GSR Today - Kansas City's annual Blisters for Sisters celebrates sisters and raises a little money for the Serra Club. From the 174 sisters in attendance at this year's walk/run and more, I encountered sisters from around the world — a microcosm of religious life today.

Little Sisters of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus work in the areas of health, agriculture and education, serving those who live in rural Haiti. The sisters help residents deal with drought, fallout from climate extremes like hurricanes, the effects of climate change, illness and the need for clean water. The sisters carry on their mission with a sense of enduring hope.

"Lean with all your weight on Providence, and you will find yourself well supported."

Postville, Iowa - On May 12, 2008, local police and federal immigration agents arrested 400 people at a meat-processing plant — a raid that disrupted hundreds of lives and changed this Iowa town. Ten years later, more than 300 people gathered at St. Bridget Church to mark the anniversary of the raid and to dedicate themselves to enacting change so similar raids do not happen again.

See for Yourself - "Where is everybody going?" One cruise. Two vacations. Two retiree trips. One trip home. I looked out the window imploringly, wishing by now we were already at the terminal. Should I make up something exotic?

During a hike, I climbed a fire tower. At the top, wind and fear knocked me over, leaving me clinging for dear life to the rail at the center of the winding stairs. Such a place of utter dependence is one I avoid at all costs. My struggle with mental illness since my early 20s has brought me unwillingly to this place.

"When the history and cultural context shifts, guess what's right behind it? The expression of religious life shifts to match it." 

"People don't just come to Mass and then go home. They are walking in their faith, and there is so much care about people, their issues, their struggles. It is a place of faith and action, a unique community."

I cannot open the jar of homemade dill pickles, nor can I eat them. And Loretta Zielinski made good pickles. Common sense told me to get rid of them, but my heart told me they stayed right where they were in the back of my fridge. Those pickles were a big part of my mother.

Kon Tum City, Vietnam - The Filles de la Médaille Miraculeuse congregation, which recently celebrated its 70th anniversary, has 153 sisters from eight indigenous groups who work in 32 communities in the provinces of Kon Tum and Gia Lai. Three ya, a Bana ethnic word meaning "sister," shared with Global Sisters Report their stories about their vocations, work and the choice to live with the order.