Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

As I was trying to decide on what to write for this blog my mind took to me to the book some of us sisters are presently reading. Ted Dunn’s book,   Graced Crossroads .     In his book Ted writes about religious life today in U.S women congregations.     Ted shares about the “Great Turning.”     In one chapter in which he is considering all that is happening and changing in the world today.     In the book he examines how U.S. women religious congregations are fearing and are they going to survive or not with all the challenges they are facing today.     I see religious life like a living and breathing organic system that is an organization and like many organisms it goes through various changes and how it handles those changes will decide if it survives, dies, or thrive.     This living organism goes through mountain tops and valley experiences.     Now we appear to be in a valley experience.     What ...

Where I am in retreat ministry we are transitioning from one retreat mode to another.   Summer seems to be a slower pace.   Really it is only different kinds of retreats than the last ten months.   But another transition has been taken place at the retreat house - a technology one.   And it has our IT person frazzled. Bringing our network technology up to date and ensuring all computers talk "nice" within the network has also shown that our systems have been harboring viruses that the very good protection program could not detect.   Clearing them out has not followed the usual plan. In the meantime, I have contracted my own personal virus - a summer cold...in Florida!   Not the usual plan. These realities got me thinking that each of us may also be harboring spiritual viruses, emotional woes or psychological impasses.   It takes courage to ask for Divine help (which often comes through human sources) to identify and receiv...