Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

Here we are again at the beginning of another new year.  This year I decided to upgrade how I make and most importantly keep my resolutions/goals and so far except for one it seems to be working. I started off as usual by making my list of resolutions and then thinking to myself what do I need to do differently this year to make sure that all my resolutions or goals are achieved, hopefully, before the end of 2017.   This time I have decided it is about the journey and not so much the destination.   Meaning that I am not so much looking at the end results, but concentrating on how I am doing each day on every resolution/goal that I have made. I am being more mindful of the people and things that I experience in my daily life.   I am enjoying the everyday seemingly simple things in life that I so often take for granted.   Usually when the year comes to an end, most times it is very difficult to know what I have done or achieved. This year already ho...

“What if at the Apple store, as part of the display, we saw a photo of the factory worker who made the iPhones?” This question was posed in class by one of my Clarke undergraduate students as we discussed Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si , (On Care for Our Common Home) and the social and ecological impacts of consumerism.   “Yeah, and what about clothes?”   Another student chimed in.   “We see the label that says ‘made in El Salvador,’ or whatever, but what does it mean?” We live in an interconnected world.   When we get up each day, we may put on pants made in Haiti and a shirt made in Bangladesh. Then for breakfast we eat a banana grown in Costa Rica and drink coffee from beans grown in Kenya.   That’s three continents before we even step out the front door! Yet, as my students astutely noted, it’s easy to be oblivious to these connections.   It’s easy to find the bargain and not ask questions about the people and systems behind our pu...

A thought has been consistently pestering me, filling me with awe for quite some time, particularly over the last few years.  Although difficult for me to articulate well, I am consistently reminded how ordinary and extraordinary, how significant and insignificant we all are. I have met many people from all walks of life since joining the Sinsinawa Dominicans five short years ago, and many more people before that.   Incredibly gifted yet incredibly ordinary people, doing incredibly good yet incredibly ordinary works.   Each one uniquely created yet each created in the image and likeness of God.   But 5-1/2 years ago I was not aware of their existence, and vice versa. Imagine!   I guess what I’m trying to say is that we are surrounded by incredible stories that we may never hear, stories of people we may never meet – whose lives, like our own, are filled with passion and sorrow, hopes and fears, doubt and deep faith and stumbling faith.   Stories ...

Grace Roidt, associate, who lives with us in Madison especially wanted to see Mavis Staples on the Kennedy Honors. Then our friend rang the doorbell, and we missed the portion of the show with Mavis.  So today we researched Mavis Staples on line.  We found her singing “Wholy, Holy” on a UTube,   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfRw_WdWazU Besides the energy that Mavis brings to this song, written by Marvin Gaye, the words speak to my thoughts and mood these days between 2016 and 2017. Many ask, What stands out about 2016? What calls us in 2017? 2016 often found people divided, but the song and many leaders said, We all gotta come together 'Cause we need the strength, power. In April 2016 at chapter (our highest governing body) Sinsinawa Dominicans realized “God’s mission is our mission” It’s like the song says, We should believe in one another (Believe in Jesus). We can conquer hate forever. In April, much like the song, we proclaimed our vis...

New Year’s Eve, making resolutions, pondering the future, looking back,  wondering where time went…all that and more occupies a lot of us on December 31 or in the first days of the new year.   I have, in the past, made resolutions to lose weight, exercise, pray more, pray better, clean my desk, read some of the books piled up next to my bed before I get one more new one – you get the picture.   I would imagine some of you find yourselves in the same situation. But this year, I will aim to make one dear and familiar line from Psalm 119 the only resolution I want to work toward:   “Incline my heart according to your will, O God.”     I love the verb “incline” –to move toward.   For me that takes in all the fits and starts, the two steps back as well as two (or hopefully three) steps forward in listening to the Spirit, in waiting in silence, in opening myself to big questions and no clear answers, in peace.   May your hearts incline towar...

Holidays can be difficult for many people because of recent or past experiences of grief and loss -- experiences such as the death of a parent or sibling, job loss, loss of a home due to reduced or no income, health challenges and the fragility that comes with aging. Losses can also be anticipated ones that come with a serious diagnosis of a special someone. I know a lot of people who are experiencing some of those emotional challenges during this Christmas holiday season. And I know many survivors of loss who share their personal stories of breaking out into the light. Seems to me that each of them is experiencing her/his own Christmas story, as they continue to discover gifts and all that is waiting for them. In the mystery of all of our sacred stories, the light somehow breaks through. And somehow, with God’s grace and help from others, we can break out into the light. I have many Christmas (and other holiday) stories about light breaking in and me breaking out into the lig...

Reading Roberta’s reflection on Catherine’s Café (December 19) and seeing her reference to the O Antiphons, I began to reflect more deeply upon the O Antiphons of Advent.  The antiphon for today, December 21, couldn’t be more perfect as we begin to see days of lengthening light.  O Radiant Dawn, Splendor of eternal light, sun of justice; Come and shine on those who dwell in darkness And in the shadow of death. Not only are we seeing the physical darkness, we also observe those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.   We are experiencing so much suffering on this planet of ours.   On the evening news, we hear so many horrific stories of people’s inhumanity to their brothers and sisters.   We keep asking ourselves, “How can people do that to other people!”   How can someone drive a semi into a group of shoppers in an outdoor Christmas market in Germany?   How can …?   We desperately need some good news. We need the ra...