Death is difficult, no matter your culture or religion, but the difference between us was faith. Their faith was carrying them through the agony, and I was stuck in it, unable to rely on anything besides myself.

Mary-Cabrini Durkin was an Ursuline Sister of Cincinnati for 41 years and an educator and is now part of the secular institute of the Company of St. Ursula, USA. Worldwide, the Company of St. Ursula has 800 members, who carry their relationship with Christ into the world in their particular country, culture and occupation.

In the Welcoming Prayer, this attitude of surrender is carried into daily life and helps us catch the false-self programs before they sink their teeth into us. It does not operate out of our head, but rather invites us to be in touch with the feelings in our bodies as our starting point.

GSR Today - We have rediscovered a handful of Lenten, Holy Week and Easter reflections published from years past to inspire you in this Holy Week and into the early Easter season.

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.