Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I recently attended the wake of a friend’s father, where I ran into several other friends whom I had not seen for a while.   Laughing while swapping stories, one who knew I was newly professed said to another, ‘See, I told you she wouldn’t have changed”, to which I replied, “I might be a Sister but I’m still the same person!” As I drove away from the funeral home, my response echoed rather hollowly in my heart, a sure sign that it wasn’t exactly the truth.   Our essence is of God.   That doesn’t change, yet there is no denying that how I am in the world now does look and feel different…much like a rose bud in the early morning differs from one in full bloom in the late afternoon sun.   While each is still a rose, one is opened more fully to what it was meant to become. Religious life is one of the many ways God might call a person to be in the world.   Prayerful discernment of and responding to that call has opened my heart more fully and led to so man...

I was a first year novice in our Collaborative Dominican Noviate in St. Louis when Hurricane Katrina passed through New Orleans and the levees failed. Hundreds of thousands of us will always remember where we were when Katrina hit. We were shocked and devastated. And, it wasn’t just the levee system that failed residents (including my family) in the city I call home. I remember my Noviate community, including the two novice directors, who prayed with me and were sources of comfort for days, weeks and months following. They sat with me through my tears of grief and rage. I remember calling friends, who knew the city I knew, and crying together as we looked at images on tv and news web pages. As New Orleans and our country acknowledge the 10 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, thousands offer prayers, support and help for all who were directly and indirectly affected by flood waters and system failures. Many continue to show up to help rebuild. Prayers, compassionate presence...

I spent this summer in Wisconsin at my motherhouse, not something I had planned on. To my surprise it turned out to be a summer embodying the many stages of religious life. We had celebrations of new novices, a Sister making first Vows, a Sister making perpetual Vows, a Sister completing her degree, 50 th Jubilees, and funerals.    I reconnected with Sisters and connected with “New Sisters” whom I didn’t know because they were out in mission.   I was given the gift to be fully present as Sister to my Sisters in assisted living.    I also met new lay people journeying with us in mission.   It turned out to be a summer of “unexpected gifts.”   What was an unexpected gift or surprise for you this summer? Priscilla Torres, OP

I’ve been joking lately that I am becoming a very good Dominican: between visits to friends and family and getting ready for another move, I’ve taken itinerancy to a new level! All this travel brings to mind a favorite poem by Jan Richardson, called “For Those Who Have Far to Travel: An Epiphany Blessing.”   The first two stanzas read: If you could see the journey whole you might never undertake it; might never dare the first step that propels you from the place you have known toward the place you know not. Call it one of the mercies of the road: that we see it only by stages as it opens before us, as it comes into our keeping step by single step. How true!   I could scarcely find better words to describe my journey into religious life.   Many times I have longed to see just a little further ahead; yet I realize that if I could have seen the whole picture perhaps I wouldn’t have dared to take the first step.  ...

So far, in this month of August, we have been offered the opportunity to listen to and take to heart the images of Jesus as living bread from John’s gospel.   Living bread – being the Body of Christ in our time and place.   Living bread – offering our very selves for the needs of others.   Jesus did not say, “I am the living bread” when your own belly is full and you have time to offer others a helping hand.   Jesus did not say, “I am the bread of life” when your life is without difficulty or struggle.   Jesus said, “The bread I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”     How am I the living bread today for others?   What do I offer when I am lacking energy, feeling chewed up and spit out, and painfully aware of my shortcomings?    What if I have this huge problem at the Food Pantry or the neighborhood has an attempted robbery, or my prayer seems dry and ineffective?   I am called to give from my very sustenan...

As I pondered what I would write about this month, much crossed my mind and heart.  In particular, this summer, I have been thinking about and praying for our Iraqi Dominican Family as the first anniversary of their night of terror (August 6) was observed this month. I am part of a US Dominican Committee whose focus is on the situation for the Iraqi Dominican Sisters and Friars and the people they are serving in displacement camps and refugee centers. We prepared and sent out a prayer for the anniversary and other ways to observe this time including an origami peace crane project. This latter project tied into the 70 th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. A horror no one should ever repeat again.  The peace crane has become a symbol of hope in the face of terror and tragedy.  And yet more comes into this few August days.  One of our oldest sisters died on the eve (August 7) of St Dominic’s Feast Day – just as two women were receive...