In the Litany of Loreto, Mary is called "cause of our joy." There are many reasons for considering her such; many of them are caught up by the feast of the Assumption. This glorious feast, celebrated today, August 15, is a testimony to the power of the laity and of our devotion to the mother of God. It also underscores Catholic belief in the goodness of the human body and in its promised resurrection. The feast likewise counters any and all tendencies to think that the female human body is excluded from such goodness and from the possibility of glorification with God in eternity.

Abraham Núñez avoided dying by just a few steps. "I went in the mine Monday morning and came out later for coffee," Núñez, 36, recalled. "I went back in a half hour later. I heard a hellish noise. I was just going in, and I turned around and ran out." The noise he heard was a landslide that trapped 11 men in a mine in this mountainous area in July 2014. Eight of the miners died. The mine closed, but Núñez went back to work at another mine the next day.
Read also: Legacy of mining operation lingers in Honduras long after closure

The San Martin mine in the Valle de Siria region of south central Honduras, 90 miles north of the capital city of Tegucigalpa, has been closed since 2009. But its impact on local communities, people living in the area say, continues to this day. "The San Martin mine is a clear example of the environmental damage and the consequences for human health from mining," said anti-mining activist Pedro Landa.

GSR Today - Chances are you heard the news about Pope Francis having lunch with Syrian refugees. You might have wondered what the big deal was. A nice gesture, to be sure, but merely a drop of joy in an ocean of pain.

LCWR 2016 - At this year's assembly, LCWR took a first step in addressing issues of race and religious life. A presentation Friday morning, by historian Shannen Dee Williams, Sr. Anita Baird, Daughters of the Heart of Mary, and Dawn Tomaszewski, Sister of Providence, was meant to set the stage for this year's conference resolution, which committed LCWR members to "examine the root causes of injustice, particularly racism, and our own complicity as congregations. . . ."

LCWR 2016 - After two days spent deeply discerning the movement of the Spirit in regard to future of religious life, on Friday, August 12, the membership of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious took a step back to reflect on the 2016 assembly and to celebrate some of its leaders. Later the assembly concluded with a banquet at which the official transfer of leadership occurred and the Outstanding Leadership Award was presented.

"The indwelling presence of the Divine is forever accessible to us. We need only wake up to the mystery of Love always present, always capable of transforming us and our world. It rises up from within as an impulse toward wholeness capable of permeating all of life."

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.