After I'd achieved a degree of financial comfort, I remember the shock when I first encountered children in a "poorer" area of the country who couldn't afford shoes, even meals. That may have been the first stirrings of the God-seed.

The Los Angeles-based playwright's latest work with History Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, tells the true story of four biological sisters who all became Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet and became celebrated fixtures in the St. Paul-Minneapolis peace community.

At a recent workshop on trends in child care, I was particularly interested in a collaborative of the Association of Religious in Uganda in response to their government's 2016 ruling that homes for children need a social worker on staff, to have established child-protection policies, and to meet certain child-care standards.

What does a "religious solution" to the environmental problem look like in a church that seems to be riddled with dysfunction? But the crisis does not belong to the clergy alone; we also have a crisis of academic theology.

At least 250 people died on Easter when suicide bombers attacked three churches and three hotels in Sri Lanka. As suspects have been arrested, the Catholic sisters have been visiting with people affected by the loss, listening to them and helping them process anger, shock, guilt and sorrow. More than 200 sisters have been assigned by the Conference of Major Religious Superiors of Sri Lanka with the mission of healing, providing psychological support to the parishioners.

I have spent many moments in the past week thanking God for the gift of a fellow retreatant who left me note last week when she noticed my absence. Why did that observation touch me so deeply? Because it said to me that my presence mattered to her.

From A Nun's Life podcasts - In this Random Nun Clip, Sister Maxine and her guests discuss vacations and retreats, both chances to disconnect for a while.

In a property transfer they're calling "A Gift of the Heart to the Heart," the sisters hope their property, which they have owned for 142 years, will help their schools continue to thrive and expand. The move, however, is not without its sadness, "This is where we were all formed; this is where we started. We all thought we'd eventually come back full circle," said Sr. Janet Peterworth, president of the Ursuline Sisters of Louisville. 

Pope Francis' 2015 encyclical "Laudato Si': On Care for Our Common Home" was widely lauded for its scope on the moral and ethical response to protecting Earth's environment for future generations.