The Life - At Christmas, generosity takes many forms — from simple acts of kindness to community celebrations. Sisters from around the world reflect on how expressions of generosity bring light to their ministries.
Mother Eliswa Vakayil, Kerala's first Indigenous nun and the founder of the Congregation of Teresian Carmelites, was beatified on Nov. 8 at the Basilica of Our Lady of Ransom at Vallarpadam, in Kochi, India.
In the Sancoale valley in Goa, India, where the breeze carries whispers of prayer and the scent of medicinal balm, Sr. Valentine Cota has touched the lives of many in her 50 years of religious life.
The Vatican's decree granting the merger of the Congregation of Jesus and the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Loreto) comes 416 years after Venerable Mary Ward first set out her vision for a new way of religious life for women.
"To live this vocation is to live in friendship — with God, with others, and with creation," one sister writes. "That friendship, ever deepening, remains the greatest gift of my vocation."
Horizons - Across our communities, the word "restructuring" has taken root. At first, it might have sounded administrative or organizational, but for us, it has become something sacred, writes Monique Tarabeh.
"[They] can be the answer for those who have suffered the most from the war in Ukraine, who have lost all hope for peace and justice," writes Sr. Scholastica Oleksandra Hulivata.
My hope is that through every frame I capture and every story I tell, others may see not just a sister with a camera, but my heart trying to reflect the love of Christ, writes the "Camera Nun" Sr. Lismy Parayil.
The first research study into the sexual abuse of women religious in German-speaking countries has shown a common pattern of spiritual abuse with global cases and highlighted that the majority of abuse is perpetrated by men, although some sisters were abused also by women superiors.
