Holding No. 28, my place in line at the pharmacy, I felt my stress level rising. Then the young woman with the smile was telling me that she wanted me to take her one-digit number in exchange for mine. "Really?" I asked. "En serio?"

In the 23 years since the genocide, Rwanda has developed at a faster pace than surrounding countries. In the last decade, a government-mandated monthly day of community service, called Umuganda, has saved the country the equivalent of US$128.5 million, and the service day not only helps repair and clean every community, it provides a way for people to get to know their neighbors.

"Human work, and especially manual labor, receive special prominence in the Gospel. Along with the humanity of the Son of God, work too has been taken up in the mystery of the Incarnation, and has also been redeemed in a special way. At the workbench where he plied his trade together with Jesus, Joseph brought human work closer to the mystery of the Redemption."

"We want to test the resurrection in our bones. To see if we might live in hope, instead of in the silva oscura, the thicket of cultural despair, nuclear despair, a world of perpetual war. We want to taste the resurrection. May I say we have not been disappointed."

- Fr. Daniel Berrigan, as quoted in Redeem the times! A remembrance of Dan Berrigan, published on NCRonline.org

See for Yourself - I had a great conversation recently about nuns and those proverbial "good old days" when nuns ruled Catholic schools, and we're all better people today because of that.

I have a confession to make. I believe in the positive power of government to promote the common good. Yes, that's right, 100 days into the new administration, amid an ongoing toxic political debate with drastic budget cuts on the horizon that will negatively impact people on the margins who are already struggling, I still believe in we the people. 

"The monarch caterpillar focuses on what feeds its growth. What feeds our growth?"

While on retreat at St. Mary's by the Sea in Cape May Point, New Jersey, I love to visit the nature center near the lighthouse and to engage in one of my favorite forms of prayer — bird watching.

GSR Today - Inspiration, signs of "evolutionary changes," and ideas for living out mercy were found April 18-20 at the National Catholic Educational Association meeting of more than 8,000 teachers, administrators, superintendents, librarians and archivists.