Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

We all experience difficult times and traumatic moments--it's part of our life on earth.  With God's grace we accept these times and find inner strength to cope with them. So when we receive an unexpected gift, our hearts fill with delight and we hopefully savor the gift. I live in a temperate rain forest.  This means we have a good deal of rain and very few truly sunny days.  In April we had a total of 10 inches of rain, but last month we were the recipients of a special gift--warmth and sunshine!  Rainfall total was only half an inch, and the sun shone almost every day.   What do you do with such a gift?  I had to find a pair of sunglasses, and then ate outside as often as I could. Children were able to go swimming in the lakes, families could go on hikes without packing boots.  Everyone was in good spirits. We know this special gift will come to an end--after all, this is  a rain forest.  But this has been a reminder to u...

Driving back to Wisconsin from Spokane, alone but not lonely, became a pilgrimage of sorts for me.   My appreciation deepened for the diversity of Mother Earth, her majestic mountains, rolling hills, bounding and ambling animals, beautiful sunsets.   It was a graced time of reflection, decompression and the processing of time spent with so many really good women and men.   The entire trip became a rolling retreat, an asphalt prayer, a honing of an awareness of the grace that is my life.   I noticed so many things, including this prayer, which I found in the back of a One Year Bible at a Benedictine monastery in South Dakota.   I have no idea why I turned to that otherwise blank page where, in penciled cursive, was written: “Dear Lord, let me be as disturbed about this situation (or person) as you are. No more, no less.   If you are angry, let me be angry, too.   But if you are not disturbed, let me share your Peace.” ~ Fr. Greene I don’t know...

An email picture -- associates and me at a conference-- reminded me of an article sent by Sinsinawa's Relation For Mission team --"Concentration on Connections Will Keep Religious Life Alive." I am connected to Faith Communities of Madison through an organization called MOSES (Madison Organizing in Strength Equality and Solidarity.)     I am the leader of its religious leader caucus.   I bring the clergy and other spiritual leaders of our 20 some organizations together to strengthen the spiritual bonds of individual communities that are helping bring an end to mass incarceration. In order to build relationships with the leaders and people of the various faith communities, I take time each week to attend special events and/or Sunday services with Lutheran, African Methodist Episcopal, Baptist, Congregational, Unitarian, Unity or Friends communities. Last Saturday I joined James Reeb Unitarian community   as they ordained their new minister.   I neve...

A couple of weeks ago, Ruth Poochigian, O.P. wrote a blog declaring “I took the WHOLE weekend off!”  She asked at the end, “When was the last time you took time off from your ‘important’ work?”  I realized it had been over a year since I had taken some extended time off.  I just kept pushing myself until my scheduled vacation because there was so much to get done. Now that I have returned from a 10 day vacation that included a family wedding and reconnoitering with my 4 biological sisters, I am aware how much I needed that time away. Even though there are multitudinous tasks, projects, emails, etc. awaiting my attention, I am REJUVENATED.   My spirit is revived!   I have more energy, and tasks do not take as long.   I have to ask, “Why do I do this to myself?   God gave us the gift of Sabbath.   Why do I not let myself enjoy that gift more often?”   Jesus showed us the way when he slipped away from the demanding crowds to spend time alon...

“Vamos a la mesa del Señor…”   “Let us go to the table of the Lord…” Since the middle of April, I have been working at a food pantry.   An unused church was converted into a pantry to address the needs of the hungry in the area.   I love the idea that this food pantry was once a church where believers came to celebrate the Eucharist and participate in the other sacraments of our faith.   Where we once went to receive the Eucharist, we are now acting as the Body of Christ.   St. Thomas Aquinas, a 13 th century Dominican, once said:   “"The Eucharist is the Sacrament of Love; It signifies Love, It produces love.”   Here at the Holy Family Food Pantry, we become Christ’s love for others.   I believe this is what life is all about. And, you, what is life about for you? Peggy Ryan, OP Waukegan, IL                               ...