"What you need is at the table."

See for Yourself - The numbers were all there from the beginning: Pope Francis became pope in the third month on the 13th day of the 13th year of the new millennium.

National Catholic Sisters Week, held this year March 8-14, is an annual celebration honoring women religious with an eye toward encouraging young women to consider a vocation for themselves. In a major change from NCSW's first two years, when the vast majority of events were held at or near St. Catherine University in Minnesota, organizers are encouraging and supporting events around the nation with small grants.

From A Nun's Life podcasts - Can I discern between two loves — a boyfriend and becoming a sister? This happens more than not, to feel conflicting pulls while you're in discernment: relationships, different religious communities, careers.

As a novice with the sisters of the Religious of the Assumption in Manila, Philippines, in 1986, Sr. Mary Ann Azanza expected to be with the poor, ministering to them, praying with them, and feeding them. And as a member of groups that were trying to oust Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, she expected reprisals and at one point even expected to be jailed for her activities. But she never expected to find herself between hundreds of thousands of people and a line of tanks and soldiers.

From A Nun's Life podcasts - In August 2013, A Nun’s Life Ministry visited the Sisters of Notre Dame in Toledo, Ohio. In this clip from that Motherhouse Road Trip, we talk to two sisters who had different paths to the same religious life

Having entered a religious community in 1966, I am definitely among the "old wine" comfortably settled into the biblically referenced old wineskins (Mathew 9:17), a well-worn garment that cannot be repaired by a patch of new cloth.To encounter new wine — a new form of religious community and service — old traditions with new structures — is an exciting event. And when I visited the Benincasa community in New York City recently that's what happened: I found a new wineskin, a new piece of cloth.

GSR Today - The Year of Consecrated Life has officially ended, having been celebrated in great diversity throughout of the world. The year gave me time to reflect on my own joy of being a sister and all the changes I have experienced.

"Imagine the world if we treated all people and relationships as Divine."

Sr. Cyrilla Chakkalakal is the fourth Indian to head the Franciscan Sisters of St. Mary of the Holy Angels, which was founded in France in 1871. The congregation is active in seven countries, but 350 of its 500 members are Indian. Chakkalakal has served as the congregation's India provincial for 12 years. She is also a member of the Satya Shodak (a group of female theologians and grassroots theologians) as well as a member of Indian Women Theologians Forum.