Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

At this moment, I am joyfully looking forward to a week of vacation with my youngest sister.     I live in Wisconsin and she in Florida.     Though we are 6 years apart in age and have very different personalities, we have come to be each other’s best supporter.     She called me last night to ask a couple of questions that could easily have been answered when I arrived, but I think she, like me, just wanted to connect in anticipation of my arrival.     Though she as hostess looks for a “fun” event or two in her geographical area during our visit, mostly we just enjoy being with each other - sharing stories, teasing each other, offering support to each other through life’s challenges, and laughing a lot.  We have come to respect and honor our unique personalities and life choices.     My relationship with my biological sisters (there were 5 of us growing up together) has prepared me well for being sister with my nearly 300...

My life at the Mound and Villa is unique. Each day is different and yet meals and prayers are regulars that everything revolves around. Every night I connect with my two sisters on a 3-way call. We each share about our day. My sister Elaine says to me, “You are getting older yet your life seems to be fuller. Shouldn’t you be getting ready to retire?” They both comment about all my social “engagements.” Before I came here I knew that my life would be different, however I didn’t realize the many blessings I would experience each day. The Isaiah readings during this season of advent have new meaning for me here. On this “holy mountain” we call the “Mound” I know a peace-able kingdom.   Our co-workers and sisters are often reaching out to each other, offering support and wisdom, prayers and affection. We had an opportunity to come together for a retreat day during which Ann Willets invited us to reflect on the Mound-Villa community as an “Advent Village.” The sharing revealed ...

I love Celebrations!!  Who doesn’t?  Last week was a week of celebrations.  My sisters and I gathered at my youngest sister’s (Janet) home.  It was Sister’s Week, a yearly event during which the five of us celebrate being sister to one another.  While there, we hosted a baby shower for Janet’s daughter-in-law and newest grandchild, a little boy much anticipated and longed for after Ami’s 3 miscarriages.  The new baby has an older brother who is 16.  What a change and celebration for that family! We also celebrated Janet’s birthday by participating in a murder mystery train ride.   Between courses of a five-course dinner, actors did scenes from a murder mystery play in each of the dining cars.   It was up to the train riders to guess the murderer and the motive.   We shared in the meal, delightful conversation, and of course, speculations regarding “who done it.”   None of us made the correct deduction, but we celebrated well....

I find appalling the verbal raw sewage I hear thrown about in the public sector, but that’s another topic.  When I was in grad school at Iowa, I was fascinated by what others called me.  I told everyone to call me Win.  I try to avoid Winnie because, though I can claim other positive attributes, neither “little” or “cute” have been apropos since I was six.  Some fellow grads and my students did call me Win.  A few always called me “Sister.”   A few others called me “Winifred.”   I figured their choices reflected the degree of formality they felt toward me.  You can hear their ingrained Southern training in the voices of people whose grandmothers never let them address ANY adult by anything other than “mam” or “sir.”  Mom, Dad, Momma or Daddy, are usually terms of endearment carrying lifetimes of love.  I’m a bit embarrassed when my ESL student addresses me almost reverentially as “Teacher.” I know at least a couple Sisters who...

I just got back from a regional meeting in Orlando.  Twice a year in various parts of the country, our sisters and associates gather for what we call regionals. These are times when we come together for pray, conversation, congregation business, and relaxation together.   This fall our regionals are focused on preparing for our Chapter, which is a meeting that happens every five years, where we make decisions together, set a direction for ourselves and elect new leaders.   So, while there is usually business to be done and we to do that, for me, it's connecting with my sisters and the associates that feeds my soul. I love being part of this group, Dominican sisters and associates of Sinsinawa, whose focus is on mission.   These days there's a lot of chaos as we move into an unknown future.   We don't all agree on where and how we want to go, yet we listen to one another and work toward a decision that we all can live with.   And what I always know is t...

I spent this summer in Wisconsin at my motherhouse, not something I had planned on. To my surprise it turned out to be a summer embodying the many stages of religious life. We had celebrations of new novices, a Sister making first Vows, a Sister making perpetual Vows, a Sister completing her degree, 50 th Jubilees, and funerals.    I reconnected with Sisters and connected with “New Sisters” whom I didn’t know because they were out in mission.   I was given the gift to be fully present as Sister to my Sisters in assisted living.    I also met new lay people journeying with us in mission.   It turned out to be a summer of “unexpected gifts.”   What was an unexpected gift or surprise for you this summer? Priscilla Torres, OP

One of the challenges of our American culture is sustaining attention to what is slow moving or thinking something is over when it has only begun.   The Easter Season is one of those times in our liturgical church calendar that is hardly noticed by most of us. There is Easter Sunday – with all the trimmings – whatever that may mean for parish communities, families, vowed religious, etc.   But once the sun sets on that Sunday, am I – are we – noticing the season we are in? It is during the Easter Season we hear readings from the Acts of the Apostles – considered part 2 of St Luke’s writings.   I appreciate this New Testament book because it is the story of us – of our beginning as church. Even so, I need more than this one book of scripture to keep me focused and all the unfolding of this season.   In some of the eastern Christian churches people greet one another with this exchange:   “Christ is Risen” with the response: “He is Risen indeed.”   While...