In 1866, six "brave young sisters" started a school in post-Civil War Nashville. In the years that followed, the sisters' ministry has expanded across the state and helped shape the Catholic church in Tennessee.

The story begins with a request in 2010 from Bishop Emmanuel Trance of the diocese of Catarman, Northern Samar, one of the poorest provinces of the Philippines. Would our sisters, who run the Divine Word Hospital 150 miles away in Tacloban, open another?

Presentation Sr. Cecilia Suwannee Phetpanomporn's vocation took her from Thailand to Australia and back home again, where she now ministers to Karen refugees on the border with Burma.

"When the harvest is plenty, why are so many people left hungry?"

More than 500 clergy and people of faith across religious denominations joined the Standing Rock Sioux Nation and its supporters against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

"We were made to be in relationship with one another. From the very beginning, each one of us was born into a web of relationships. Over time, we grow in these relationships and with each new person we meet, our webs become intertwined. There's no helping it. The true task of our living, though, is to recognize the nature of this entanglement."

One of the greatest blessings of my life and professional career was my education and certification as a Myers-Briggs Master Practitioner. Through understanding and use of the Myers-Briggs, I felt God placed me in a position to grow in self-knowledge while working to develop healthy, constructive relationships in so many corporate applications.

GSR Today - I have often in this space said I'm not the one with the answers. But this time, I know exactly what to do. I know how to change the game. I know how to ensure we never reach this point again.

Sr. Mary Carmela N. Cabactulan stepped outside the Sisters of Mercy convent in Tacloban November 8, 2013, to face the biggest crisis in her more than 40 years as a member and now leader of her community. The raging winds of Typhoon Haiyan had ripped off roofs, shattered walls and left the buildings of the school that had served 1,500 students in shambles under a thicket of fallen trees and debris. Damaged, too, was the adjacent 50-bed hospital the sisters ran.

Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, Texas, serves as a way station for those just released from Border Patrol processing centers. As the center reaches 200-plus visitors a day, Catholic Charities director Sr. Norma Pimental looks toward expansion.