Catherine's Cafe Vocation Blog

I love Summer not for the usual reasons we hear proclaimed, but because that is the season of many celebrations of who we are as Dominicans of Sinsinawa: Community Days, Jubilees, Receptions, and Professions.  Community Days is a time we come together as a community to pray, study, plan for the future of our Congregation, and re-connect with one another. This past weekend after having said “goodbye” to the sister friends who live far away from the motherhouse where I am in ministry, as I was sorting through papers that had accumulated in my book bag, I came across a reflection I had composed 9 years ago in preparation for Final Profession.  Quite frankly, I was “blown away” by what I had written.   The Spirit had certainly been with me during the creation of that document.  Among the many thoughts I found in the reflection was a question one of the sisters in my discernment circle had asked me, “What did you learn through your experience of liv...

At a celebration of the Eucharist recently I was paying less than strict attention to the words of the first reading until I heard “and women of some influence”… who “threw in their lot” to help Paul and Silas (Acts 17:3-4).  I wondered who these women were and how did they influence? Who did they influence?  And how did they find the courage to use that influence to promote this startling new message?  I think we are all capable of being women of some influence – even when we think we make no difference at all. An act of kindness, paying attention to one who rarely receives any, the risk of speaking truth, the commitment to study, the courage to face fear and self-doubt – those are acts of influence like the tossing of a pebble in a pond.  As national and world news fills us with painful words and images, we are challenged to use our influence for the good.  As Rilke wrote, “I live my life in ever widening circles that reach out across t...

Every year, like most Dominicans, I dedicate some time during the summer months to retreat.  It is usually a week, but sometimes I can only fit in five days.  That was the case this year.  I went to the woods outside LaCrosse, Wisconsin.  These hermitages are about a 20 mile ride from the Mississippi River.  Gorgeous country.  Retreat brings extra time – extra prayer time, extra time for rest, and extra time to spend in silence.   I spent part of each day climbing up and down these bluffs.   It was rigorous and amazing.    I found a spring with the purest water.   A sister friend in the hermitage next door shared meals and prayer.   Rumi says: Come out of the circle of time and into the circle of love. That is what retreat allows for…extra time in the circle of love.   Peggy Ryan, OP River Forest, IL