Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Preparing to leave water in the desert for travelers   How do we live today as citizens of our global village?  How do our decisions and choices create or hinder a future for others?  Some of our state governments have decided that our newly arrived brothers and sisters can be treated like chattel and loaded on buses or planes to be dropped off in cities all over the country.       What are Dominicans called to do when we witness injustice?     Can we use our voices to bring the oppressive practices to light, such as writing editorials to local papers or joining GET OUT THE VOTE campaigns?     Can we join with others to eliminate suffering?     Can we offer time and energy as volunteers at respite sites?     How will this suffering of our brothers and sisters enter into our prayer?     We have a line in our Constitution:   “Present to God’s people whose hopes and sufferings are our own, w...

A few weeks ago the three of us who live together here in Austin, Texas, got our first dose of the vaccine.     After weeks of frustration we received a quick hint from a neighbor’s daughter that vaccines were available, We quickly signed up and the next day we were among the 4000 people who drove over to the site—a huge car racing complex.  We were cheered by many young volunteers who guided us through the maze of cars and cones and eventually to the place where volunteer nursing students gave us the vaccines.  We simply put our arms up to the car window.  Then more volunteer EMT’s waited the mandatory 15 minutes with us. It was a relief to get the vaccine, but I was especially impressed by the many volunteers who made it all possible and easy.  I am so grateful.   As we begin to see the end of the pandemic, what are you grateful for?   Happy Easter LouAnne Willette, OP Austin, TX

I recently spent a week at the Texas border.  For two days I worked at the Catholic Charities Respite Center in McAllen. Together with lots of other volunteers, we took care of the needs of 20-50 asylum seekers who had been cleared for travel to reunite families in the U.S.   The really big work was about Matamoros, where over 2000 asylum seekers, mostly families, were living in tents, waiting for court dates in the U.S.  Three times that week a group of us, wearing matching t-shirts, loaded cars and vans with collapsible wagons, sandwiches assembled by McAllen volunteers, milk, diapers, wipes and other supplies.  We drove to Brownsville where we unloaded everything and put the supplies into the wagons, which we then pulled across the international bridge.  We set up tables and distributed everything, including the empty gallon milk jugs. After that we had the opportunity to visit. Most of the people were from Central America and thei...