Several weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting Nadiah Mohajir, a Muslim-American woman who spoke after a Chicago screening of "Radical Grace," a documentary about Catholic sisters working for justice. For over five years, Nadiah has provided health education programming to over 2,000 Muslim women and girls in the Chicagoland area and cities across the country.

Conflict between secular principles and growing fundamentalism, as well as rising inequality between rich and poor, worry the tiny Catholic community in Bangladesh. Strikes, school closings and street-protests led by the nation's opposition political party marked the start of 2015 for Bangladesh — a wobbly and uncomfortable moment for those who experienced it, said Maryknoll Sr. Miriam Perlewitz, who is based in the crowded capital of Dhaka.

After communist forces captured Saigon, the capital of a U.S.-backed South Vietnam, on April 30, 1975, more than 1 million Vietnamese were estimated to flee the country. For two decades, they went mainly by sea to nearby Southeast Asian countries, attempting to elude persecution and life under communist rule. On behalf of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Sr. Pascale Le Thi Triu of Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul offered legal and social services to thousands of 'boat people,' or refugees, for 25 years in the Philippines, where she studied social work.

See for Yourself - A colleague and I recently had a meeting about plans for a project. While I dutifully took notes in my trusty portfolio, Debbie did not. I thought to myself, "Wow, she must have a terrific memory if she doesn’t have to write anything down."

Book review - Published by Orbis in September, Transformational Leadership: Conversations with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is a collection of 18 interviews that will interest not just members of women religious' communities, but anyone in leadership seeking to act faithfully as an agent of transformation in challenging, changing circumstances.

"Divine wisdom, peace and love are part of your being, your soul."

Notes from the Field - My previous posts have touched on the work we are doing for the Big Laurel Learning Center and as aides in the local schools. Equally exciting is the work we have do during our personal time on the property of Big Laurel, learning what it means to live in rural isolation and practice some homesteading techniques.

The Nativity scene is what comes to mind for many of us when we think about Christmas. There is the manger with Mary kneeling by the infant Jesus with Joseph by her side. Often there are shepherds and a few sheep as well as some angels hovering in the sky. When St. Francis of Assisi created this image in the 1200s, he did it to remind people that this holy day is about worshiping God rather than gift giving. But this visual image did far more than that. For the people of his time it spoke to the felt sense of what this mystery was about, and it became a permanent part of our religious imagination.

Pope Francis advanced the sainthood causes of a Lutheran convert who established a branch of the Bridgettine order in her country and a U.S. missionary who died while ministering to the wounded in Vietnam.

"If we look at our hands, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. No one shares the same thumbprint, and no one has in the past, nor will in the future. We have different roles in God's kingdom, but we are all in the same garden. We are all special flowers, and it does not matter what denomination you are if you have love."