As I mingle among women, listen to their stories and watch their countenances, a big question arises in my mind. More than half of these women are carrying a large burden on their shoulders and are unable to speak about it. They become victims of violence of all forms. Working in a challenging and highly illiterate state of India, namely Bihar, I often wonder if things will ever change for them. 

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart."

Community opposition succeeded in shutting down mines in Nueva Esperanza in northern Honduras and El Tránsito far to the south near the border of Nicaragua. But to many people in these two small towns the closings serve only as a pyrrhic victory. For now, the armed guards that circled the mines are gone. But gone, too, are the jobs the mines provided. In their place is a lingering loss of trust among residents in these agricultural communities and a continuing fear that this is just a temporary respite before the mines in both towns reopen.

Analysis - Following the report at the conclusion of the apostolic visitation, the letters to sisters' communities are said to be part of the dialogue the sisters asked for and that the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life promised would occur.

Despite intense bombing and severe food shortages, several Carmelite nuns are refusing to abandon the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo and have appealed for urgent aid. "How can we abandon these people in their suffering? Our presence is important for them."

From Where I Stand - Of all the election cycles I've ever been through, this one has be the strangest of them all. The old ones rested on policy differences. But not this time. This time the national concerns are more about who's temperamentally balanced and who isn't; who's honest and who isn't; who's likeable and who isn't; who's competent and who isn't.

More than 5,600 U.S. religious sisters have signed a letter asking for civil discourse in the presidential campaign. The letter was to be sent Aug. 8 to the candidates of the Democratic, Republican, Green and Libertarian parties as well as their vice presidential running mates and the chairs of their respective parties.

See for Yourself - After reading a similar book with my neice, I wondered what an ABC book about religious life would contain. August is the traditional time of commitments in my order, so now is an opportunity to share my heartfelt list.

"Human dignity has become a commodity. Where there is no love, all hell literally breaks loose because without love, no one cares whether we live or die."