When 200 girls from local Catholic high schools arrive at Philadelphia's St. John Neumann Center on Feb. 12, they'll be participating in an event that's a tiny bit of history in the making: a one-day seminar marking the first time the (mostly black) Oblate Sisters of Providence and the (mostly white) Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary will collaborate on a vocations project.

The Sister Water Project is just one of dozens of sister-led efforts to bring clean drinking water to those without. But project committee member Sr. Judy Sinnwell said the venture has been as much about changing those involved as it is about changing the lives of those given fresh water. "When we set out to do this, we were thinking of what would happen out there as we met a need," Sinnwell said. "But what happened in the congregation was it impacted all of us."

GSR Today - People are gathering across the world Feb. 8 in prayer and observances of the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking.

Horizons - Although walls of selfishness can block me from being my best self, solitude is an important element in my path to communion with God.

While sisters praised Pope Francis' recent acknowledgment of the issue, they called for follow-through by establishing protocols for reporting the physical and sexual abuse of sisters and changing the underlying clerical and power structures.

Alumnae of African Sisters Education Collaborative's programs celebrated the launch of a book that chronicles the work of women religious who have improved African lives and created positive change. 

You might have seen Sr. Norma Pimentel around: hoping to talk with President Donald Trump when he made his Texas-Mexico border visit in January; speaking at the United Nations; testifying before Congress; being part of an international satellite broadcast in 2015 with Pope Francis just before the pope's U.S. visit. But that's not all.

In Part 2 of this series, Global Sisters Report explores the parallels between the unlikely community of women religious and millennial "nones" and their potential for a meaningful collaboration. While the decline in numbers at institutional congregations may be a discouraging trend to some, the union of these two groups may answer who could inherit the charisms that animate religious life today.

The fruitfulness of the LA Freedom Walk happened because of relationships and rain, both connecting us and cementing us in a common challenge — to end human trafficking.

Notes from the Field - Sitting in an office most days, reading technical and political reports and dense documents, hardly seems like the idea of service I had envisioned as a volunteer.