"We need to know why we react the way we do; to explore our racism and sexism; to face into our fears. I believe it is an invitation to be serious about one's spiritual journey and to deepen one's spiritual practice."

Sr. Bridget Tighe, a member of the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood, is executive director of Caritas Jerusalem in Gaza, a place she describes as "an open prison with a population of almost 2 million," where electricity is on only 4-6 hours a day and the tapwater undrinkable. The Caritas health care center she manages is the hub for outreach projects.

I am not a person who likes to sit around doing nothing when I have some free time. Since I am a teacher, during the summer I like to try to find something that will take me to the edge, out of my comfort zone and call me to more. This summer I volunteered at Camp Suzanne which is an outgrowth of Get On The Bus out of the Center for Restorative Justice in North Hollywood, California.

Early last month I was giving a day presentation to religious congregations in San Rafael, California. The day focused on the power of contemplation as a transformative process, the transformation of consciousness and communal contemplation. The day ended with a section on exercising contemplative power. During the final discussion the question arose as to whether we could do something collectively to exercise contemplative power during this election.

Felician Sr. Celeste Goulet had never met a native person when she first felt called by the Holy Spirit to work with them following a 30-day retreat in 1973. Now she's a pastoral leader among the North Slavey people of Tulita, Northwest Territories, Canada, where she's been ministering since 1979.

GSR Today - I covered the annual assemblies of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in 2014 in Nashville, Tennessee, and in 2015 in Houston. This year, I instead covered the Resource Center for Religious Institutes' national conference in southern California.

"Our life can also become a journey of learning, building, sharing, consoling and rejoicing, if only we keep our hearts open to the promptings of God."

Mother Theodore Guerin was canonized October 15, 2006, making her Indiana's only saint. Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods began celebrating the 10th anniversary with a special Mass on her October 3 feast day. They planned to recall her arrival in Indiana with another service October 22.