Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

When I was a sophomore in high school a sister invited me for a walk, and we sat down together at a shrine of the Sacred Heart. She began to talk about her relationship with Jesus and shared her deep faith with me. Later she continued to invite me for more walks and her sharing encouraged me to want to know Jesus as a person in my life. This eventually opened me to the desire to become a religious and give my life to God.     Helen Marie Raycraft , OP

Recent Scripture readings have alluded to Jesus’ intensity and how he excited and sometimes rankled people. His notoriety had a worrisome effect on his family. Recall last Saturday’s gospel:    “Jesus came with his disciples into the house. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’ “(Mark 2:20-21)   This kind of effect on one’s family is not foreign to us. We know the topics that are likely to raise the temperature in the room when someone brings up a political or religious opinion that is not universally shared. We have experienced how it sets teeth on edge and changes the mood. With a little luck, someone redirects the conversation and normalcy returns. But we learn the perils of being the perpetrator of such a scene.   How can we have meaningful conversations with our families and others without causing a meltdown? We have just lived throu...