Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

When I entered the Novitiate, conformity, uniformity were the themes of the day. No casting of the eyes. Hands under scapula. Little sleeves had only one purpose, not to be used for dusting pianos! Particular friendships were frowned upon. It was 1902, no, 1964.   The rolly polly pope, John XXIII, had just opened the doors of the church to experimentation and ecumenism. What a breath of fresh air it was for many of us.    Time has changed us. Seasons have nurtured our vision to embrace a global world deepening Cosmically our Contemplative spirituality.   Our soul's field has and is being tilled and composted by pandemics of every sort. Sexism, racism, inequality, politics, lies, cover ups, climate change, division and abuse rage while the Institutional Church remains almost mute.   As Sinsinawa Dominicans, we have taken visual and active stances against these wildfires of rage and displaced power.   Now it is time for harvesting. Just as Vatican II opened d...

I learned to value and appreciate the liturgical year when I first entered the convent.     Those early days of training focused a lot on the liturgical seasons. We steeped ourselves in the Scriptural readings of the day   and seasonal music.     It was there I identified the grace of longing.     Ahh, I thought. I am an Advent woman.     Longing and waiting have been a key faith identifier within me to this day. Whatever does that have to do with this Christmastide?  Again, in the Novitiate years, I came across a great spiritual writer:  Rainer Maria Rilke and his ‘Letter to a Young Man.’  I have leaned into this quote of his for decades now.   “. .   celebrate Christmas  in this  devout  feeling, that perhaps God  needs  this very anguish of yours in order to begin, . . .  It has not always been ‘anguish’.  Though this year there has been ple...

Ever have one of those…days, weeks, months...fill in the blank?   Speaking of blanks, my mind is just that.   Blank.   Nothing.   Nada.   What?   Well, just because a woman is in a religious order doesn’t mean she has it all together all of the time!   What have I been doing? How has life been going in Spokane in Novitiate Year Two? There’s too much to write about. Remember when as a kid you would take a stack of index cards, draw a different picture at the bottom of each, and then flip through them quickly … making the cards look like a moving picture?   Sure you do.   Well, here’s my Novitiate ~ Part II in a stack of cards with words; close your eyes and use your imagination.   On second thought, open them or you won’t be able to read this. Spokane, laser tag (yep!), granola, sadness, gladness, community, St. Anne’s, working together, the Hearth, children, laughing, crying, homesick, praying, New Leaf, Gonzaga, Service Learning, p...

A year ago, shortly after beginning my itinerant Dominican journey, I ran across a passage from Ephesians about being rooted and grounded in love, and wrote a post about it. Two weeks ago I moved again, this time to the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate in St. Louis.   This year I join two novices and two co-directors from other Dominican congregations across the country.   At our opening prayer ritual, my ears perked up as I once again heard the words being read: “May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love…” What timing, to hear these words almost exactly one year later!   Kelly, Chuc, and I (the 2014-2015 novices) mingled soil from our various motherhouse grounds and planted small succulents that we’ll keep in our chapel throughout the year.   They will be reminders of our own growth, nurtured by soil from the holy places we’ve begun to call home. As we begin our novitiate journey, I’m glad that little ...

This weekend our novice, Sr. Kathy Flynn, joined 4 other novices to begin 10 months of their canonical novitiate at the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate (CDN). Each year a new group of novices comes together to create its own unique experience of community with fresh spirit, abundant gifts, and eagerness to grow in the Dominican tradition.  This group has already begun! The CDN provides a quality experience of Dominican community life, prayer, study, ministry, exposure to and practice of preaching skills, and personal growth for the novices of the member groups. The process of this collaborative experience is intended to: offer a rich novitiate experience, encourage a supportive peer group, share the giftedness and resources of the congregations involved, and promote the charism of the Order.  Like any new beginning this one requires a leap of faith for this is no ordinary year.  It’s a transformational time of opening oneself and learning about God, ...

Last Fall I moved to St. Louis to complete part of my Canonical Novitiate year and amazingly, my ten month stay is coming to a close this week. I have been immersed in Dominican Spirituality and Life. I learned from amazing presenters (Ron Rolheiser, Tony Gittens, and Addie Lorraine Walker to name a few) with a number of men and women novices with whom I shared my questions and insights. Within my local community, I shared the journey with two women also entering the Dominican Family and two seasoned Dominicans guiding us on our way. From stories I heard, I gathered the novitiate would be a time unlike any other. Well, it has been. I have grown in my understanding of community and how it can be both joy-filled and difficult in the same day. I was shown behaviors and ideas from my childhood that don’t serve me any more. I better appreciate prolonged silence and days away to reflect and re-ground. I made connections with more Dominican Sisters and Brothers than I can coun...