS as Andy Slavitt talked about Covid-19 and the impact of wearing masks. He believes that if 80%-90% of people wore masks consistently, the virus would almost disappear. When he was asked why wearing masks is such a problem for people in the U.S., he said that because there is such a deep cultural value placed on individual liberties, many don’t want their lives to be inconvenienced on behalf of other people. To explore this idea further, he suggested making 2 lists: One with words such as individualism, entrepreneurship, great wealth; and the other, with things such as society, community, equality. He speculated that countries described by the 2 nd  list will have fewer Covid cases because they are willing to wear masks out of concern for others. He mentioned Japan and several African countries as examples. This was a new moment of clarity for me. It is straight up evil that the value we place on individual liberties ...

These days we see a lot of people wearing masks or, as we say, face coverings. I am intrigued by the variety of designs I see. They seem to come in all shapes and sizes, just like the people themselves. I’m also noticing that sometimes I don’t recognize the face behind the mask. That can be embarrassing. All I see are the eyes peering out from under the fabric. This experience reminds me of how much we human beings count on our eyes to communicate with each other. I see laughing eyes and sad eyes and curious eyes and blank stares. Did you ever notice how you can tell just by their eyes that a person is smiling? Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:22 that “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “Shakespeare went on from there to describe eyes as “the windows of the soul.” What’s behind your wind...