Sr. Deborah Borneman thinks about vocations and religious life a lot – not just because she’s a Sister of Saints Cyril and Methodius, but because it’s her job. But of course, it’s more than just a job. Borneman is passionate about religious life, which comes through quickly when speaking with her. Many will find out for themselves when Borneman will speak at the "discern. Conference" at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Love returned two hundredfold - Contemporary conversations about how we approach dying are in part a reaction to 20th-century traditions like embalming, funeral homes and spending one’s last days in hospitals. In this midst of this lively and often graphic debate, some members of the Sisters of Mercy, one of the larger religious congregations in the Americas, are offering an alternate perspective, one that balances the certainty of human mortality with their strong faith.

Out of the last half of the 14th century comes an unknown writer giving us a spiritual treatise called, The Cloud of Unknowing. This it seems is the basic state of our relation with God – a state of unknowing, symbolized by a dense cloud between us. Sometimes, mercifully, the cloud is pierced by God’s “dart of longing love.” Most of the time we live with the cloud of unknowing above and the cloud of forgetting below.

GSR Today - Notre Dame Sr. Bui Thi Kim Ngoc is a cheerful soul. She has a buoyant personality and smiles a lot as she stumbles through her English, laughing at her own mistakes. You can’t spend more than a few minutes with her without feeling refreshed, uplifted. At age 38, Kim Ngoc is the principal of the Anh Linh Free School in bustling Ho Chi Minh City, which locals continue to call Saigon.

There is much talk these days about the upcoming encyclical of Pope Francis on the environment. Scholarly conferences, workshops, articles, talk shows and interviews are focused on what the pontiff might say on the environment and the looming consequences of global climate change. It is an extremely important area to engage, since polar ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising and the biological niches of fisheries and natural flora are radically changing. Ecology has become such a hot topic in the public sphere, especially among political and religious circles, that we have not paused sufficiently to ask, what exactly are talking about?

"I believe that the more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction."

From A Nun's Life podcasts - What's it like to minister in Immaculate Conception Academy, a Cristo Rey school?

Three Stats and a Map - On Monday, the United Nations issued a new report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, which has been entrenched in bloody conflict since last year when crackdowns on anti-government protests turned deadly. Within months, Ukraine’s president had been run out of the country and Russia had invaded, all of which only sparked more violence.

Louise Simon, 66, knows each of us has the ability to make a contribution to whatever we believe in and to make a difference. "Being a Mercy Associate for nearly 20 years has led me on a faith journey that I would otherwise not have experienced. It has taught me much about myself and my faith and has brought wonderful people into my life."