LCWR 2016 - On Tuesday night — from a stage lined with LED candles and backlit with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious' signature green and blue — LCWR president Sister of St. Joseph Marcia Allen officially kicked off the conference's 2016 annual assembly in Atlanta. LCWR leadership planned for contemplative dialogue to be the focus of this year's assembly, and the opening night was no exception. 

"A full life ebbs and flows; is alternately creative and at rest; is filled with joy and at other times peacefully contemplative."

Environmentalists are mourning the death of Charity Sr. Paula Gonzalez, a Cincinnati nun who spent the last 45 years of her life advocating for renewable energy. Gonzalez, 83, died July 31 at the Charity Sisters' Ohio motherhouse.

GSR Today - Hurricane Earl was downgraded to a tropical storm late last week, but not before it caused death and damage in the Dominican Republic and Belize. As usual, people in the impoverished areas in the path of the storm were the most affected.

Sr. Infant Tresa is both a Catholic nun and a yoga master. The 65-year-old manages two yoga centers in Kerala, a Christian stronghold in southern India, at a time when some church leaders, including the Vatican's chief exorcist, Fr. Cesare Truqui view the ancient Indian system as satanic. Tresa is among the more than 7,000 members of the Franciscan Clarist Congregation, a Kerala-based congregation with the largest number of women religious in India. She says yoga is an extension of her religious life and has helped cure her of illness.

In the wake of the brutal killings at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and multiple horrific acts of violence and hatred against police and against men of color by police in several American cities, I cry out with so many of you who yearn for a change of heart, individually and collectively. 

"Neither death, nor principalities, nor powers, can stop those of us who seek justice and peace. Yes, there is grace and hope enough to dance life, to continue in the struggle."

Environmental activist Pedro Landa knew fellow activist Berta Isabel Cáceres for 20 years. They had walked together for so many years and were like family. The assassination of Cáceres on March 2 shocked all of Honduras, but it sent a specific message to environmental activists: Even internationally renowned environmental activists are unsafe in Honduras.

As I mingle among women, listen to their stories and watch their countenances, a big question arises in my mind. More than half of these women are carrying a large burden on their shoulders and are unable to speak about it. They become victims of violence of all forms. Working in a challenging and highly illiterate state of India, namely Bihar, I often wonder if things will ever change for them. 

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart."