Mare Wheeler has been an active Racine (Wisconsin) Dominican associate for the last five years. She is a physician assistant in Arizona. She has three daughters and in her not-so-spare time is rescued often by dogs previously on the "E" list (scheduled for euthanasia) from the local pound (whom she says she fosters!). She writes for her community's newsletter irregularly on a variety of topics.

by Hannah Vanorny

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"Do you have electricity in North Dakota?" I remember being asked that question as a 13-year-old on a trip to the southern part of the country. The person asking was an earnest-looking cowboy type at a Nashville restaurant. At the time I was totally surprised and offended. People thought that we were that backward in North Dakota? "Yes, of course we do!" I exclaimed indignantly to him.

A ceasefire called Monday in South Sudan, the site of bloody clashes this past week between troops of opposing political factions, appeared to be holding as of Friday, July 15, but the peace is uneasy at best. The latest crisis for the world's newest country has left hundreds dead and tens of thousands displaced.

Alison McCrary is a member of Sisters for Christian Community (SFCC) and is director of the New Orleans Community-Police Mediation Program, a spiritual adviser on Louisiana’s death row, president of the Louisiana Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (the largest and oldest public interest bar association in the country), and a social justice attorney providing legal support to international and local movements for social change.  

This story appears in the Nuns on the Bus feature series. View the full series.

by Larretta Rivera-Williams

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Nuns on the Bus Blog - People are hungry for justice! People are filled with questions of "why" and "what can we do?" People are searching for answers in a country of uncertainty. People want to be listened to without being threatened, judged, or silenced. 

Simply Spirit - Well, last week was a terrible-awful-no-good-week in Lake Woebegone — my home country.It got so bad that this news junkie just didn't want to watch the news anymore. I had to face up to my fear that we're all going to hell in a hand basket. Decades of coalition work for civil rights, for peace, for justice, for racial harmony, all down the tubes. Our nonviolent ideals totally shot to hell by violence.  

Hannah Vanorny is a Benedictine sister at Annunciation Monastery in Bismarck, North Dakota. She joined her community in 2006 and made her final monastic profession in 2013. She has served as the assistant director of Campus Ministry at the University of Mary in Bismarck and as the vocation director of her community. Currently, she is Annunciation Monastery's volunteer director and works as a reference associate at the Bismarck Public Library.

by Melanie Lidman

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After 33 years as a doctor in Ethiopia, Sr. Antonia (Toni) Redito, a Medical Mission Sister with common sense, a cool head during emergencies and a willingness to be creative, has found these traits helpful in challenging medical conditions of developing countries.