God’s designs demonstrate that diversity is a gift, a naturally essential part of community. To encounter “the other” — someone who is different from us in experience, perspectives and ideas — should stretch and grow us. We are compelled to work out the tough parts of our dynamics and dialogue about our differences.

GSR Today - On a particularly gorgeous and jigsaw puzzle-perfect sky day, I was turtle-ing across campus. I wasn’t in any particular hurry for once, so I could take my time and take in the beauty of the day.

Have you ever lost something when you seem to be moving around too much or are overly distracted by a number of things? In past months I misplaced a sweater that I had been using daily but, in the end, I am without any idea where I had left it. Sometimes it is a book or a key; all kinds of things get lost. I have been thinking of such things since talking to Sr. Rebecca Kay Thi Oo, a Good Shepherd Sister from Myanmar, after she had attended the Vatican-sponsored International Symposium on the Pastoral Care of the Road/Street.

Notes from the Field - Immokalee, Florida, is the center of the region's agriculture industry and is home to many immigrant and migrant families, who have had to organize for decent working conditions and wages. I'm extremely pleased to be working with such a strong and determined organization as a Humility of Mary volunteer.

Three Stats and a Map - Forest fires have been blazing in Indonesia throughout the year, making it likely that the country will experience more fires in 2015 than it did in 2006, one of its worst fire seasons on record, and the costs are enormous, to humans, the environment and the islands-nation's biodiversity.

From a Nun's Life podcasts - We answer a question from a postulant (candidate) about how property is disposed of as one enters religious life, and when is the best time to do so.

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die.” 

Communities of Catholic sisters in Guatemala provide care for some of the country's poorest citizens, especially children, in lieu of a government hobbled in political turmoil, strict adoption laws and budget constraints. The women also confront a tradition in which the church has traditionally offered social services for the poor and not the state. 

"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.