Commentary - In mid-April of this year, I was one of 38 Catholic leaders from 22 different Catholic reform organizations that met in Limerick, Ireland, in a four-day conference to discuss the state of the church. We spoke about the need to revitalize the church and the issue of authority as key in that revitalization. We spoke about the need of the Vatican to decentralize in favor of strengthening the local churches.

"Our response cannot be to go backwards – that is impossible. Rather we enter the future from this paradigm acknowledging its strengths and limits so as to include that which is of value as we continue outward interpreting our reality from this new place."

GSR Today - Balance, it seems, is often the real key to success for any organization with a mission. You can’t, after all, do everything. And you can’t always do the things you’d like to in exactly the way you’d like to do them. You have to find a balance between the mission at hand and the resources available.

Commentary - The LCWR experience is a 21st-century story and the latest version of this “uneasy alliance” that American sisters have negotiated and finessed, both within the church and in secular society where male, hierarchical authority and gendered politics have usually defined the terms and set the parameters of power, status and leadership.

Volunteer programs directed by sisters seek to bring people to the "next level" of social justice, teaching them not just to provide charity but to empower people in marginalized communities. And volunteers tend to remain committed to this kind of work long after their official term is over. The St. Joseph Worker Program in St. Paul, Minnesota, for example, conducted a survey recently of 110 former volunteers. Fully 95 percent of them responded, and nearly three-quarters are still actively connected to SJW sites. Virtually all of them work for nonprofits and have found ways to continue in the spirit of service fostered by the Sisters of St. Joseph. “They live that life of loving God and neighbor without distinction after they leave us,” said Sr. Suzanne Herder, director of the program.

"What comforts me is that a small band of us are trying to be a drop in the ocean as we commit ourselves to make housing a reality for these communities who have a strong belief in our organization and that they will one day get their rights."

Just two weekends ago, I professed first vows with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, along with my dear Sr. Andrea Koverman. It was a day of indescribable joy! I was humbled by the presence of the hundreds of people - family, friends, sisters, and associates – who gathered to celebrate with us from near and far. And now, this week, I am traveling back to the place where it all started. The first inklings of a call to religious life emerged in the fall of 2008 when I was a long-term international volunteer.

Notes from the Field - When was the last time you participated in a donation effort? Gave some money? Cleaned out your closet or pantry? Volunteered? Bought an item whose proceeds went toward donations? When I was younger, I remember raiding our pantry during food drives at school – usually just clearing out the things that I didn’t really want to ever have to eat.

“I don’t shine if you don’t shine.”