Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Reading the title for my blog offering may have you wondering…”What??!!”  If you were ever captured by a photograph that gave you ‘pause,’ took your breath away or taught you something about the world beyond your known concepts – then this title just might capture your imagination. I am taking a digital camera class this Fall.  I have a good SLR that is a few years old but I don’t make use of all the features, so now I am re/learning. Because of the assignments, I am purposefully noticing the world around me, taking all kinds of photos and not worrying about ‘good’ or ‘bad’ shots. And I am finding it a spiritual as well as a practical experience.  I am stopping myself from rushing.  I am noticing color, light and shape.  I’m looking at the world large – and – the world small.  I am taking time reviewing the photos – deciding what to bring to class.  And I am making ‘friends’ with the camera! What might be activities in your life...

We live in a postmodern world where we often hear the lament of people claiming to be “spiritual, but not religious.”  I have often asked myself what they mean by this.  I now understand that this may mean that they probably believe in a supreme being, but they do not believe in institutional religion or they have been disappointed, hurt or embarrassed by a particular institutional religion. To say that I have been disappointed, hurt or embarrassed by institutional religion would be an understatement.  I have felt all these things and more at various occasions in my life, both before and after I entered religious life.  What makes me remain part of institutional religion and not choose something else is because I believe in a Trinitarian God, which is to say I believe in a relational God.  I also believe in a God who sent God’s Son for sinners and a church that is made up of sinners. As Sinsinawa Dominicans we believe, “At the heart of minist...