Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

This summer, in the city of Milwaukee, the number of violent deaths has escalated to record proportions.  There is fear and sadness in many neighborhoods.  The Sinsinawa Dominicans in Milwaukee joined the Amani neighborhood for a prayer vigil.  A libation prayer was made by an elder of the community calling upon the ancestors to bless us and guide us to the path of peace.  This prayer called for trust and reminded each neighbor of their importance.  Brotherhood and sisterhood were named as cherished relationships.  Unity and compassion were evoked as answers to prayer.  Each of us left having promised to be a light of peace for all we meet.  Where are you this summer?  With whom are you praying?  And, for what do you prayer? Peggy Ryan, OP Whitefish Bay, WI

This weekend our novice, Sr. Kathy Flynn, joined 4 other novices to begin 10 months of their canonical novitiate at the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate (CDN). Each year a new group of novices comes together to create its own unique experience of community with fresh spirit, abundant gifts, and eagerness to grow in the Dominican tradition.  This group has already begun! The CDN provides a quality experience of Dominican community life, prayer, study, ministry, exposure to and practice of preaching skills, and personal growth for the novices of the member groups. The process of this collaborative experience is intended to: offer a rich novitiate experience, encourage a supportive peer group, share the giftedness and resources of the congregations involved, and promote the charism of the Order.  Like any new beginning this one requires a leap of faith for this is no ordinary year.  It’s a transformational time of opening oneself and learning about God, ...

Recently, I heard an 83 year old woman share her story of how she came to discover her vocation.  She began at a very early age asking questions for which she never ceased seeking answers.  In describing her journey, she spoke with passion using words like 'attraction' 'allurement' 'call' and 'full potential self.'  She also talked about finding people with a similar passion with whom to form 'hubs.' It occurred to me how much her language mirrors language we use to describe the call of a woman to religious life.  She experiences the allurement of God, is attracted to Gospel living and seeks out a community (hub) with whom to live that call, to her fullest potential, for the rest of her life. Today, almost 800 years later, women and men still feel the allurement - the attraction - to preaching the gospel as a member of the Dominican Order according to the charism of Dominic our founder. Such is the case with Kathy F...

What must it be like to leave the family you were born into, and to leave behind the language and culture of your country to go halfway around the world?  Frightening!  That was the experience of our immigrant ancestors.  My parents, for example, came to this country as children, my father from Armenia and my mother from Turkey.  They had so much to learn! Sister Vong, O.P. and Sister Lien, O.P. are currently living at our motherhouse at Sinsinawa WI.  They left their Dominican Convent in North Vietnam and accepted a mission in obedience to come to the U.S., to learn English and then to acquire degrees in order to go back to their sisters in North Vietnam to teach them.  Their teachers? Many of the retired ( former teachers) who reside at Sinsinawa. Several weeks ago, Sister Vong renewed her vows as a Dominican.  The ceremony was a truly bi-lingual experience.  Lien welcomed everyone – in both Vietnamese and English – with a...

 We moved from Community  Days to welcome a new candidate for membership, receive another into a sacred year of novitiate and celebrate Saint Dominic Day.  This Saint Dominic Day I am basking in the energy of community days.  I AM A NEW PERSON. I am changed because I had the privilege of sitting in listening circles. We listened intently as each one told the story of what has brought her/him s to widen life circles.  With inspiration from Barbara Marx Hubbard   www.bararamarxhubbard.com we saw  our personal and communal growth as part of the evolving universe. We are called to choose to be  part of evolution, that is  to a higher unity in love. We saw  American Dominicans as  one of evolution's most potent forces Today I am carrying a new sense of power within me.  One place I share power is called WISDOM.   WISDOM groups work with others to reduce the prison population in the State of Wi...