Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

What do you do when you have so much to do and so little time? Often I begin to “burn the candle at both ends.” This is dangerous. I chip away some of my prayer time in the morning and stay up late to do one more thing. Result? I’m exhausted and overwhelmed. This is when burnout can happen.   In times of this kind of stress I “stop” and pay attention as I ask myself: What do I need right now? What I needed was already on my schedule for today—a spiritual guidance session. But did I have time for that now?   Thank God I decided to save time and met via ZOOM rather that traveling to meet with her in person. As I shared what was going on for me and how I was feeling she listened compassionately, asked a few questions, and soon I was able see my way and found inner peace, no longer overwhelmed.    When you are overwhelmed do you have a “go-to” person to help you navigate and refocus? What a difference it makes.   Mary Therese Johnson, OP Pastoral Minister at Sinsina...

At the beginning of 2021 unlike other years, I did not bother to make any resolutions.  As I thought that my main goal this year was ‘operation surviving COVID-19.’  My thinking at the time was what is the point of resolutions or goals in a time of COVID-19.  I must say that this way of thinking has changed for me as I have come to make some semblance of peace with the fact that COVID-19 will be here for at least the rest of this year or more.  Does that mean that I put my life on hold and not work on the areas I need to grow in and not to set the goals that I need to achieve?  Well of course not!   COVID-19 to me has been the great eye opener.  It has helped underlined to me the importance of relationships, the importance of something as big or small as a touch or a hug.  I am a hugger.  I can hug strangers and it is not a problem.  I miss hugging.  Unfortunately for me and other li...

I could never have imagined back in March that here, in August, we would still be sheltering from the virus. A necessity to protect each other.  It has changed how I register time. I used to look at my calendar for the whole week or month. Now I am much more cognizant of each separate day. I am aware of the blessing of life anew each morning-of the challenge to do my best each day - to love in the light of the Gospel and when I fail I ask forgiveness and start afresh with the morning light. FaceTime and Zoom have become necessities, as we stay connected while physically distancing.  The sisters I live within our complex meet formally twice a week on zoom to pray and connect. And right now our annual gathering of the Congregation is being conducted via Zoom.  Not what any of us would have wanted, as we yearn to gather, to greet each other in person. But for now - the little mosaic of zoom squares allows us to see and hear, conne...

Time is a funny thing. They say that the best hitters in professional baseball (GO CUBS!) can actually see the seams of the ball as it hurtles toward them at 80, 90, even 100 miles per hour. For the batter, time – in space – almost stands still. At that very same instant, however, what is happening in the stands, the parking lot, in the city, state, country, and world is often going by in a blur. Time moves at warp-speed for some while creeping for others. The paradox of time is that it is both shared universally yet is particular to individual lives and circumstance. While we are all experiencing a time of pandemic, we are not all experiencing it in the same way. Often, those who are hungry, homeless, lonely, and despairing – those on the very margins of society - find the concept of time almost meaningless because they do not have the luxury of hoping or dreaming or thinking of a space in time beyond the moment in which they find themselves often struggling for survival.  ...

I was away over the Christmas and just came back late on Sunday. One of the first things I did was to turn the page of my calendar from December to January. My calendar is an old one, I bought it in 2003 at the Monastery in Prouille when I made the Lands of Dominic trip. I keep it because it has large beautiful Fra Angelico images for each month. January is an image of the Annunciation. It is a detail of the original fresco. It does not show the Angel, just Mary seated with her posture open, face and hands upturned. Waiting. We have crossed the threshold into this new year, this new decade. I look at the image and wonder. Do I sit poised with anticipation, with openness to receive whatever this new year brings? Time is a precious gift and such a mystery. At the threshold of each new day...

Waiting…how many times a day do we wait? How much time of our days is spent in waiting? I don’t mean the big things like waiting for a birth or death or news of a new job or a diagnosis. That’s different.  I mean the moments of waiting, minutes or seconds when we have nothing else to do …waiting for the elevator or in line at a store or at a traffic light. I call these “pockets of time.” I try to manage them as opportunities to pray, to plug into the divine energy around me, to pay attention to who and where and when I exist.  Try it sometimes.   Focus intentionally and say a short prayer like this: “Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, your beloved.”  The moments, then, instead of being an annoyance, become infusions of grace that fill us and shape us for the rest of the day.   Does it change everything for you? Mary Ellen Green, OP Sinsinawa, WI

A few weeks ago we turned our clocks back an hour.  That meant we had an extra hour.  What should I do with that extra time? One of the assignments I gave my class of high school students one year was to write an essay on whether or not they would like an extra hour added to their day, and if so, what would they do with it.  After they thought about it almost the entire class concluded they did not want an extra hour added to each day.  They thought they would probably only waste this added hour. What I learned from reflecting on this question is that time is a gift, and that God has given me enough time to do whatever God has intended for me. I don't need another hour, except for that one day a year when daylight savings time ends.  The time I have each day is sufficient and I hope I use well the time I am given.  The extra hour?  I can't even remember how I used it. What are your reflections on time? Marie Lucek, OP ...