Teresa Anyabuike is a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur living in Abuja, Nigeria. For a time, she was the coordinator of a Catholic community self-help association, a department of the Justice, Development and Peace Mission in the Ilorin Diocese. She also served as a website manager for her Congregation. Currently she is working as a social worker in advocacy against social injustice.
GSR Today - By the time you read this, the focus of the news about Hurricane Matthew will be on the damage it caused in the United States; October 11 is the U.N. and UNICEF Day of the Girl.
The Assisi Sisters of Mary Immaculate manage a school that provides life skills training, a community and job-readyness to 300 people at a time who otherwise were struggling in conventional academic settings or even being kept isolated by their parents because of their mental disabilities.
A friend told me recently how many of her colleagues were feeling depressed. The 24/7 access to the news that is filling every channel from public news sites to Facebook and Twitter feeds was somehow robbing them of energy and life. It's as if in some way the nation has been mysteriously and collectively taken up with a force of superficial, sensationalizing, passion-filled banality.
"Losses remembered. The promise of new life hangs in the balance."
GSR Today - "We must educate ourselves on the root causes of immigration ... and [join] with others who share the same values," one sister said.
From A Nun's Life podcast - Sisters tend to find that they are never among strangers, but they don't take this togetherness for granted.
See for Yourself - I heard him. We all heard him. Our straggly group of folks lined up in Checkout Lane #4 — one of only a handful of checkouts that was open — became familiar with each other as we inched toward our magic turn at the cashier.
"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself."
It's hard to believe that after months of campaign ads, primary battles, debates, and commentary, Election Day is still a month away. Each day brings with it a new batch of headlines, claims of he said this, and she did that. At the end of the day, it can be exhausting. And yet, with 31 days until November 8, we are each called to consider this election cycle in terms of what it means to answer the baptismal call as a citizen and person of faith.