Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I like to think about the word courage (although I don't always possess it.) The phrase I prefer is "action from the heart." Although this is probably a stretch, encouragement, to me, is wrapping someone in courage. The two beautiful women in this picture, grandmother and granddaughter, are both named Maria. The younger of the two comes to my art classes and needs no encouragement. Her creativity is imbued with confidence. She was very late for her first class because her grandmother couldn't find the Art Center. I had a hard time reassuring her that it was okay. Maria could catch up easily. In the course of our brief conversation, I learned that the older Maria was a Cuban refugee. The struggle to find a home had taken her and her husband to four continents. I was torn between my students who needed my attention, and Maria's story which came pouring forth from deep within her. The students won, but not before I encouraged the older Maria to write down her incred...

Recently a 21-year old woman asked me this question. It caused me to reflect on the many ways God chooses to call us. First, I assured her that if we don't hear God's call the first time, God will call again. God is persistent! And rarely does God speak directly to us in such a way that we have no doubts. God sometimes brings up a thought in prayer. Many times God uses others to speak to us. This is what happened to me. For three years I had been thinking off and on about religious life, but I think it scared me, so I kept putting it to the back of my mind. Finally, a friend of mine told me she herself had heard God's call, and this became the grace for me to take my own call more seriously. I also find that it helps to develop listening skills so we are more able to listen consciously for the inner voice of the Spirit. What has been your experience? Sr. Marie Lucek, OP Juneau, AK

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