In the late 1960s, as the effects of the Second Vatican Council began to reverberate through the Catholic Church, Sr. Marie Augusta Neal of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur conducted a survey of American women religious in active ministry. Now, thanks to the University of Notre Dame's Cushwa Center for American Catholicism, the data has been decoded, re-saved and made available for anyone's research.

"Forts of child's play: May we not build in earnest leading to division and War. Triumphant flags declare hubris; may we teach our children to reach beyond and find a way to peace."

Notes from the Field - Part of my mission in Jordan was to work in ministry to Iraqi refugees. In my months working with refugees. Despite the struggles the Iraqi refugees I met face, I found them to be kind, warm, smart, well-educated, and optimistic amid their hard situation.

As general superior, Sr. Mary Ho Thi Quy is challenged to provide basic needs for more than 1,100 members of the Lovers of the Holy Cross of Vinh, Vietnam. "Five sisters in one community share a bed," she notes. But the sisters "love and support one another" as they serve the people of Vinh Diocese.

The writer of Matthew's Gospel had learned from Jesus a very different concept of the kingdom of heaven from that previously understood in the Jewish religious law and social community.

"In serving others, we can find a connectedness, a kinship that leads to binding joy."

As Kenyans were poised for a repeat presidential election Oct. 26 after a nullified vote last August, nuns in the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya played a significant role as poll observers and voter educators. 

"I discovered that you do not go to the margins to rescue anyone. But if we go there, everyone finds rescue."

On Oct. 28, 1992, I sat at my computer in St. Louis Missouri, with the radio on for background noise. I heard snatches of phrases about "Liberia … five nuns … missing." Snapping to attention, I realized this had to be us. We had five sisters in Liberia. They were: Srs. Shirley Kolmer, Mary Joel Kolmer, Kathleen McGuire, Agnes Mueller and Barbara Ann Muttra.

GSR Today - After a recent experience in Tanzania and Malawi of electrical blackouts, cold showers, limited or no internet, cooking with charcoal, and the sight of mountains stripped of trees, I was reminded of a project I had started to research how sisters in sub-Saharan Africa use solar energy.