Political and cultural winds seem to be blowing against them during the Trump presidency. But participants in the most recent "Nuns on the Bus" cross-country odyssey have chosen prayer over panic, hope over fear as they reflect on the people they met on the 2016 tour.

"This is bigger than 'Judge not, lest ye be judged.' This is wrecking our society, it is hurting the church, and it is killing us. It's time for all of us to put down the stones."

In light of the events of the recent September days and the first week of October, we have been presented with many occasions to reflect, pray and act on how we treat each other, respond to those in need and use our beautiful world in a responsible way.

After a year of consultations with sisters in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Malawi, Catherine Sexton is delving into the research project that will ask sisters in Africa: What is the essence of religious life? "We want to hear sisters' theology, and also we want sisters to hear themselves talking about theology."

The transformative process of bread-making is a story of death (the killing of wheat at harvest), rebirth (the yeast within the dough), death again (in the oven) and new life (when bread nourishes the human body). How is the death-to-life process part of our community life?

GSR Today: Is there nothing we cannot turn into "proof" that we are right and someone else is wrong? Everything is either black or white, good or bad, and there is no in-between, no situation in which our judgment should change.

For many women in the United States, Election Day 2016 was a crisis. Almost immediately, women began talking, planning and organizing on Facebook and other social media platforms. It became a movement so widespread that on Jan. 21, the day after Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, millions of women took to the streets for what would become the largest single-day protest in the nation's history: the Women's March.
• Part of NCR's "A Nation Under Trump" election anniversary series.

"The very first step is to talk to other people about this desire and these seeds that are within you. If we have this same aspiration, we can put together our capacities to figure out together how we can change things. It will take time, because we are human and all human transformation requires conversion and time. That's the only method I know."

Resource Center for Religious Institutes' National Conference - A new White House administration has meant new realities for women religious in almost every aspect of immigration, whether it is religious worker visas or churches helping undocumented persons, an immigration attorney says. Minyoung Ohm, a staff attorney in the Religious Immigration Services section of Catholic Legal Immigration Network, said some of the changes have been formalized in new rules, and others are changes in enforcement practices.

See for Yourself - "Everybody wanted to play the accordion back in the 1950s. Although I really wanted to play the piano, we couldn't afford one at home, so the accordion was the next best thing."