Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I was visiting my family in Omaha, NE the first part of July. It was an unusually sweltering hot day even by Nebraska standards. A nephew, who is the development person for Siena Francis House for the homeless, invited our family to serve the evening meals at the shelter this night. Anyone 8 years of age or older may serve so the room swarmed with my grand nieces and nephews as they set up, served and cleaned up after each of the four rounds of guests. I was delighted to see these “worker bees” so present to each guest. We’d finished and were heading home, when a siren went off. The radio went on and directions were to take shelter. A severe, fast moving storm was headed our way in ten minutes; it would be over in twenty. My brother-in-law, knowing the territory, drove the truck to a viaduct of concrete structures near the Missouri River to wait out the storm. While parked there waiting for the threat to hit, a Don Quixote type figure came over a grassy knoll, seemingly from out of now...

The Dominican call to seek truth is for me a Freedom Walk. Today’s scriptures underscore an important aspect of becoming a free-er woman. “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed!” How easy it is to become a slave to ideas, to driving a car, to a cell phone, to a political persuasion, to my way of doing things. Yes, the list goes on and on. What do you know about your greed? What helps you change? Once I gave up reading for a week to awaken other senses. Golly that was difficult. So this movement towards freedom is not always easy but it sure is heartening. What is your experience? Sr. K. C. Young, OP Seattle, WA

Why worry about numbers? As a Temporary Professed Religious Sister, I am asked if I worry about the decreasing numbers of Sisters. I’m sure you’ve heard about this. As for me, that’s not something I worry about. It’s all about God’s call and will. That’s why I am Sister. Presently our congregation consists of around 580 sisters, so why would I worry right? Well, let me share about a recent experience I had in May. I was in Trinidad and Tobago with some of my Dominican sisters. One of my Sisters was going to renew her vows. So all eight sisters who live in Trinidad gathered including myself and three other sisters who were visiting from the US, too. This was a small gathering of 12 in comparison to our large gatherings of 300 or so. We began to prepare by setting up the environment with colored cloth, flowers from the yard, the St Dominic statue and our constitution. We also prepared the place settings for dinner following the ceremony. The environment looked beautiful. When everyone ga...

In early July I was giving a week of service at Camp WeHawKee, one of our sponsored institutions, in Winter, Wisconsin. Girls from all over the world have been coming to camp since the mid 1920’s. Many Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa have worked at the camp in the summers, and three have been directors over the years. Volunteering at Camp WeHawKee is another form of building community with the campers, counselors, other volunteers, and our dedicated directors, Maggie and Bob Braun. I also worked with wonderful people in the kitchen! How does one catch a whole cart of plastic glasses before they fall? You embrace them…then ask for help. That’s me in the picture taken by Maggie. I didn’t maneuver the cart to miss the obstruction in the path. People in the kitchen came to my rescue and we had a good laugh. I think of this picture as a metaphor for the stages of growth on my life’s journey. For you wonderful people visiting our blog site, how have you maneuvered around obstacles to embrace...

This past week we celebrated the feast day of Kateri Tekakwitha. She was a Mohawk Algonquin woman who was an early convert to Christianity. She took a not easy path choosing an unpopular way to live her life. It is never an easy thing to choose the hard way. There have been times when I have had to choose a more difficult path. The joy in making that choice is not having to do it all alone. Some years back nearly forty of our sisters joined in a retreat at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site. Some of us in that group committed ourselves to an act of civil disobedience by calling into question the morality of ongoing nuclear weapons testing. We were arrested for that decision. The difficult path however was not done alone and was done in solidarity with all of the Dominican sisters. Community life can deepen our commitment to walk as Jesus did. Let us thank God for individuals as Kateri who invite us to live our commitment to the Gospel. Sr. K.C. Young, OP Seattle, WA

Many of us learned about grace as children from our catechism classes. In those early years, the rules for losing grace seemed clearer than those for obtaining grace. We always knew we needed to be in the state of grace, just in case we would suddenly die. We could even store up grace for ourselves and earn grace for those that had already died. Then came Vatican II, and it gave us a new view and language for grace. Even now though, it is still difficult to understand. I would simply share what grace is for me. Grace gives me a new freedom, and self-knowledge. It is a source of strength during the times in my life I cannot explain or understand: death, illness, love, and friendship. I believe I have received God’s loving grace though everyday common events. I have especially felt it when working with the economically poor. The donors, volunteers, client families and our school families have opened my eyes to grace all around me. These common everyday experiences leave me filled with gr...

As a member of a couple of other blogs, the one thing that I notice that seems different to me about this blog, in comparison to others, is the seemingly “one-sidedness” of the information or sharing. I guess I am wondering, “is anyone out there?” J Is the information that is being shared engaging? Are there other topics that would better stimulate dialogue? What topics in particular would stir comment and invite conversation? I guess what I am really hoping for is some guidance on how to make Catherine’s Café an even better place to be. I would enjoy “sipping” from your insights, comments and responses. French Satiric moralist Jean de la Bruyère (1645-1696) offered the following insight, “The great gift of conversation lies less in displaying it ourselves than in drawing it out of others.” Another quote, (James Nathan Miller), which rang true for me goes like this, "There is not such thing as a worthless conversation, provided you know what to listen for. And questions are the b...