by Joachim Pham

Correspondent

View Author Profile

A liturgy group, working on native-language and culturally sensitive translations of key Catholic texts for 45 years, has set a model of a participatory church in Vietnam where clericalism remains rampant. The team, made up of priests, religious and unconsecrated laity, has published 370,000 Vietnamese copies of the Liturgy of the Hours, 66,000 copies of Mass readings and rites, and 3 million copies of the Bible.

GSR Today - A few years before a chain of catastrophes happened to people close to me, I read Patrick Henry's The Ironic Christian's Companion, one of the only spiritual books I've read that actually spoke to me and the blundering, stumbling, lost-in-the-dark kind of faith I have.

by Maxine Kollasch

Contributor

View Author Profile

Like many people, I spend a lot of time on the Internet. Whether for my ministry at A Nun's Life or in my personal time, the Internet is a regular part of my life. I respond to emails, interact on social media, search for information, attend webinars, watch livestreaming events, listen to podcasts, and engage in other activities that connect me with people, information, and ideas. In the midst of doing these ordinary activities, I find that there's always room for the Holy Spirit to break in with an invitation to encounter God anew!

by Susan Rose Francois

NCR Contributor

View Author Profile

Who in their lives has not attended a school play? You know the scene. Metal chairs scraping the floor in the school gym. Students in the audience trying their best to behave, but unable to resist poking a neighbor or two. Proud parents anxiously awaiting their child's theatrical debut, hoping he or she will remember the lines and not be too nervous. Then, of course, there are the student actors, waiting behind the curtain with butterflies in their stomachs in anticipation of the big moment.

This story appears in the Mining feature series. View the full series.

Three Stats and a Map - As the lens of the world continues to focus in on climate and environmental issues, thanks to awareness-raising events like the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Paris last year, sisters in Latin America are become acutely aware of one of the most pressing environmental issues for their region: mining.

Six years ago, the Franciscan Handmaids of the Most Pure Heart of Mary were set to dissolve. The historically black congregation based in Harlem in New York City had a mean age of 81 and no new vocations. But then, in 2010, they had what the community's congregation minister, Sr. Gertrude Lilly Ihenacho, calls a "wake-up call."

This story appears in the See for Yourself feature series. View the full series.

by Nancy Linenkugel

Contributor

View Author Profile

See for Yourself - In the 1972 hit movie "What's Up, Doc?" Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand) is talking with Howard Bannister (Ryan O'Neal) and says, "I know I'm different, but from now on I'm going to try and be the same." "The same as what?" asks Howard. "The same as people who aren't different."

Beh Paw Gaw and her family spent 10 years in a Thai refugee camp after escaping war in Burma. They left a home with plenty of space to grow mangos, coconuts, bananas and papayas for a household where the nearest neighbor was only one step away. The U.S. government resettled Gaw, her husband, Ta Mla, and their seven children in Kansas City in 2007. Ta Mla found work at a factory in St. Joseph, Missouri. Beh Paw needed a flexible job she could work while raising young children that could help pay the rent when her husband's work was unstable.