"I have heard great things about the sisters' community in Nazareth ... I was excited about this new mission, which is completely different than the one I had before."

When I said, "I'm Sister Angela," she let out the biggest yell. "Sister Angela! Sister Angela!" Little did I know that my trip to New Mexico would include this Spirit-led adventure.

GSR Today: As Sr. Joan Chittister told us at the recent Fourth International Oblate Congress in Rome, Oblates "are not meant to simply be consumers of the Benedictine tradition. You are meant to be carriers of the tradition. You are the future of the order."

Advent is a time of waiting. It is a time when Christians throughout the world remember that the hope Jesus brought us for a world marked by love, forgiveness, unity and equality is being fulfilled but is not yet.

The Life - New roles. Social analysis. Diversification. Growth and decline. Collaboration. Freedom. Widened horizons. The Life panelists discuss the creative ways the ministries of their congregations are evolving and how they are moving to ministries of presence, empowerment and systemic change — yet in all their ministries, they see the persistence of their charism.

"Our own grief is a gateway to grace, not only for ourselves, but for our world. The grace that will come from embracing this paschal narrative of communion will be costly, but it will not diminish us. It will take our best energy and will not consume us. It will open us to the vitality that lies deep at the heart of communion with God, with another and with the wider world."

While the gifts we receive are many and varied, the more we practice thanksgiving, the more we find that part and parcel to the gifts we receive is the gift of gratitude itself.

Having been a business traveler over a lifetime of health care and leadership ministries, I am no stranger getting around in cities across the country. However, the opportunity these days with Uber and Lyft bring an incredibly rich interpersonal dynamic that in my opinion has never been available through taxi or shuttle bus rides prior.

"Sometimes we are tempted to find excuses and complain, acting as if we could only be happy if a thousand conditions were met. To some extent this is because our 'technological society has succeeded in multiplying occasions of pleasure, yet has found it very difficult to engender joy.' I can say that the most beautiful and natural expressions of joy which I have seen in my life were in poor people who had little to hold on to. I also think of the real joy shown by others who, even amid pressing professional obligations, were able to preserve, in detachment and simplicity, a heart full of faith."