Horizons - On a recent trip for a friend's first vow ceremony, we sat around the night before in a mixed group of sisters and friends talking about the vows. I teased now-vowed Presentation Sr. Mary Therese "MT" Krueger with the question, "What's your favorite vow?" and it soon became obvious that some around the table were unclear what these mysterious vows were all about.

"To come to the knowledge of all, desire the knowledge of nothing. To come to enjoy what you have not, you must go by a way which you enjoy not. In this nakedness the spirit finds its quietude and rest, for in coveting nothing, nothing tires it by pulling it up, and nothing oppresses it by pushing it down, because it is in the center of its humility."

Pope Francis formally recognized the martyrdom of an Italian Consolata sister murdered in Somalia in 2006, Sr. Leonella Sgorbati, who was gunned down, along with her bodyguard, as they left a children's hospital where she worked in Mogadishu in September 2006.

School Sister of Notre Dame Kieran Sawyer has been involved in sex education since the 1970s, first as a teacher creating and sharing her popular lesson plans then writing programs for other teachers and catechists.

In the slums of Arjona, an hour's drive from Cartagena, Colombia, the Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate run a dining hall feeds about 130 impoverished children a day. The sisters feed children from 6 months to 15 years old at Centro Social Pastoral Madre Francisca, a kitchen in the barrio of Limonar. Many children there are at risk of joining gangs or falling into prostitution. 

"Joy is a hallmark of religious life, and it is a wonderful gift that we can share with one another and the world."

Church leaders say the Nov. 4 beatification of martyred Sr. Rani Maria, who recognized "the face of the suffering Christ in the poor and afflicted," will help evangelization in India, where preaching Christ's message has become increasingly difficult.

A Nun's Life Ministry hosted 16 sisters from congregations across the U.S. on October 27-28 for a pilot workshop about making videos — with a twist. We adapted professional filmmaking techniques to the use of iPhones and iPads for creating internet videos about discernment, prayer, ministry, community and other aspects of religious life.

Notes from the Field - One of the volunteer projects I enjoyed the most during my stay in Jordan was the Caritas Music Project, offered throughout Jordan and aiming to integrate Syrian Muslim refugee children with Jordanian Christian children, ages 6 through 12. So the Salesian Sisters' house in Amman opened its doors to refugees once again.

"The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us."