Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Saying “yes” has been pretty easy for me, (although the call to religious life later in life mystified and puzzled me. For a while, no response made sense…until ‘making sense’ didn’t matter.) I’ve been reflecting on my ‘yeses’ lately, wondering if some were offered too easily; spoken sincerely but without depth of thought; offered with good intentions but with a failing memory of how the proverbial Road to Hell is paved. There are so many urgent needs in the world today that require a compassionate response – by someone, by anyone, by everyone. Saying ‘no’ seems implausible, cold, unkind, the antithesis of an authentic call to religious life; to any authentic life, really. Yet I am discovering that within every ‘yes’ is often an unspoken ‘no’.  Every ‘yes’ proclaimed contains a benefit, but also a cost; one that can dilute the impact of the ‘yes’.  It might be burnout, frenzied living, a sense of superficiality - of spreading oneself too thin. We simply cannot do ...

Last week I came home to find a small bird lying on the porch—it had clearly flown smack dab into the front window.  I’ve seen it before:  a hapless bird thinks there is a clear flight path due to the reflection of sky or trees instead of a pane of glass.  The last time it happened, I watched in delight as it slowly came-to and eventually flew away, having only been stunned! I picked him up, hopeful because the tiny body was still warm.  But it must have just happened and the impact had, indeed, killed the little guy.  With a heavy heart, I buried him in a tiny grave in the backyard—I absolutely adore birds.  I looked him up and learned that my little friend was called a Dark-Eyed Junco. In Matthew 6 Jesus looks to the birds of the sky to demonstrate proper trust in God.  I have often found comfort in that verse when I’m anxious over trivialities or obsessing about something that’s out-of-my-hands.  The fate of this Dark-Eyed Junco, how...

"Whenever the divine favor chooses someone to receive a special grace or to accept a lofty vocation, God adorns the person chosen with all the gifts of the Spirit needed to fulfill the task at hand."  St. Bernardine of Siena I came across this quote recently and I thought it would be a good one for me to keep on hand during this year that has just begun. When I am chosen to lead a group or undertake a project I often have to deal with my fear, especially the fear that I don't have the skills to do what has been asked of me or that I will fail. At times like these I am thinking only of my limited, human abilities.  This quote reminds me that if I am chosen then I don't have to rely only on my own gifts, but that God will give me all the resources that I will need.  But I must be open to God's grace and to trust that I will receive all that I need to accomplish the task I am given. Then I can proceed with great confidence! Fear, begone, and let God's g...

When I walked into our backyard recently, I was delighted to see thriving the Jacob’s Ladder I had planted one year ago!  It was a transplant from my mom’s garden.  My delight remained but inwardly, I felt a strong urge to dig up that plant and take it with me on the next leg of my journey with the Sinsinawa Dominicans. I think religious life, and life in general, can do that to a person now and then.  Things to which we’ve assigned value, as skewed as it may sometimes be, become possessions we hold onto with a vice-like grip.  Maybe we do that simply as a way of holding onto memories; a way to stay in a sort of comfort zone. My time in Madison has been such a gift to me … I can’t begin to express my gratitude to God and to my congregation for allowing me the opportunities to study, to live in community, and to have so many wonderful, wonderful people become part of my life.  They have left seeds of beauty and roots of joy in my heart –...

Continuously saying yes to God and my call to be a religious sister with the Sinsinawa Dominicans at this time in the twenty- first century, is not something that comes easily to me.  It means blindly saying yes to a future that is unknown and trusting in a God who I cannot see, but who I have experienced constantly. This continuous yes always means a lot of letting go and dying to self.  However, through my continuous yes I have been blessed tremendously in various ways in my life and I have seen myself continue to grow into someone who I think I was meant to become, the real Lystra.  Having to face surgery earlier this month was also blindly trusting in something or someone who I had no control over.  The mere thought of general anesthetic and the cutting of my body totally terrified me.  I felt betrayed by my body, which has been so good to me over the years.  Preparing for surgery was doing a lot of mental and emotional work.  It me...

Living in Latin America now gives me energy to walk humbly and consider God’s life amidst differences.  The people of God here whom I know show me resilience for living each day.  We have been studying Canadian mining here in our area in Morelos and its negative effects on the environment.  Additionally we have been rehabbing homes of families living in low economic conditions.  These are two examples of extremes, a wealthy mining company looking for gold to sell and mothers and fathers hoping to have an adequate roof and bathroom for their small house. I trust God has called me here to Mexico to walk in faith and confidence and do the small works we are able to do for basic human rights of the people. A dignified house, a roof and a bathroom are basic rights. The open pit mining in Mexico is disastrous to the environment and thus we speak against it. God leads me as a Dominican to preach through this work for justice. What extremes are in y...

Are you aware of the “certainties” in your life? What can you really count on? We live in a time of remarkable change so perhaps “change” may be one of the certainties in your life. Living in a world of uncertainties we question, worry and doubt arise. Our trust and faith may be shaky. Last summer I participated in a retreat as a team member.  The particular theme was “Living in the Certainty of Grace.” resonated with me and has been an inspiration of three other retreats that I have led in the past six months. I realize that living in the certainty of grace enables me to move into an unknown future with hope. Grace is not a thing.  According to Karl Rahner “grace is the Spirit of God dwelling at the heart of our existence.” Elizabeth Johnson says: “Grace is the animating force of all of human history.”  And Miriam Brown, one of my Dominican sisters, says: “Grace is that in which we and all of creation “live and move and have our being.”  Grac...