See for Yourself - On a recent gorgeous weather Sunday afternoon, friend Ann and I met at an overlook park for a picnic lunch and some long-overdue catching up. The bench we selected at this urban park was on a high plateau with a vista of a busy river far below, interesting structures across the river, and lush foliage bringing a rural feel into this town-area setting.

The Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul work closely with the numerous ethnic groups in the Dak Lak province of central Vietnam. To do this, they walk a tightrope of diplomacy with the government, which exercises strict control over the province for fear that “reactionary forces abroad incite ethnic groups to fight against the government.” The community of eight nuns in their 30s and 40s carry on the work with ethnic groups, which their order has done since the 1950s.

Sr. Pooja Kollamparambil 42, is coordinator of the Nagpur Multipurpose Social Service Society, an NGO managed by the archdiocese. For three years, she ran a project for people with HIV, and when the project was completed in 2011, she started Asha Kiran (Rays of Hope), a center for children of people living with HIV/AIDS, and the program recently got a new house for the 15 children she currently serves.

GSR Today - The issue of food and hunger is at the center of much of the story of contemporary Bangladesh. That is worth a reflection today on World Food Day, when the international community commemorates the creation of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945.

From A Nun's Life podcasts - Trish Clark, author of Guide to the Camino, talks about the reasons why people walk the 528-mile pilgrim path from France to Spain.

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.