Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

“Today is a good day!” With these words I begin my day each morning. This affirmation awakens in me the awareness that when I choose to live in the present moment I find goodness even when there are difficult experiences and sadness. Along with this affirmation I also set an intention for the day. . . being mindful, kind, grateful, positive, understanding, etc. I come back to my intention throughout the day. I know that the present moment is the only moment we can access and I want to live it as best I can. This past year I moved to the Mound and I minister with our sisters in assisted living and at our villa. I believe the Spirit led me to begin what I call “Mindful Mondays.” Sisters are invited to gather for 15-20 minutes of mindfulness practice. We begin with relaxing and breathing exercises. Thich Nhat Hanh, Jon Kabet-Zinn, youtube videos guide us with some simple ways to become more mindful. Poetry, song, and prayer are woven into our sessions. We encourage one another to l...

Settling-in can be an unsettling process.  Three weeks into a new ministry, a new community and living in an unfamiliar city, I’m far from feeling grounded.  I’m still trying to establish my routines, navigate interpersonal dynamics and negotiate the ins-and-outs of everyday life.  Big, new beginnings like these can be bittersweet reminders of how I remain a deeply flawed and insecure person.  There’s no lens like major life change or being unsettled to clearly view my fears, my sense of entitlement, and my need for control—this is the gift of itinerancy. Nevertheless, I sense a calmness and confidence settling-in.  I’m finally finding the time to take a breath and appreciate all the potential that this newness has to offer.  Moments like these are the closest we come to having a clean-slate—and they become what we allow them to become.   A supportive, justice-minded community, a life-giving ministry with solid, competent colleagues, a monu...

Sixteen years ago, on September 11, 2001, I was in New York City with several of our Sinsinawa Sisters.   Four of us were attending a meeting at the United Nations and we were staying at our convent in Manhattan.   Beginning with that Tuesday morning in New York, we navigated together through the devastating and frightening days that followed the attacks on the World Trade Center.   This terrible event that we remember as “9/11” marks for me a catastrophic shift in our understanding of ourselves and of our world.   For many, “security” seems to be the reality that trumps many values that have been essential to the fabric of our nation.   Seeing the “other” as a potential threat rather than as an opportunity to encounter Jesus is a view that seems pervasive.    Each year when the anniversary of “9/11” occurs, I find myself reflecting about how this event continues to shape us.   In these days of many disasters at home and around the worl...

I will always remember a short preaching by Martin, a Dominican student brother and classmate at Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis during my time there as a canonical novice in 2013/14.  Martin, a wonderful brother now known as Ryan Taylor, preached on Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Jesus, angry with those laying unnecessary burdens on people perceived as ‘less than’, and frustrated with unrepentant peoples, was reaching out with compassionate love to those struggling and marginalized.              Martin pointed out, however, that Jesus did not promise to remove actual burdens, rather that in and through him, they – and we - are offered rest and respite and hope. Jesus’ full humanity obligates us to offer the same to each other, especially to the most vulnerable among us.   As the Talmud urges, “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world...

What?   Happy New Year?   Yes, this is how I always feel when a new school year begins.   As a long time teacher, I still love the opening of school, the anticipation of a new year ahead, new faces, new ideas, a new season.     It always feels more like a new year than January first!    This is a time of endings and beginnings, a goodbye to summer and hello to autumn – change is in the air.   It’s a good time to ask myself what changes I need to make, to see what needs to be renewed in me as this year moves forward.    I’m very good at prolonging a project.   How often I say to myself, “I’m going to read that book (or article or website or…) soon” and then realize how long it has been ignored.   Or I realize how I promised someone who was temporarily in a rehab center that I’d be over to visit soon – only to discover those days have passed and she’s been discharged.   This new term, new season, new week asks only o...

I’m not referring to the weeks in the year when Sundays in the Church year are counted by the ordinal numbers 1 through 32, but I’m speaking of those times to be expected in the normal course of living.  In our world at Sinsinawa Mound, 2017 Summer Jubilee celebrations are history, and 2017 Community Days are past.  Now during our everyday days, all of us live into the experiences we had during those stirring, inspiring, and uplifting events of the summer doing what we usually do on an everyday basis. In the midst of those ordinary days, I’ve found highlights animating, heartening, and supporting me.   Several of my sisters came for a visit this past weekend, and we enjoyed each other’s company in the midst of ordinary events.   We really didn’t have any great plans; mostly we sat around the dining room table playing games, telling stories, and laughing a lot in the midst of sharing meals and snacks.   When I came into work this morning, someone greet...

This summer I had the opportunity to take a month off.  I traveled north by car.  This gave me the opportunity to pack some items for delivery to Sinsinawa and plan for several events and visits.  For the drive, I had intended to listen to lectures on spirituality and scripture but the changing scenery really captured my heart.  I drove in silence except with the GPS voice reminded me of my next route change or a car on the side of the road or even that police were spotted ahead. Driving through Kentucky there was a sign that caught my attention.  You know the digital signs set up to given instructions of a lane closure or other related notices.  What was recorded made me laugh (and to be cautious of other drivers):  “This Ain’t A Nascar Raceway!” I wanted to move that sign to Florida and plant it many places on I-95. The sign also made me think of the ways we sometimes go through life events at racing speeds and don’t take time to savor the...