We arrive at the memorial already soaked. The rain has been pouring down for about an hour, making our one little umbrella woefully insufficient for our entire group. We huddle in the cab, unwilling to take that first step out into the dark, wet city. We are five Catholic sisters from different corners of the United States, and we are to become a holy trinity of sisterhood marking this spot sacred with our feet.

For the Adrian Dominicans in West Palm Beach, Florida, waiting was the worst part of Hurricane Irma, especially those hours between when the preparations finish as the first winds arrive and when the full fury of the storm begins. Days of frantic prep-work come to a halt, and all you can do is wait, wonder and pray. Global Sisters Report talked to two communities of Dominican Sisters affected by recent catastrophic weather in the nation's southeast.

Venezuela's dire economic crisis has started to impact the young students of Santo Angel School outside Caracas. According to Sr. Blanca Griselis, the school's social worker, 35 students currently come to school with little to no food. She spoke with GSR about her efforts to keep students fed and in class. 

Emily McFarlan Miller

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Sister Margaret Ann told CNN the chainsaws were sitting in a school closet and, after Hurricane Irma left a path of destruction through the city, "they didn't belong there. They needed to be used. "We teach our students, 'Do what you can to help,' and so this was an opportunity where I could do something to help, and — thanks be to God — I was able to do it."

"The world will be saved by beauty," so says Dorothy Day, who borrowed the phrase from Dostoevsky's idiot, an epileptic given to fits and enlightenment. When Day says beauty saves, she is not looking especially at sunsets. She is looking at the sun setting in the poor person in front of her. And such beauty breaks her heart.