Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

My journey started with a determination to respond to God’s call. I would follow the steps and see if doors would open to a Black woman requesting membership. I would follow all the steps and if the doors did not open, I could say with a clean heart, God I tried. I requested to experience living in “community” that was granted. I lived a semester with sisters and experienced their prayer life, daily routines, celebrations, house meetings, ministries, and concerns. We became family together.     When I asked to start the entrance process the answer was yes and the rest is history.   There is not only room for sisters of color, but also a need for representation of sisters of color in religious life.   Pat Rogers, OP Glendale, WI

Rest easy, friend. (Tanya and Dillon at Camp We-Ha-Kee)   Today is Sunday. Morning routine: woke early, made coffee, took a shower, and settled into my prayer corner, ready to enter into contemplative silence. God had other ideas regarding structure. I was sad, missing my Dominican  sister and friend, Tanya Williams, who had herself settled into God’s loving , eternal embrace just a few short days ago. Tanya was so vibrant, so full of life, her personality and integrity so large, that her absence feels both surreal and impossible. So, rather than contemplative silence, I opened my computer to email correspondence to/from Tanya that began in April, 2011 when I was discerning a call to religious life. Tanya quickly became a friend who was willing, even eager, to explore with me  matters of faith and justice and ‘late r- life’ transformation and call . Her email are full of wisdom and wit and perspectives that challenge me even to this day. They also reflect p...