"I could hear the quiet reassurance of an inner voice, saying, 'Stand up for righteousness, stand up for truth. God will be at your side forever.' "

Notes from the Field - Attending the United Nations' 62nd Commission on the Status of Women with my Dominican colleagues taught me more about systemic injustice — including the too-often hidden issues affecting Native Americans — and about empowerment that comes from mutual sharing, from relationship.

Sr. Constance Fonju helps at a school in Massea, Cameroon, for children from the area's Pygmy tribes. She considers it her favorite ministry, and spoke to GSR about how the school came to be.

From A Nun's Life podcasts - In this Random Nun Clip, Sr. Maxine and her guest Sr. Michele Denton talk about surprises along the way to entering religious life.

I enter a photographer's darkroom, not unlike John of the Cross' la noche oscura, the dark night. I fumble in the dark, lit only with a small safelight, a reminder of God's ever-present love in dark places. I breathe in fumes and gently rock the tray; it's never easy to change negative into positive.

"A beam, a signal for safety; what in your heart guides the way?"

Every weekday morning before class begins, Laurie Quirk, chairwoman of the English Department at Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School, waits for students to show up to share a brief prayer service enriched by the words of St. Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal. The weekday prayer service is just one way the school passes on the commonsense Salesian virtues to its 500 students, all girls. They, the alumnae and their families are entrusted to model the Visitation charism developed at a school founded in 1799, the oldest one for Catholic girls in the original 13 states.

GSR Today - It's hard to describe the atmosphere of events like the two-week meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women. They are by turns festive, challenging and exhausting; you cannot possibly take in every event, every forum, every panel discussion related to the challenges women face.

Bernie had been a vowed Franciscan sister for 40 years and seemed quite content and happy in her calling. I envied her remarkable inner peace and happiness with both her vocation and her Poor Clare sisters.

"Jesus was a teacher. All those who chose to follow him were invited to see things differently. To wake up to what is really there. To remove the blinders that keep us seeing through the worldviews and assumptions of an earlier stage of consciousness. To become aware of one's own biases and behaviors so as to enter into the process of transformation. To enter into the process of putting on the mind of Christ."