"As long as there are people in our world who are bound unjustly, oppressed, hungry, homeless and naked, Lent cannot be just for me, or just for you. These 40 days call us to much more."

Not since 1945 has Valentines' Day and Ash Wednesday fallen on the same day. I found myself intrigued by this. First, I remembered from my childhood how eager I was to see how many valentines I would receive and from whom and the weighty decision as to whom I would ask, "Would you be my Valentine?"

"The only case that we make is on behalf of the Gospel and our obligation as a community of faith to tend to the least among us. And I think that's a message that all Catholics, regardless of where they stand in the political spectrum, can hear."

As we receive from our elder sisters, so too we need to be willing to reverse mentor to share our gifts and skills of our youth with them. Through meaningful conversation, we can share with them what it is like to discern a vocation today.

"Solidarity means we're going to stay together, even when we disagree. We're not going to walk away from each other."

A global sisterhood will be strengthened by the intentional living of our congregational charisms and purposeful sharing of it with each other. As younger sisters who desire to do this well, it is important for us to know the deep stories of our charisms.

Lent is almost here here. John the Baptist, the locust-eating ascetic dressed in camel hair, stands on the banks of the Jordan to usher us into the Lenten season of repentance and denial on … Valentine's Day, the annual celebration of love, relationship and romance.

"An open heart is a heart broken open; and a broken heart is opened up to fuller loving. Package deal."

The collaborative governance model helps congregations in need of financial and leadership assistance. The civil corporations from two or more congregations create a third corporation, which handles insurance, human resources, property management, legal issues, and all other tasks the congregations require. This frees up congregations' leadership to focus on spiritual issues.

In Conversation - Global Sisters Report's Chris Herlinger on anti-trafficking efforts in Haiti and at the U.N.; Srs. Sarah Kohles and Susan Francois talk about their new book.