"Leaves hold fast, soon to drop all but their legacy. What footprints will we leave on the Earth?"

Sr. Bernadette Prochaska is a Franciscan Sister of Perpetual Adoration and professor of English at Marquette University. Every summer since 1992, she has taught English to women and men religious in the Czech Republic. Most recently, she has taught through a program sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which this summer welcomed students from 10 different dioceses, mostly from the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

GSR Today - There’s just something about making and eating bread that has always seemed supremely spiritual to me; even the phrase “breaking bread” evokes in my head strong and immediate images of Jesus eating with his disciples. So it makes sense to me that my first time baking bread will be in order to break bread with an intentional community within my church family.

Kathy Schiro, director of Mercy Associates for the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, Mid-Atlantic Community, explains how laypersons can be part of religious life. Associates are women and men who are committed to another state of life also made known their desire to share various aspects of Mercy life and ministry, organized according to guidelines and policies developed by the community.

GSR Today - The Jesuit Refugee Service is presenting Mercy Sr. Denise Coghlan the JRS Accompany Award on Dec. 1. Coghlan is one of the founding members of JRS Cambodia, where she has served displaced people for 25 years.

While the Catholic church's role in caring for the Earth has gotten more attention in recent months following the publication of Pope Francis' encyclical, Laudato Si', a dedicated group of women religious has occupied a special place in the Earth justice movement for decades, working to bridge these various social justice silos that operate as though progress were a zero-sum game.

An image swept over me toward the close of the Parliament of World Religions last month. I was swimming in the ocean. I saw the larger known creatures closer to the surface — whales, dolphins, swordfish — then I began going deeper seeing species of fish I didn’t even know existed. The variety of colors and shapes thrilled me. There were even those who were translucent because they live so close to the bottom of the ocean floor away from the light of the sun. So many different kinds, all unique, all necessary and all part of the evolutionary journey and the sea’s creative energy.

It's generally quiet in the Altar Bread Department at the Monastery of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Westfield as Benedictine nuns in their full habits covered with smocks produce thousands of hosts to be consecrated and distributed to Catholics at the Eucharist. In keeping with the contemplative lifestyle of their order, the Congregation of Solesmes, there is little talking.

Being Catholic means many things to different people — ritual, tradition, care for people who are poor and reading the signs of the times in light of the Gospel. We may choose to emphasize certain aspects of what it means to be Catholic, but they are each integral pieces of the whole. Our shared experience as people on the journey stretches over centuries, across continents and beyond divisions. God is bigger than it all, and we are invited to participate in that bigness as God’s people.

"If we live the Gospel and focus on building God’s reign through acts of service and love, we can hope for the bonus of heaven’s freedom when we die. Heaven can be a blessed bonus for life abundantly lived, but it is not the goal of living."