I’ve been thinking a lot about intimacy lately. Yes, of course sexual intimacy enters the realm of my desires and thoughts – I’m a 28-year-old woman. But I mean intimacy in the way that our culture often misses. We discussed this at a January workshop for novices by Lynn Levo, CSJ, about celibacy and sexuality.  To someone only slightly familiar with the religious life, the theme of the workshop might seem comical. 

GSR Today - Sr. Anita Jennissen, 81, a Franciscan Sister of Little Falls, is ministering to an increasing number of Central American refugees flooding into McAllen, Texas, where she is spiritual director at Sacred Heart Parish, about 10 miles from the Mexican border. Meanwhile residents of Syracuse, N.Y., are divided on whether they want a former Franciscan convent there to be used as shelter for child immigrants.

Mary Queen of Heaven Missionaries have been encountering sex workers in the field (bars and brothels) for years. The sisters reach out to women and offer them love and listening and, if they want, shelter and a way out of the business, which is driven by poverty. They are also working to prevent entry into prostitution by educating women in rural areas, and they recently have been talking about their work at other dioceses so that the efforts can expand.

"Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul."

GSR Today - There is a direct connection between long-term volunteer service and religious life vocations. On that basis, the Catholic Volunteer Network has launched a three-year initiative to strengthen the vitality of women’s religious congregations. Here’s a snapshot of some data and reactions presented in Chicago last week at the kick-off symposium.

"Nature is never finished."

Daughters of Our Lady of Immaculate Conception sisters hold swimming lessons for children in central Vietnam, where annual flooding claims peoples' lives every year in the fall.

Three stats and a map - Sixty-three percent of Israelis would like to see separate Palestinian and Israeli states, and 53 percent of Palestinians would like to see two states.

Sr. Mercy Shumbamhini is president of the Conference of Major Religious Superiors of Zimbabwe, superior general of the Mary Ward Congregation of Jesus in Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi, and one of Zimbabwe’s most respected child counselors.

Letters from South Sudan - With other conflicts making the news across the globe, not much is visible in the headlines from South Sudan, though unrest continues to create dire needs for the vulnerable there. In the last two days several news reports have surfaced about fears of famine for the people of South Sudan.