A few weeks ago I saw my first "Back to School" flier of the season. In the past several years, such fliers stirred up emotions of stress and panic for me, along with excitement. As a teacher, back to school sales served as glaring reminders that I had a lot to do.

University of Georgia history professor Diane Batts Morrow has been studying the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first congregation of black Catholic sisters in the United States, since she was doctoral student in the late 1990s. In 2002, Morrow published a book about the Oblate sisters in the antebellum United States, and she is currently working on a second volume.

When members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious convene in Atlanta next week, they will discuss a familiar topic: the future of religious life. In discussions, they will use contemplative dialogue, a process through which people in a conversation intentionally set aside their biases in order to listen to others and to what others trigger emotionally in themselves. LCWR's 2016 assembly is Aug. 9-13 under the theme "Embracing the Mystery: Living Transformation."

From A Nun's Life podcasts - In this LOL Random Nun Clip, the nuns discern Sister Julie's call to become an astronaut #DiscernmentDemo. 

"Rows at attention, watching, guarding. What gets our attention?"

Recently at provincial meetings, a presenter talked about workaholics as if they weren't people. In her rather dated way of looking at balance in life, she referred to workaholics as if they were a special breed of "automatons" who lived in a vacuum. Shortly after, a sister who came by my office surprised me by greeting me with the words, "Hey, Workaholic!"

GSR Today - Spending time with the Benedictines of Erie helped me realize the things I deeply desire in my own life. While living in intentional community, and as I participated in the sisters' practices, I came to recognize my longing to live a life of passion, joy, love and purpose.

Sonoma County, California, Adult Detention Facility. Veteran volunteer, Cece Gannon, retired teacher and therapist, teaches the course. We had designed the 14-week course together in 2008, using materials written by Brian Thomas Swimme, Ph.D. However, in the several years since, the course usually extends to over three months because discussion gets so involved.

"What making a home for hope does do, however, is shift how we see the suffering around us. It brings new possibilities to light and orients our response toward a future. Hope keeps us from hiding under the covers and eggs us on to action."

GSR Today - The Daughers of Charity in Ethiopia are among groups trying to increase eye care in a country where 80 percent of blindness is preventable and other eye diseases are prevalent.