Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

  In the liturgical calendar, January 25 is the feast for “the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle.”   I always wonder why it’s not called the “Conversion of Saul into Paul”  because he certainly wasn’t a saint at the time he was knocked off his horse on the road to Damascus (though there is dispute about the horse) by a light and a voice that pierced his heart and mind.    That illumination and call reversed everything he thought he knew and believed.   He truly couldn’t be the same person after that encounter.   Our conversions are seldom so dramatic, but the experience of an encounter of the holy, of holy mystery, is life changing.   It might take much more time than it seemed to take Paul; it might take months, years, for us to process our understanding of the call in our lives, of being able to look at the pattern of the holy in our lives and see a path that leads to new insight and above all, change.   And it can be scary because ...

Ok, I am dating myself.   The song, Anticipation , came to mind as I considered this blog entry.   Written in 1971 by the singer, Carly Simon, the first words are: “We can never know about the days to come But we think about them anyway, yay” I am writing this long before it is due because I will be traveling.   And I am having lots to anticipate because I am one of two Sisters from Sinsinawa attending the closing events for 800 th Jubilee Year for the Order of Preachers in Rome. But from the place in time that I am writing, I am trying to temper my anticipation and expectations to be open to each unfolding moment of this global gathering of Dominicans - women and men. While Carly’s song is a love song and speaks of a particular relationship, for me in this moment, I am filled with humility and awe as hundreds of Dominicans from around the world gather and be in relationship with each other. This blog will be posted just as I return and in the future I will ...

I spend part of my time here in Denver volunteering at EarthLinks.  The operation is centered around a large urban garden nearby the Mile-High Stadium and includes a solid community of participants that work and break bread together.   While the primary goal of EarthLinks is to foster community for these folks who can often feel isolated and marginalized, it also provides some resources, a clearinghouse for helpful information, a secure environment, and ample opportunity for participants to commune with nature and to develop creative skills.  Each day begins with a communal breakfast, prepared by the participants with donated food and produce from the garden.  I’ve spent most of my volunteer days so far working with participants at the various workshops—it’s been a great way to get to know the community.  It’s also super-fun to be involved in their daily activities: working in the garden, making soaps and lotions from the herbs they grow, building bee b...

Several years ago a movement called Random Acts of Kindness began, a movement encouraging us to do kind deeds for strangers, such as paying fees for others on toll roads or buying someone a cup of coffee. I had a t-shirt with this slogan written in big bold letters. This year is a variation on that theme in Juneau.  2017 has been designated as the Year of Kindness here. Every resident is asked to do one act of kindness each day for the entire year. Once a week we are asked to reach out to someone not usually in our familiar groups, such as someone from a different culture, religion, ethnic background, etc.  The goal of this endeavor is to improve the well-being of our community by: lowering the crime rate and improving the over-all health of its citizens. Another goal is to reach across various kinds of boundaries in order to become a more united community. As disciples of Christ we know we have already been called to care for our neighbor. Reaching out to strangers...

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 ...