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.

"As we evolve slowly toward adulthood as a species, we need to move from the imagined independence of our adolescence to a realization of our interdependence with all other species. It is a move from stewardship to membership in an Earth community where the divine is not an absentee landlord but an immanent and intimate presence in every being."

Haiti is again digging out from a disaster, which has postponed national elections. Hurricane Matthew caused massive flooding this week in the southwest part of the country, prompting Mourad Wahba, the United Nations' representative in Haiti, to say that the destruction was the "largest humanitarian event" since the country's devastating 2010 earthquake.

Restorative justice aims to restore the relationship between offenders and the victims of crime, often in a one-on-one setting. This practice can help heal both parties and the community. A number of programs in Northern California have found success in using this practice to counteract the U.S. justice system's focus on punishment.