Through nearly 20 years of teamwork, congregations in St. Louis, Missouri, have come together have meet local education needs. They have developed a program that provides English tutoring to children from families of refugees and immigrants, and they founded a Catholic all-girls middle school.
Rita Joseph is a New Delhi-based journalist who has worked for the nationwide Press Trust of India and as features editor of The Statesman, an English-language daily newspaper in India. She writes for media outlets in India and the United States, including Matters India, a news portal that collaborates with GSR and focuses on religious and social issues.
"There is the sea, great and wide! It teems with countless beings, living things both large and small."
GSR Today - Those of us who are not called to consecrated life but write about women religious may sometimes feel our spiritual tools are inadequate. We see the example of the sisters and think, "I cannot possibly match them."
Pat Farrell is a member of the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, in California, and lives in the Chicago area. She is executive director of the Dominican Sisters Conference, an organization that unites 19 congregations of Dominican Sisters in the U.S. in their mission to preach the Gospel with a clear voice. Prior to this, she served on her congregation's council and in vocation ministry. She maintains her hope and enthusiasm for religious life.
In Nong Khai, Thailand, Good Shepherd sisters have created a safe space for anyone who needs healing, education or fair employment. Sisters focus on every individual's success, without judgment.
"Are we so trapped in our institutions, tending to the dying structures, and grieving the loss of so much that the structures themselves do not allow for a radical presence to what is most needed in our world today?"
Sr. Colleen Jackson talks to GSR about her experience serving as a psychologist, refugee advocate and most recently, an intern at a coalition of Catholic congregations focused on concerns of women and children. Jackson is inspired by the courage, resilience and faith of refugees and asylum-seekers.
Women Religious who have gone before us — our foremothers — are pioneers (are they not still with us?) Religious sisters have been in liminal space, or on the edge, for centuries, and this has not changed in the 21st century.
"When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too."