Sr. Judy Byron is coordinator of a coalition of faith-based investors that uses a shareholder platform to start dialogue for change. Bryon co-filed a successful resolution that now requires gun manufacturer Sturm Ruger to report on its gun safety efforts. She spoke to GSR about this very public win and how it compares to the coalition's other efforts.

"The burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander . . . if you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression."

The Life - Inspiring. Enriching. Expanding. Sustaining. Nourishing. Creating solidarity. A profound sisterhood. A shared community of life around the world. That is how the panelists described their experience of writing for The Life this year. This month — the last month of the 2017-18 panel — we invited all the panelists to reflect on the year.

"The vision of the world to come seldom encourages the flourishing of the material world, but flight from it. It does not promote the splendor of the world we have, but the glory of the next."

For Pentecost, I gathered with 35 other Sisters of St. Joseph from across North America, all of us ranging from candidates and novices through 10 years as fully professed sisters, a gathering intended to remind us that each of us is working at this life and, though separated by distance or living situations, we are living this reality together.

"Each day we have to place a brick on this wall of peace, democracy, development, security and stability."

A photography shop errand turns fortuitous, as a shop owner offers to make DVDs from old VHS tapes. As a result, I was able to revisit loved ones long in heaven; they had starring roles in a wonderful DVD of family history — my brother's wedding in 1989.

As a "new nun" at the age of 20, I learned the most important lesson of my life — to say "thank you" to God every night. That lesson has sustained me through many more years of religious life. I learned it from Douglas, a 13-year-old severely challenged boy in a state-run institution.

Founded in 2000 by Medical Mission Sr. Lorraine Ryan and Sr. Joan Carusillo, a Sister of the Holy Cross, Women's Circle offers English-language classes, job-search help and cultural lessons, along with a chance to meet other women who are new to the country.

The Notre Dame de Sion sisters who run the Ecce Homo Centre for Biblical Formation in Jerusalem have an intricate and layered history with Judaism.