Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

As Dominican women, we are called to be aware of the signs of the times.  These signs are meant to open us up to where God is present.  We listen and look.  We study and ask questions.  We pray and reflect.  If we are open, these signs of the times can be found anywhere.  For me, God’s creation, such as our Holy Family Food Pantry community garden, is one such place.     Our community garden, which occupies a corner lot, is surrounded by tagged buildings and pot-holed streets.   The garden brings together families of all shapes and sizes, as well as master gardeners and community workers throughout the summer months.     We are filled with communal wonder as we marvel at God’s creation unfolding before us.   Our senses are bursting with a beauty beyond compare.      In these past few months, the signs of the times have come in unexpected events that shatter our most basic beliefs.   There is no...

For I know the plans I have in mind for you; plans for your welfare and not for woe, so as to give you a future full of hope (Jeremiah 29:11) We are in the midst of our congregation’s 24 th General Chapter, my first.  As un-Dominican as this may seem, I find myself in a space where the events of the world, while so present to me and to all of us in both our conversation and our prayer, almost seem suspended. I am finding Chapter to be an immersion experience. While in session, General Chapter is our highest governing authority, making decisions affecting the entire congregation and electing the prioress and congregational council.   Its purpose is to protect the patrimony of the congregation, understood not as money, but as the intentions of our Founder - that which we most treasure.   I love that we are being asked to look to both our Dominican identity and our Sinsinawa Dominican identity to root us in the work we are being called to do. So far, I am f...

This past week the RFM team brought together the new members for a series of activities and chats around congregational history and finance.  We did a lot of reading about the historical context and origin of the Sinsinawas Dominicans and visited several sites of Fr. Mazzuchelli’s footprint in the area.  Various groups of sisters graciously shared their experiences of the more recent history of the congregation and the different challenges that emerged.  There was also a session with our Treasurer to discuss how we live the vow of poverty and how the congregation as a whole manages its resources.  In Sister Mary Ellen Butcher’s remembrance she describes our kind of common life as one of “high-risk living” in which we lose control and “do not feather our own nest”.  What a wonderful and true depiction of what I’ve seen in all the sisters I know. The past couple of days I've been pondering it all and questioning what it means moving forward.   I've ...

In a recent blog, Christin Tomy asked,” How has Providence pulled through for you?” And so here is my answer. My 5 th and 6 th grade teacher, Loretta Dornisch OP died recently.     She is the one who helped me to see that God was calling me to be a Dominican.   This was one funeral I would not miss. When I went to take my place in the gathering space at the Mound for the funeral, I looked up and saw someone who has created conflict in a group that is very dear to me.   I practically ran to greet him. “Welcome to my house,” I said.” How did you know Loretta?”   “She is the one who helped me to see that God was calling me to be a minister.   I could not miss this funeral.” WOW!   Coincidence? I had wanted to share my concerns about our organization with him.    Providence can provide.   Since this was his first time at the Mound I offered to show him the chapel.   We had space and time to talk.   Providence did pro...

Our congregation is fond of the saying: “Providence can provide, Providence did provide, Providence will provide.” Recently I came to appreciate this saying in an unexpected way, when a group of other young sisters and I participated in a half marathon.   Although we prepared together by designing t-shirts for our “nun run” (Team 13.nun… get it??) and having a pasta party the night before, we were all planning to run at different paces.   I had never run a half marathon without a buddy before and wasn’t thrilled about running alone. As I found my place in the starting corral on race morning, I heard someone call my name.   I turned around to see a guy I had met almost five years ago at an orientation for our international volunteer programs.   We had spent two weeks together and gone off to our respective countries of service and hadn’t seen each other since. “So, what are you up to these days?” I asked him.   “I’m a Jesuit now,” he said.   “Ho...