Notes from the Field - As I write this, my final Notes from the Field blog with GSR, I am in my last week as a Good Shepherd Volunteer in Chile; by the time it is published, I will have been back in the United States for almost a full week. Have I changed?

"Evolving understanding calls us to shift from fear to love with a level of awareness never before possible. The world needs us for this." 

Adorers of the Blood of Christ sisters take the next step in their protest of the Atlantic Sunrise pipeline, after building a chapel in its planned pathway, on the premise of "freedom of religion."

Today we should all ask ourselves; what have I done to improve the surroundings in which I live?"

Of the 500 people at a 2009 meeting of religious leaders from around the world, not a single woman was invited. One of the eminent speakers at that conference expressed surprise, pointing out that men who start and fight the wars badly need the presence and contribution of women in the decision-making process in order to create a culture of peace. 

In addition to adopting four children and fostering close to 75 more, Srs. Berta Sailer and Corita Bussanmas, Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, opened Operation Breakthrough, a nonprofit early-education center and social service facility in Kansas City that today serves more than 400 children and their families daily.

GSR Today - The Giving Voice National Gathering, we talked about bridges. I am resistant to the idea of bridges because only connecting with our deeper values, risking unearthing ways we are already one, will bring us into unity.

Was it a coincidence that this happened on the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus? On June 3, 2016, Pope Francis raised the July 22 celebration of St. Mary Magdalene from a memorial to a liturgical feast.

Though she feels the church has largely given up on sex abuse victims, Dominican Sr. Sally Butler is not giving up on changing it. She loves the things Pope Francis has said about abuse but says there has been too little action. Because of a discovery in 1993, Butler is unable to believe in the institutional church anymore, even though she has been in religious life for 70 years. But her faith in God, she says, has never been stronger.

"We do not journey alone, nor should we."