See for Yourself - "I really like to clab," the energetic graduate-school candidate before me said confidently. "Some of my best successes throughout my undergraduate work came when I clabbed."

"The profound silence and stillness that surrounds me at these gatherings has nourished me deeply."

From A Nun's Life podcasts - Does God give you signs that you should be a nun? Listen to one Benedictine sister's story about coming from a family with more than a dozen religious cousins and relations.

"For as long as I can remember, I have always been interested in women religious," says sociologist Christine Gervais. Since a sister baptized her, "it's literally been a lifelong interest that began the day I was born."

I grew up in a home where Dad was an organizer, so we grew up expecting everything to be in order. Dad's workbench had a chalked outline for each tool, arranged from the smallest hammer or screwdriver to the largest. Before we could read, we would line up our Tinker Toy rods by size, shortest to longest. Our building blocks likewise were automatically sorted into small, medium and large.

"When a country is at war, there's no such thing as a safe place," said Fadi Ali, a Syrian refugee currently living with Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus sisters in Buenos Aires. The sisters sponsored him and his family through the Foundation of the Argentine Catholic Commission on Migration in 2015. To Ali, the sisters who took him in are "the best followers" of Jesus, and those who believe in whatever God they want, whatever prophet they want, must consider what those prophets would do today, he said.

"We're looking to our tradition: Our tradition is umuganda. But all cultures have a way they used to live together. It's about finding what used to bring the community together and modernizing it, but taking something that is inborn to the place."

Notes from the Field: Through a chance encounter, a series of unfortunate events, language barriers and a network of connections, a Catholic church helped connect the author to her new home and culture.

"The attitudes of openness, keeping boundaries and being hospitable can be cultivated and they too will change us."