Last month, FutureChurch launched Catholic Women Preach, a project aimed at highlighting the voices of Catholic women preachers around the world. Dominican Sr. Jamie Phelps, a theologian and social worker, kicked off the project's Advent series.

See for Yourself - Having encountered a fair number of persons recently who ask, "Is December 8 still a holy day of obligation?" I conclude that the Feast of the Immaculate Conception doesn't have quite the same meaning in the Midwest USA as it does in Nicaragua.

The olive trees on the Mount of Olives next to Jerusalem's Garden of Gethsemane stand gnarled and silent, their knobby trunks reaching out of the rocky hills, a testament to thousands of years of careful cultivation in one of the holiest spots on Earth. This four-acre olive grove belongs to the Benedictine Sisters of Our Lady of Calvary, who have inhabited this old stone convent for the last 120 years and are looking to solve part of their municipal water bill with ancient technology.

"With any gift there is a giver and a recipient. The giver offers the gift. The recipient's task is simple, to either accept or reject the gift."

Notes from the Field - Rural Ethiopia was quite the change from my living the suburban life in the United States, and there were some things that I had to get accustomed to.

Days after a Texas judge ruled that a state agency cannot issue day-care licenses to two immigration detention centers, attorneys and advocates for asylum seekers acted to ensure the decision withstands challenges. Activists and volunteers are hopeful it signals a change in U.S. immigration policy and practice. The ruling is the latest in a series of salvos that have pitted the Texas Department of Family Protective Services and companies operating the detention centers against attorneys and advocates for detainees.

It is usually the week before Christmas in the season of Advent that I have the opportunity to pray and walk in a traditional procession with others, re-enacting Mary and Joseph seeking shelter for the time when their child would be born. "Posada" in Spanish means "inn." This seeking shelter, safety, security is expressed by the word "posada."

"To our people, land was everything: identity, the connection to our ancestors, the home of our nonhuman kinfolk, our pharmacy, our library, the source of all that sustained us. Our lands were where our responsibility to the world was enacted, sacred ground. It belonged to itself; it was a gift, not a commodity, so it could never be bought or sold."

GSR Today: Global Sisters Report is pleased to announce that Michele Morek, an Ursuline Sister of Mount St. Joseph and executive director of UNANIMA International, will join us Janusary 3 as liaison to sisters.

Growing up Christian and inundated with Scripture, it is difficult for me to recall verses from the Bible when needed. Passages such as: "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be worried, for I am your God" (Isaiah 4:10) or "When I am afraid I put my trust in you" (Psalm 56:3). As a Catholic, I believe that at Mass during the consecration, wine is transformed into the blood of Christ. Beyond that, however, rarely have I referred to the blood of Christ outside of a liturgical celebration.