Notes from the Field - Nongkhai, Thailand, is a rural town with abundant farm land. I live a bike ride away from the town's center, but those I live and work alongside have become my entire world. It may appear as a confining bubble, but I feel perfectly content within these walls.

"It's very strengthening. It's also a garbage collector. There's something about inner garbage that just melts after you've been meditating."

"They've carried out a dialogue where our voices as the affected people were never considered."

Sr. Elaine MacInnes, member of Our Lady's Missionaries, drew on her sensitivity as a musician to learn from Zen masters in Japan and become a master herself, later working with convicts in prison in the Philippines.

GSR Today: In all the national debate over health care and the federal budget, it seems the one thing that is missing most is context.

India's tribal church is upbeat after the Vatican approved the process to canonize Mother Mary Bernadette Prasad Kispotta, the founder of the Daughters of St. Anne, Ranchi, a nun from the community, last summer. The first tribal saint is "a sign of positive change in the Catholic Church in India," says Cardinal Telesphore Placidus Toppo.

I think the call to follow Jesus is as relevant, radical and demanding today as it ever was. But have women's religious communities become irrelevant, as some might think, especially in terms of formation?

"In spite of the reality of systemic evil which we inherit, which has already biased us before we can choose, we have not lost our ability to choose good rather than evil, and hence our capacity for responsibility."

The railroad runs more than 550 miles through 27 communities in the Brazilian Amazon. It runs so close to people's homes that the houses have cracked, and some people have hearing loss.

The trains carry minerals out of the rainforest to the coast. But the tracks separate families from their schools, health centers and fields and, sometimes, the trains stop on the tracks.

See for Yourself - "Please look at the computer screen in front of you. The green boxes are available seats, so go ahead and select where you'd like to sit," the movie ticket receptionist explained. "Select a seat?" I said in horror.