At the LCWR Assembly in August, I had the good fortune and distinct honor of being in a small discussion group of young leaders that inspired and challenged me, leaving me with a feeling of buoyancy. The most lasting aspect of our conversations, partnered with the other dialogues and addresses of the assembly, was the consistent and virtually universal sense that the changes occurring in women's religious life right now are demanding of us not just something new and different, but something transformative.

"Waters wash clean the unsettled within. What do our waters need to purge inside?"

"We will digest the sorrow and beauty again and again showing up, praying, working. What else can we do but Love the world as deeply as we can?"

GSR Today -  On All Saints' Day, the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine of Siena living in Irbil, Iraq, wrote a letter to their supporters across the world, to update them on the situation in Iraq.

Notes from the Field – As I serve and accompany others in my work with Franciscan Mission Service, both models of these holy women continually challenge me.

The New Religious Movement in Africa continues to define and redefine traditional Christian practices through its various methods of prayer and worship. The new movement adheres to beliefs and practices that are not in line with orthodoxy within a particular society and time. Among these methods, spirit possession — a belief that extraterrestrials take control of the human body — leads the chart.

Lakshmi Thapa left her home when a young man, a Christian missionary, invited her to Jorhat, a town in Assam, northeastern India. That was in 1953, and Thapa was just 18. During the past 63 years, Lakshmi became a Catholic, changed her name to Rose and went on to serve an indigenous religious congregation for women as its first native superior general.