Three Stats and a Map - "In order to understand the current era of urbanization, we must understand long-term historical urbanization trends and patterns."

Sr. Isabel Cortés is in the midst of a months-long migrant crisis unfolding at a crossing on the 330-kilometer border between Costa Rica and Panama.

Since November, Congregation of Missionary Servants of Christ the King Srs. Isabel Cortés and María Mercedes Calero have been helping migrants from Cuba and, increasingly, from Africa and Asia, who are getting stuck in Costa Rica without legal paperwork to advance northward toward the United States.

"Because the serious issues in our 21st-century world are not contained by national boundaries, our responses to these issues cannot stop at our borders."

Notes from the Field - The last day of the 2015-2016 school year, June 17, was also the last day of my two years as a volunteer at Cristo Rey Boston High School. It came quicker than I thought possible. I spent the last couple of weeks completing the "lasts" of my volunteer duties at school.

"Jesus says to Peter, 'You are the rock.' Did he mean that instead of sitting high on a throne, he should be like a seagull chick, blending in with all the other rocks? Like Pope Francis says, the shepherd should have the smell of the sheep. Be the beautiful harmony of the rocks on the shore, each contributing to the whole, and supporting the others."

A woman who has made a retreat at Tautra Mariakloster many times brought her Bible study group for a weekend retreat. She asked me talk to them about our monastic life. One question took me by surprise: How has my relationship with Jesus changed before and after I entered the monastery?

The collective history of thousands of people, who happen to be women religious, is definitely a valid field of study, especially since sisters have been such a stable demographic over time.

"Our bodies are united. We are one; together in the grief, pain and trauma. No one suffers alone. We hurt together; we are frustrated and disturbed together."

To say I was thrilled when the Vatican upgraded the celebration of St. Mary of Magdala to a feast on par with those of the other apostles doesn't nearly begin to cover it.