Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Our act of perpetual profession of vows, made to God, to our prioress and her successors, ends with the words, “even unto death”. We make profession publicly. By the same token, we live publicly – regardless of our particular ministry, our age, or our time in the congregation. We are called to live our vows in the daily-ness of life – even unto death. Recently, one of our dear 60 th  Jubilarians at St. Elizabeth Manor – Sr. Mary Louis “Louie” Russley, died a mere days after her Diamond Jubilee. Louie was a quiet, steady spark in our community at the end of her life, just as she was a force in education, science and law earlier in her life. Despite a decline in memory, Louie engaged everyone, was kind to everyone, daily marveled at the awesomeness of Creation, and loved unconditionally. It was our privilege to know her and to witness how she lived her vows, even unto death and into the arms of Mystery.  

For the last several years, (since I began getting old) I have been enrolled in a continuing education program for seniors, sponsored by the University of South Alabama. I have enjoyed classes in Art History, Music History, and History. In addition to classes in genealogy, birding, and local aquatic life, my favorites are often those classes centered on poetry and fiction. This quarter I’m taking a class on the Southern Gothic writer, Flannery O’Conner. I love her. Her works and books about her take up an inordinate amount of space on my bookshelves. So you might imagine that I looked forward to enjoying a chance to delve deeper with other Flannery fans. The professor, an Episcopalian priest, and I seem to be about the only people in the class who really appreciate her writing.  I’ve figured out that one of the stumbling blocks is a lack of understanding of the concepts of Grace and living out what we call a Sacramental Life. Those two elements live at the heart of my life...