Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

"Ok, I'm old."   That is what I say to the confirmation students during their retreat day prior to receiving the sacrament.   Then I tell them a couple of stories from my 'distant' past. I begin this blog entry with that thought because this past week something happened that took me to a similar memory. In the late 60's, I stay up all night riveted to the TV with my workbook from a geology class I had taken because WE were landing on the moon. Perhaps I would not have consciously thought of the two astronauts as representing the whole of humanity but looking back I do.   What happened this past week?   WE flew past Pluto.   Ok, a stellar probe flew past, but humanity has a marked moment with this event. What about the holy 'fly bys' that are happening in us and among us and around us. When someone or a group does something that is remarkable. Recently I heard about a group making a contemplative retreat who were sent throughout New York City...

I recently spent a weekend with people I hadn’t seen for many years!   And it was wonderful!! When I graduated from college I spent a year as an Extension Lay Volunteer.    My roommate, Terry, had just graduated from a college in Philadelphia and we met briefly when she and her parents made a trip to California (where I lived at the time). The year was 1968.   We spent six weeks (for orientation) in Chicago, and watched   on TV as the Democratic Convention unfolded.   Then we boarded a flight for New Orleans!   There I came face to face with the struggle for Civil Rights.   The schools were facing a Federal Injunction – either integrate or don’t open.   I saw signs that said “white only” and “colored only” and I had my first (and only!) encounter with the Ku Klux Klan!! Many things have happened since then – both in my life as well as that of New Orleans.   The biggest being my life as a Dominican, and Hurricane Katrina and ...

When I was younger I never really liked my name.   Some people may think well what’s in a name.   However, I believe there is power in a name and it says a lot about who you are.   Since I was not willing to go through the process of changing my name, I decided to do a little research after people kept asking me what my name meant and I didn’t know.   I found out that my name Lystra meant free.   The meaning resounded within me and ever since I have been growing into my name. Freedom is not free or easy.   With freedom comes great responsibility.   Being free doesn’t mean that I can do anything I want without consequences.   Freedom comes with a price; someone paid a price so that I could be “free” today.   Two weeks ago I did a summer course entitled- Faith and Justice in Freedom Narratives: Lessons in Ethics from the Slave Quarters.   Our class was facilitated by Dr. Katie G. Cannon and as co-learners we learned about the horr...

Well, the rains finally arrived and I took advantage of this to sow seeds of various types of vegetables that I like to eat.  I waited for a good moon and into the ground went lettuce, string beans, seim beans, bodi beans, cucumber, water melon pigeon peas, pumpkin, tomatoes, sweet peppers, ochroes, egg plant, carallie, cauliflower and more.  It's about two months now and already I have harvested tomatoes and sweet peppers.  Soon cucumbers will be ready and I am seeing baby carallie!  But I have been about sowing other seeds too.  Seeds of openness to a vocation in the little hearts of some grade three students from a nearby private school and seeds of love and reverence for earth in the hearts of some kids during an Eco-camp I conducted last week.  When is a good time to begin to sow these seeds?  Was it a good 'moon' for planting?  Will 'rain' fall on them and cause them to spring up to maturity and produce good fruit?  How long w...

This past week the RFM team brought together the new members for a series of activities and chats around congregational history and finance.  We did a lot of reading about the historical context and origin of the Sinsinawas Dominicans and visited several sites of Fr. Mazzuchelli’s footprint in the area.  Various groups of sisters graciously shared their experiences of the more recent history of the congregation and the different challenges that emerged.  There was also a session with our Treasurer to discuss how we live the vow of poverty and how the congregation as a whole manages its resources.  In Sister Mary Ellen Butcher’s remembrance she describes our kind of common life as one of “high-risk living” in which we lose control and “do not feather our own nest”.  What a wonderful and true depiction of what I’ve seen in all the sisters I know. The past couple of days I've been pondering it all and questioning what it means moving forward.   I've ...