An encounter with Jesus changes people's lives, and that should be especially noticeable in those who are consecrated completely to serving God, the church and others, Pope Francis said. "One who has this encounter becomes a witness and makes the encounter possible for others, too," he said Feb. 2, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

GSR Today - Are U.S. presidential candidates really listening to the people when it comes to immigration policy? How is winter making Syrian refugee life even worse? Can a biographical film bring more empathy and action to the refugee situation?

"The soil is the great connector of lives, the source and destination of all. It is the healer and restorer and resurrector, by which disease passes into health, age into youth, death into life. Without proper care for it we can have no community, because without proper care for it we can have no life."

As the eyes of the nation focus on the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, the 13 congregations of Catholic Sisters of the Upper Mississippi River Valley want to capture the attention of participants to call for an end to environmentally destructive policies and practices, placing more than 20 billboards in strategic locations throughout state, southwest Wisconsin and western Illinois.

From A Nun's Life podcasts - In this Random Nun Clip, we talk about the Year of Consecrated Life, which ends on February 2, 2016, and its effects on the church and world.

We live three miles from a coal-fired power plant. On cold, still days, the smoke it releases barely moves; it piles upward in a tall column like a solitary cumulonimbus cloud. It was on such a morning (a mere 2 degrees!) that I pulled on my snowshoes for a hike in the park adjacent to our farm. The sky was clear and I was sure a beautiful sunrise would await me over the shores of Lake Michigan. The power plant was ahead of me for much of my hike, its smoke billowing pink in the pre-dawn light.

"Struggles for justice have been with us from our beginnings, even though we framed our work differently and had to grow into its current understandings. . . ."

I have never left a theater during intermission. Maybe the show has just not been bad enough to forfeit the price of admission. Usually there is enough curiosity to know how the story might be redeemed to keep me in my seat. I just received the sixth (and I hope last) round of chemotherapy for recurrent ovarian cancer. While in the throes of post-chemo side-effects I must admit that there are moments I'd like to leave the theater before the show is over.