More than 1 million people who took refuge in relief camps as unprecedented floods battered 12 of Kerala's 14 districts during July and August. At least 474 people died in the floods, most of them when the deluge was severest Aug. 15-20, says Fr. George Vettikattil, who heads the relief operations under the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council, in the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. The floods affected more than 5.41 million people, he estimates, based on data from various jurisdictions.

Rituals carry us through darkness and into the light during this season. They express the desire and longing that we feel and feed our joy as we wait together.

Celebration's Scripture for Life column – Metanoia is an approach that both hopes and works for the time when things will be as God created them to be. John the Baptist pointed out what that looks like in action.

Horizons - Recently, I've been avoiding a variety of things for some reason: Christmas card writing, cleaning out the refrigerator, paying bills, even getting a haircut. What's up with the delay, I ask myself? 

From Where I Stand: To address climate change, nothing much can happen to the world around us until something happens within us that is beyond money and power, that seeks global harmony.

The city of Patna, India, has committed itself to creating a "Smart City," and the government is accusing certain city residents of "encroachment" to conceal its real hidden agenda of pushing out the impoverished and homeless. They have chosen the development of land over the development of a people. 

Women who worked in Ireland's "Magdalene laundries" but were denied compensation under the state's Magdalene Restorative Justice program have won their long-running battle to have their applications reassessed. New legislation will ensure that payments to the women will be fast-tracked by the Irish state in an effort to make amends for the delay they have endured over their disputed compensation for their time working in the laundries. 

Notes from the Field - In fewer than two months working at a nonprofit, I realized the narrow hole through which I was viewing the tech industry. These innovations could free up more time and energy to dedicate to our girls, which is why we are all there to begin with.

I who have taught a university class, "The Holocaust, Never Again," cringed as I listened to him and the others speaking on a panel sponsored by Project Lifeline. That project is trying to shine a light on the 134,526 refugee and immigrant children who were put in detention centers in 2017, after fleeing danger and hardship and seeking protection in the U.S.

Cleveland's Thea Bowman Center provides meals and help with education and social services to the predominantly black Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. The center's annual gala raises money for operating costs. This year's gala featured actress Sherrie Tolliver as Bowman in a one-woman show. GSR spoke to Tolliver and board member Gayle Bullock about Bowman's legacy.