Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

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...

Settling-in can be an unsettling process.  Three weeks into a new ministry, a new community and living in an unfamiliar city, I’m far from feeling grounded.  I’m still trying to establish my routines, navigate interpersonal dynamics and negotiate the ins-and-outs of everyday life.  Big, new beginnings like these can be bittersweet reminders of how I remain a deeply flawed and insecure person.  There’s no lens like major life change or being unsettled to clearly view my fears, my sense of entitlement, and my need for control—this is the gift of itinerancy. Nevertheless, I sense a calmness and confidence settling-in.  I’m finally finding the time to take a breath and appreciate all the potential that this newness has to offer.  Moments like these are the closest we come to having a clean-slate—and they become what we allow them to become.   A supportive, justice-minded community, a life-giving ministry with solid, competent colleagues, a monu...

That was the big Spring announcement when, as kids, we found the Burpee Seed Catalog in our rural mailbox at the end of winter.   Eager for anything colorful, we poured over those pages - fodder for dreams of garden flowers and foods, for new life and the promise of a new season.   Now, hovering in mid-Lent, my dry soul/garden needs a version of the Burpee Catalog and I realize I have one, we all do   – it’s called the Gospel.   But unlike a package from the seed catalog, we don’t have to wait for it to arrive, we don’t have to be in the best possible condition to plant or harvest.   Because our God doesn’t work that way;     God’s mercy and grace abound even when we feel like we’re in a perpetual February or snowy March.   Gardens of every kind appear everywhere in scripture and the Holy is found there in all times and all seasons.   Take the time to ponder, sit with, and image these words of Catherine of Siena for your...

Advent is always a special time for me. The spirit of this season, expressed through the scriptures, deepens my sense of hope and living fully the present moment. For about a year now I have been practicing mindfulness. For me Advent is a call to live mindfully as we are encouraged to “Wake up!” It is a time of hopeful waiting. This past Wednesday, I received a call from my brother that Dad was not doing well. I live in the Chicago area and Dad lives in the Minneapolis area.  Dad is 98 and living in assisted living with Hospice care. Naturally, I thought this was his special time for passing into life after life to join Mom and three of my siblings and many other loved ones. That night I had a dream that had a significant message. In the dream I remember singing “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has ready for those who love him.” When I awoke the message in my heart was “Dad is experiencing a very important waiting and we cannot even imagine how magnificent i...