GSR Today - In a letter issued Friday – two days before the official start date – Pope Francis said the purpose of the Year of Consecrated life was to honor the past and embrace the future of religious life, encouraging religious communities to reflect on their unique histories with an eye to the histories yet to be written.

Thomas Berry would have been 100 on Nov. 9, 2014. Many conferences around the world, including the “Living Cosmology: Christian Responses to the Journey of the Universe,” held recently at Yale Divinity School, honored him on his centennial birthday. Berry’s influence on the world of science, ecology and religion, particularly at the beginning of the new millennial era, has been significant. It is an appropriate time to look at the emerging legacy of the “great work” he inspired in so many people.

Religious orders and the Vatican congregation that assists them must be bold in assessing whether current structures and practices help or hinder the proclamation of the Gospel, the pursuit of holiness and the service of the poor, Pope Francis said. "We must not be afraid to leave 'old wineskins,' that is, to renew the routines and structures that, in the life of the church and in consecrated life, no longer respond to what God is asking us today in order to promote his kingdom in the world," the pope, a former Jesuit provincial superior, told members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.

An interfaith candlelight march and prayer vigil was held on the eve of the U.N. climate summit, which will run from Dec. 1 to 12 in Lima,Peru, a city of 9 million people that sprawls across the country's coastal desert. The summit is seen as a crucial last step on the road to a new international treaty to curb emission of greenhouse gases, which a new U.N. study says could push global temperatures to dangerous levels by the end of this century.

GSR Today - The Fall 2014 issue of Connections, the magazine of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, in St. Louis, features a story about St. Joseph Sisters Ida Berresheim and Sandra Straub and their work in El Paso, Texas, at Annunciation House, serving families fleeing violence in Central America. It’s also a story about how sisters from many congregations across the country came together and pooled resources to serve those in need.

Srs. Julie Vieira and Maxine Kollasch started A Nun's Life Ministry as a blog in 2006, shortly after taking their vows to be Immaculate Heart of Mary sisters. That expanded three years later to include podcasts (online radio-type programs), and for more than a year they have been taking this show on the road to visit sisters at their communities. And someone must be listening: A Nun’s Life is closing in on 275,000 downloads of their archived podcasts. “People ask us if there are still vocations,” Vieira said. “Numbers like that tell us people are longing for what religious life has to offer and finding something in religious life that speaks to them.”

From A Nun's Life podcasts - How can living in a different culture lead to new understandings about God?

"O Prince of Peace, prepare the way of our hearts moving us toward your justice."

"How can we help each other to know who we are is a blessing?"

Three women who recently took final vows as Maryknoll sisters after a lengthy discernment process said they were drawn to the order by a lifestyle of simplicity, its international presence and the diversity of its mission work. Srs. Abby Avelino, Julia Shideler and Anastasia Lee took their final vows during a Mass attended by nearly 250 people in Westchester County, N.Y., As Maryknoll sisters, they are part of an international order with approximately 500 members serving in 25 countries. In taking their final vows, the women publicly committed to lives of poverty, chastity and obedience.