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. 

"The least of our actions may carry its grace with it, if we turn it right. Every good action is a grain of seed for eternal life."

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.

"We need only one good person to have hope! And each of us can be that person!"

People without homes in Leavenworth, Kansas, now have a shelter, laundry facility, showers, and transportation to essential services thanks to the combined efforts of more than 30 local churches. Taking the lead on that effort is Sr. Vickie Perkins.

I have always been passionate about the social teachings of the church, and in my studies I had the opportunity to explore documents that raised my awareness of justice issues and see how the church encourages her missionaries to address them in light of Gospel values. 

"Perhaps some of the stepping stones form circles of unity on which we stand together."

As a white person, what happens when you make the conscious decision to stare racism in the face, to wake up? What happens when you make a commitment to be vocal and call out racism when you see it? As a white woman, heading an agency that has made a commitment to rout out racism, I am learning the consequences, personally and institutionally, of these two actions.