Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

My son did a bit of ‘guerrilla gardening’ in Iowa City some years ago, planting a variety of plants and seeds in what was once a trash-strewn concrete slab next to an alley. Acorn squash grew up the chain link fence separating this ‘plot’ from a transforming station. Neighborhood residents and passersby were fed. An older brother had a pumpkin vine growing in a crack between his concrete driveway and the side steps to his house. The vine bore fruit. In New Orleans, I remember seeing beautiful oak trees upheave sidewalks to continue their growth. Today, March 14, signals the end of Catholic Sisters Week, a week highlighting the vocational call to vowed religious life. Honest, intentional discernment in the company of supportive communities may lead a woman to vowed religious life or it may lead her to another vocation, another relationship altogether. Each of us is called to bear good fruit. Discernment is a lifetime call to listen to the voice of God. When we do that with trust and fai...

One of the Gospel images of Jesus I have when I read and ponder scripture is that of being on the move. He is moving towards people (crowds, followers, religious leaders & even the Romans), moving people away from false claims and ideologies, calling people to move (stand and take up your mat) and more. In our time and place, trusting that Jesus travels with us, where are we going together? This past year, I continued to travel with people who yearned to hear the voice of God in their lives, to make sense of sad events and who wondered if they were worthy of God’s love.  I traveled with my Dominican congregation as we continue to look to the future needs we have together.  And these travels have not ended. I also met up with fellow travelers in the concluding days of their cross country mission to bring the truth of the work we have to do in this country to ensure all are able to not only survive but to thrive.   Nuns on the Bus  ...