Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

A few days ago, I celebrated my seventy-fifth birthday. Seventy-five is a robust number, a solid number. After all, it’s three quarters of a century, isn’t it! I have nothing against the number, but to have to attach it to my person seems bizarre.     When I think of a seventy-five-year-old woman I think of my grandmother, but that’s not who I am. There must have been some mistake in the records. But wait! What’s wrong with being seventy-five? I now have seven and a half decades of experiences to hold onto. I have, as we say, been there and done that. My bucket list is getting shorter, and I feel a deep sense of satisfaction in the realization that my life has been fruitful. I give thanks for friends and family and for my Dominican Congregation that supports me more than I deserve. Seventy-five is a ripe age and it’s time for the harvest – drawing in the wisdom and the gifts as well as the challenges that have shaped me into the woman I am. Come to think of it, I like being se...

I have a beloved twin sister who hates to shop but also knows she needs some new clothes.  She always wants me to go with her and when I ask her what we’re looking for, she answers, “I’ll know what I want when I find it.” How many of us have that experience – maybe not at a shopping mall or online retailer – but in searching for wisdom, insight, a new way to pray, a new challenge in study?  I’m always grateful when someone recommends a new book or article because “It is really mind stretching.”  Like my love/hate relationship with exercise, I could easily stick to my favorite mystery writers and read nothing else or listen only to my favorite podcast, but it’s when I choose to or am encouraged or challenged to search, stretch, push my comfortable boundaries, that I discover that I have found what I truly wanted. It is a choice we must make, in large and small ways, to search for what we truly want, even when we’re not sure what that is! ...

Recently, I was at a funeral for a family member of a friend.  I never knew the person who had died but wanted to be present on the friend’s behalf. Toward the end of the service there was a eulogy given that painted as inspiring picture of the life of this beloved family member. As the life story unfolded, it was apparent how my friend is now one who inspires others with her generous heart.  She had been mentored since her birth within her family. I came away up lifted and inspired as well.  I got to know someone whom I will never meet.  This person’s life story returns to me and encourages me to seek God’s grace for growth.  Interesting how one life may touch another without ever having met. Oh yes, there are lots of celebrities or “rock stars” that have an impact on our lives.   There may be a big name person who inspires us but there are many others whose quiet lives have the capacity to bring beauty and grace to the world.  ...

The title of this reflection may lead you to believe I am musing about the sunlight that has peeked through the cold, cold winter days of freezing rain, sleet, snow, and heavy clouds.  Though this pattern has described the last several weeks of the weather we’ve experienced lately, I am really contemplating a conversation I encountered with several of my Dominican sisters during breakfast recently. A couple of sisters shared stories about difficult times (dark, dark days, weeks, months, and even years) from their early lives in the congregation.   Though I didn’t share my own story at that particular time, I understood the pain and anguish those sisters must have undergone. As we continued pondering those experiences, one sister noted that the suffering did, in fact, make us stronger, gave us wisdom, and in the end enabled us to be who are today – powerful, durable, intelligent, prudent, hopeful women of faith able to share the “Good News” of Jesus with those who wi...