Pilgrim progress- a disciple on a journey!

 St. Catherine dictating 'The Dialogue'  This morning I realized two things: (a) if I do not feed the blog something soon it will wither away into nothingness and (b) that I am definitely moving a lot in Dominican circles and am becoming ‘Dominican’- not that this is a bad thing! I find myself drawn more and more to some of their particular saints. Yes, I know, saints are for the whole world but one in particular has been cropping up time and time again: St. Catherine of Siena !   I got her as my patroness at the beginning of last year, not once but twice! Both on our little prayers cards which are distributed to us by our superior and then on one of these internet site which randomly give you a patroness. Guess who I got! I also carry her name as my baptismal name- Cathriona, after my Nana Cathleen and my Granny Kathleen (the later whom I sadly never met). This year, the feast of St. Catherine falls on Vocations Sunday. Unfortunately for St. Catherine, her liturgic

With Vocations Sunday on the horizon, here's some tips for those of you who might be discerning if God is leading you to serve Him in priesthood or religious life. Twelve Exercises to Discern Your Call Imagine yourself 5 to 10 years from now. Do you want to continue in life as you are now? Imagine yourself as a priest or religious ten years from now. Fantasize by going through an entire day in your future as a priest. Visualize yourself being a priest and doing what you imagine a priest does. Notice how your gut reacts to this exercise. What is usually the most life-giving part of your week? What does that say about you? Shadow a priest or religious for a day. Accompany them through the various aspects of ministry. For one week, live as if you decided to enter the seminary or formation program. Notice how you felt. The following week live as if you decided to drop the church vocation question and dismiss it. What feelings are stirred within you? Imagine Jesus loo

Literally, I haven’t been to Emmaus. But the moment I intend that question in a figurative sense. I do not refer to the Palestinian village several miles from Jerusalem , but I refer rather to our own Emmaus, because Emmaus is the place you go when there is nowhere else to go. Emmaus is the place of lost hopes, shattered dreams, and heavy hearts. Emmaus is the place you retreat to when you are bone-tired, beaten down, and broken up by the tragedies and disappointments of life. It may be a village, but it is often a state of mind, characterised by the absence of joy, the lost sense of meaning, the frequent loneliness of the human condition, and the seeming absurdity of life. Have you been to Emmaus? It is the place you escape to when you are hurting and in need of healing, when you are crying and are in need of comfort, when you are exhausted and in need of renewal. If you have lived at all, I suspect you have been to Emmaus or maybe you are still there. The road to Emmaus is frequ