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."

Environmentalists are mourning the death of Charity Sr. Paula Gonzalez, a Cincinnati nun who spent the last 45 years of her life advocating for renewable energy. Gonzalez, 83, died July 31 at the Charity Sisters' Ohio motherhouse.

GSR Today - Hurricane Earl was downgraded to a tropical storm late last week, but not before it caused death and damage in the Dominican Republic and Belize. As usual, people in the impoverished areas in the path of the storm were the most affected.

Sr. Infant Tresa is both a Catholic nun and a yoga master. The 65-year-old manages two yoga centers in Kerala, a Christian stronghold in southern India, at a time when some church leaders, including the Vatican's chief exorcist, Fr. Cesare Truqui view the ancient Indian system as satanic. Tresa is among the more than 7,000 members of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation, a Kerala-based congregation with the largest number of women religious in India. She says yoga is an extension of her religious life and has helped cure her of illness.