GSR Today - I was so excited when Sr. Sidonie Oyembo, provincial of the Sisters of Mary Immaculate of Gabon, was elected the third president of the Confederation of Major Superiors of Africa and Madagascar (COMSAM). She never dreamed three years ago when she attended the second meeting of the organization in Kampala, Uganda, that she would become its leader.

Sr. Jayanthi Simon, a medical nurse, was surprised when she received a call to work in a slum parish of Mumbai, India’s commercial capital. She accepted it, she says, without a second thought, although she had no clue what awaited her in Dharavi, one of Asia’s biggest shanty towns. Eight years later, the 44-year-old nun says she has no regrets, as the experience in the slums has helped her understand and appreciate fellow humans and social realities much better.

A new prayer book that gives advice on how to pray to God at meal time is inspiring Catholic families to restore the value of family meals and relationships. Last month, nearly 700 Catholics from some parishes in Ba Ria Vung Tau province came together to watch dances and morality plays and experience a “heaven meal” held in the Vinh Chau church’s compound. This dinner was the fourth event that Dominican Sr. Mary Nguyen Thi Hong Que has held to help Catholics to experience heaven meals and practice the prayers in the book.

"The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it."

Four Gospel insights for addressing climate change - I know that the Earth community stands on the brink of another ending, the end of the Cenozoic, heyday of flowers, birds, mammals and, recently, humans. I am pondering a sacred scripture, wisdom laid down a mere two thousand years ago: Jesus’ parable of the fig tree.

GSR Today - Notre Dame Sr. Christine Garcia works at the Migrant Resource Center, which provides respite to those traveling north to the United States border and ministers to those who have come south after being deported. The center is operated by the Sisters of Notre Dame with Presbyterian border ministry, Frontera de Cristo.

The prevalence of Hansen's disease in Vietnam has dropped to less than one case per 10,000 people since 1995, when lepers began getting access to free treatment with multi-drug therapy; however, people who do fall ill are marginalized from society and left without much support. In Ben Tre and Tra Vinh provinces, some Lovers of the Holy Cross sisters have spent the past 10 years bringing food, medical assistance, improved housing and companionship to a third of the 420 people living isolated and difficult lives here.

"There is no greater joy nor greater reward than to make a fundamental difference in someone's life."

GSR Today - Women religious were represented at the Academy Awards on Sunday. “Ida,” a movie about a novice nun in the ‘60s that we have mentioned in this column frequently in recent months, won the Oscar for best foreign language film. It became the first Polish movie to ever win the award. We start this week’s round-up with more Oscars week wrap-up.