Sr. Carol Shinnick of the School Sisters of Notre Dame has been appointed to serve as interim director of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) by its board for a six-month term effective Jan. 1. The three-year term of Sr. Joan Marie Steadman, a Sister of the Holy Cross of Notre Dame, Indiana, ends Dec. 31.

Global Sisters Report followed up with women religious who have spent the last few months and this holiday season helping others and themselves recover from a string of natural disasters, including three hurricanes and two earthquakes. For example, the Daughters of Mary Immaculate, known as the Marianist Sisters, is a small congregation, with only 15 sisters in the United States. However, two natural disasters affected the small community in a span of a few weeks.

My prayer during this season is that we as individuals, families, and communities will become Lights to light up the paths of darkness, ignorance, avarice, and hatred. Let the Light within each human heart burst forth and radiate. 

"To contemplate the manger also means to contemplate this cry of pain, to open our eyes and ears to what is going on around us, and to let our hearts be attentive and open to the pain of our neighbours, especially where children are involved. ... Can we truly experience Christian joy if we turn our backs on these realities? Can Christian joy even exist if we ignore the cry of our brothers and sisters, the cry of the children?"

Notes from the Field - I try to be aware of how my life experiences affect how I understand the ways in which other people navigate the world. Since I mentor Lusila, I especially try to observe how she sees the world. Of course, I cannot know her exact perceptions, but I can use what I know to help her find comfort.

As School Sisters of Notre Dame, our Rule of Life is based on the Rule of St. Augustine. Sometimes I feel his honesty in his Confessions was partly because he lived "community" with such commitment.

In response to Pope Francis' environmental encyclical, Laudato Si', Carmelite Sr. Jane Remson initiated and helped create a 252-page curriculum designed to teach the encyclical to ninth- to 12th-graders and "lead young people to think critically and protect the Earth."

"The physical universe is not a collection of fixed objects but a luminous web of interconnectedness. Space is not an empty container for atoms to bounce around like billiard balls in the air; rather, space is replete with overlapping fields of energy. Nature thrives on local networks of interlocking energy fields."

GSR Today - A few things happened in on my reporter's beat to make the goal of peace more tangible and urgent for me. The first? Being further awakened to the effects of war on real people. And sisters at the U.N., with their mixture of pragmatism and idealism, put what I have seen into global perspective.

"What if we imagine the Incarnation as an invitation to celebrate the potentiality that is ours if we open ourselves to take a long loving look at the real?"