Three Stats and a Map - The recent visit of Pope Francis to the U.S. this month caused a lot of lively discussion on social media, when social media itself is something the pontiff cautions against overusing.

Pope Francis' visit left me with a welter of conflicting feelings. I am proud of U.S. Catholicism and awed by the monumental organizing of dedicated church women and men in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York City. They skillfully orchestrated Francis' much-desired engagement with the poor as well as the politically powerful. And I bemoaned the glaringly persistent visuals of a Catholic liturgy woefully lacking gender balance.

I was on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol along with many thousands of others listening to Pope Francis’ address to Congress on Sept. 24, when he singled out and praised Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement. With the mention of her name, the murmured question, “Dorothy Day, who’s she?” was audible over the scattered applause and cheers of the few who know her and who share the pope’s good opinion of her.

"Sometimes all one can do is pray!"

GSR Today - While I have sensed a hint of hesitancy about Francis here among some people, overall, the pope seems to have the support, if not the affection, of the Catholic community in Bangladesh — a community that is a distinct (and very small) minority in a predominately Muslim country but whose work and reach have an influence well beyond their numbers.

GSR Today - Big things happened in the world last week, and it seems like all the pope mania gave the U.S. a shot of optimism. I was happy for last week’s joyful reprieve, to see happy tweets about papal Fiats, pope dogs and tailgating nuns instead of the constant arguing and bickering. And I was happy to not feel compelled to blog this week about yet another racist or misogynistic thing happening in the world.

“Pick a flower on earth and you move the farthest star.”

The biography Joan Chittister: Her Journey from Certainty to Faith by Tom Roberts was released Oct. 1. It reveals the interior Joan Chittister, from childhood to her becoming the public figure whose brilliance produced a body of written work that will stand as a profound expression of spirituality and women's concerns in this era.

Marian devotion and the spirituality therefrom come down to us from the reflections and writings of the doctors of the early church and the theologians of the Middle Ages; the four-fold Gospel offers only a limited source that features Mary. Marian devotion has become a permanent feature of the Nigerian church. There is hardly a parish in the country without one Marian society or another. A Marian devotee can belong to one or more of sodalities such as the Legion of Mary, the Blue Army of our Lady of Fatima, the Mother of Perpetual Help and others.

"God’s grace is unruly. It comes to change us, to correct our orientation, to direct us beyond ourselves and our desires for importance or exclusive claims to the truth."