LCWR 2016 - In her keynote address Thursday, Franciscan Sr. Pat Farrell shared her personal experience with contemplation and leadership. What she has learned, she told the LCWR membership definitively, is that contemplation and leadership are one and the same.

"What was considered traditional ways of doing things did not hold up under the exigencies of the moment. Traditions were reinvented. Charisms survived; purpose survived, but all of the customs and homey expectations of the east were left behind."

I didn't know I needed glasses until I was a junior in high school. The girl who sat next to me in choir got new frames, and I asked if I could try them on. I expected the world to blur, as it did when I put on my mom's glasses. To my shock, this particular day during fifth bell, something different happened.

See for Yourself - It was one of the hottest days of the year. I don't know if it was the hottest afternoon on record for the summer, but it had to be close. I would have been in my cool residence, but an outdoor orchestra concert routed me from that cool comfort to a concert venue on the performance stage at a downtown urban park.

LCWR 2016 - During the first full day of the 2016 Leadership Conference of Women Religious assembly, August 10, participants were challenged to explore the future of religious life and reinvent the annual gathering in the face of rapidly declining membership. LCWR President Marcia Allen minced no words in describing the demographic reality confronting women religious in the U.S. In her address to the approximately 800 attendees in Atlanta, she wove a series of vignettes focused on the theme of this year’s assembly: "Embracing the Mystery - Living Transformation."

It's a beautiful day to run. At least, that's what Sr. Sarah Heger thinks. Whether it's hot and humid, cold and rainy, or snowy, the Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet believes every day is good for a run.

" . . . the Lord has called us to such great things that those who are to be a mirror and example to others may be reflected in us . . . ."

Sometimes messages follow us around. This summer voices of violence at home and abroad, the face of white superiority, racism, and the very visceral weather events intensified by climate change through the heat waves, drought, floods seem to attach themselves to us like strong neon colored sticky notes.

LCWR 2016 - On Tuesday night — from a stage lined with LED candles and backlit with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious' signature green and blue — LCWR president Sister of St. Joseph Marcia Allen officially kicked off the conference's 2016 annual assembly in Atlanta. LCWR leadership planned for contemplative dialogue to be the focus of this year's assembly, and the opening night was no exception. 

"A full life ebbs and flows; is alternately creative and at rest; is filled with joy and at other times peacefully contemplative."