"If we were all more hospitable, if we really welcomed the stranger, we'd have a different view of the needs of refugees today."

Each day brings new challenges to our expectations, our traditional values, our long-held ideals. The phenomenon of uncertainty, however, is not limited to national events. It is apparent that all aspects of human experience are subject to some degrees of uncertainty. Realizing this may cause a crack, or at least, send a shiver, to our formerly rock-solid core of belief.

Notes from the Field - In early February, one of my fellow Good Shepherd Volunteers, Liana, and I received an unexpected request from one of our supervisors: "The contemplative sisters who live behind you want to learn English. Can you set up a time to meet?"

"Bursting with joy, life reminds us there is a future full of hope if we believe."

"In gifted counseling, Jesus reveals the problem or the situation of the counselee before you in symbolism," explains Sr. Lissy Vallippalam, a member of the Sisters of Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. "We rely much on God working through us."

Fifty years ago, the historian Lynn White claimed that the roots of the ecological crisis are religious in nature. The primacy of spiritual reality over material reality has led to a mood of indifference with regard to the natural world. Because the roots of the problem are religious, he said, the remedy must be religious as well.

"Self-sustainability is a tough and challenging affair, but venturing into greenhouse farming is one way to ensure we have food and money." 

Every day, hundreds of people walk up and down the Upper Manhattan block of 97th Street just off of Broadway and pass an inconspicuous brown door. They probably never give it a thought or care. But to knock on that door and be greeted by Sr. Mary Petrosky of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary is to enter a warm, welcoming and comfortable space, one that merges the spirit of a convent with a kind of mini-United Nations.

GSR Today - Meditating on the daily liturgical readings sometime during Lent, a daydream about Moses and his staff distracted me. He held it out over the Red Sea and got rid of the water. He hit the rock with it and found water. Wow, a magic wand worthy of a Harry Potter story!

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."