GSR Today - Invited to address the bishops' assembly, where the sex abuse crisis dominated discussions, Sr. Teresa Maya, past president of LCWR, offered wisdom of women religious on leadership, having been "tried and tested in many ways."

In my service as a Good Shepherd Volunteer, I found myself hiding behind paperwork and feeling frustrated that my actions were fruitless. But a resident's recent crisis offered the opportunity for a new kind of sacred interaction.

The first black member of the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration was also the first black woman to address the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Thea Bowman is an inspiration to thousands of people with her words and songs. Now, the bishops' conference has endorsed her sainthood cause, which is being undertaken by her home Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi.

The names and concerns of thousands of students and counseling clients have amalgamated into blessings I enjoyed, blessings I struggled to accept, and lessons learned. After nearly 30 years, I still warmly remember one student who taught me a critical lesson.

Ursuline Sr. Larraine Lauter's 10-year-old organization, Water With Blessings, based near Louisville, Kentucky, has distributed filters and prepped thousands of women in maintaining a high-tech water filtering system in Haiti since April 2017.

The day before Sr. Patricia Fox, 71, was scheduled to leave the Philippines where she immersed herself among the poor for 27 years, Global Sisters Report managed to ask her for some parting words. 

We all need to be part of the solutions addressing climate change, the greatest issue of our time. But every part of us needs to be part of the solutions. The answers do not lie only in technology or renewable energy or efficient cars — only part of the solution. The foundation to the solutions lies within a spiritual conversion that shifts and expands worldview, while deepening the roots of our soul view.

In Zimbabwe, more than three-quarters of the population lives in rural areas with poor infrastructure and nonexistent roads. The lack of services critically affects expectant mothers in rural areas, who have difficulty getting to necessary health services before and during birth.

A rule finalizing the religious exemption to the contraceptive mandate should be "the end of a long cultural war fight" over the issue and confirm that the U.S. government "never needed nuns to give out contraceptives" to women, said the president of the Becket law firm.

St. Katharine Drexel forged a connection between Xavier University of Louisiana and the Pueblos of New Mexico. As a Sister of the Blessed Sacrament, I have often said that my soul has taken root with the people and the land of New Mexico; however, my heart is at home at Xavier where I have worked for 30 years