Little Sisters of the Abandoned Elderly help 130 lay staff care for 380 residents at Santovenia home for the aged and for 140 daytime visitors needing food and other support in the capital of Cuba, and the Catholic Comunidad de Sant’Egidio has 200 volunteers in Havana who pair older people with the young to enrich the lives of the poor of all ages.

In her 70s, Mercy Sr. Mary Gomolka decided she needed a change from teaching full time. So she went to Jerusalem. "I have always had a desire to share my musical talents with others. I enjoy a capacity for seeing the potential for peace and good in others and the ways in which music can move that forward. I am enlivened by contacts with those of diverse cultures and faiths and seek ways to share my faith experiences."

GSR Today - The situation in Iraq for Christians and others is growing desperate, as there is enormous lack of supplements, food, water, clothes, medication, housing and money. And Erbil cannot accommodate all these people. However, we are doing what we can. All sisters, who are able to work, leave every morning and are out until evening, trying to help people settle and provide some food, with the help of the church and refugee centers.

Dominican Sr. Attracta Kelly in Adrian, Mich., has been able to speak a few times with the superior of a group of Iraqi Dominicans and knows how desperate their situation is since they escaped Islamicists in northern Iraq. Sr. Maria Hanna, the superior, and 51 other Dominican sisters, along with their family members and other villagers were driven from the Ninevah Plain by Islamic State fighters.
Read more: GSR received a letter from the Dominicans in Iraq via the Adrian Dominicans; a first-hand account of the current situation is posted here.

See for Yourself - The Civil War happened 150 years ago. There was incredible devastation between the north and the south that fills shelves of history books – but it doesn’t fill our daily consciousness. Can we see God, who is beyond our sight?

"Think of how dangerous a temptation it is to adopt a purely functional, worldly mentality which leads to placing our hope in human means alone and destroys the witness of poverty which our Lord Jesus Christ lived and taught us."

In addressing the religious of Korea August 16, Pope Francis stressed the need to live joy-filled lives. “Only if our witness is joyful will we attract men and women to Christ,” he said. “And this joy is a gift, which is nourished by a life of prayer, meditation on the word of God, the celebration of the sacraments and life in community. When these are lacking, weaknesses and difficulties will emerge to dampen the joy we knew so well at the beginning of our journey.”

Leaders of the largest organization representing women religious in the United States issued a statement Monday that they will continue the dialogue with church officials demanding reform, but they will also protect the integrity of their group.