"To hear the call of the human heart in another person means hearing truth. It puts your hand on the doorway to peace, comfort and understanding in someone's life. In the presence of another's truth, one can feel its impact. But then, the choice: to let it draw out the best in you — or harden one's heart into judgment, criticism or ignoring the call for response."
GSR Today - A 20-something raging extrovert walks into a Benedictine monastery. Sounds like the start of a bad joke, doesn't it? It actually happened. I walked through the doors of Mount Saint Benedict Monastery in Erie and began a 10-week internship with Sr. Joan Chittister.
Processing my recent 29 years in the Mississippi Delta, I have come to believe that the truth found in the stories of people's lives here, now, today, made my years there some of the best in my life. People's stories invited me to the deep truth about the connection, understanding and bonding which is part of the human heart.
"Embracing suffering as a companion to the joy of love is the meaning of the cross. In the cross, our human suffering has been redeemed, and we never need to carry our heartaches and troubles alone. The whole point of this life is love, and the cost of love is pain."
Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Joann Blomme has been a Racine Dominican for over 50 years. Her ministries have included as an elementary teacher and principal and as new membership director within her community. She has an M.S. degree in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and recently completed 29 years as a mental health counselor at a rural medical clinic in Tutwiler, Mississippi, which is staffed by local women as well as an intercommunity group of sisters.
The Pyinya Sanyae Institute of Education (PSIE), a unique teacher-training program in Yangon, Myanmar, has deep roots in 15th-century France. Sr. Grace Chia and Jacinta Cardoza are founders of this modern-day training program inspired by the Infant Jesus Sisters' founder.
I've kept the possibility of the immortality of the canine spirit as an open question. Should canine acts of kindness and compassion, not repaid in this world, go unrewarded in the next?
"Like ghosts of people unseen, the fountain waters remember that the invisible ones are important as we make our decisions."
Congregations of religious men and women recently received payments totaling $25 million to help cover shortfalls in retirement funding.
After a 20-year career in business, caring for her husband in his last days, and completing a Doctor of Ministry degree, Jerilyn E. Felton became a lay consecrated woman associated with the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary community. She developed a model of spiritual/pastoral care using dogs in ministry, and is the founder of the Four-Footed Ministers pastoral care program.