As we enter deeper into Advent, the sense of anticipation builds as we await Emmanuel, God-with-us. All around us are signs that the time is drawing near. Each day brings a flood of new things online — tweets from the Advent readings, YouTube videos for DIY nativity sets, Pinterest recipes for Advent cookies, Instagram Star-in-the-East images, Snaps from school Christmas musicals, and more.

A former Salvadoran Defense Minister linked to the 1980 slayings of Archbishop Oscar Romero and four U.S. churchwomen has lost a years-long battle to remain in the United States, sources connected to the case told NCR.

"The beginning of the world is not the work of chaos that owes its origin to another, but derives directly from a supreme Origin that creates out of love."

Several weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting Nadiah Mohajir, a Muslim-American woman who spoke after a Chicago screening of "Radical Grace," a documentary about Catholic sisters working for justice. For over five years, Nadiah has provided health education programming to over 2,000 Muslim women and girls in the Chicagoland area and cities across the country.

Conflict between secular principles and growing fundamentalism, as well as rising inequality between rich and poor, worry the tiny Catholic community in Bangladesh. Strikes, school closings and street-protests led by the nation's opposition political party marked the start of 2015 for Bangladesh — a wobbly and uncomfortable moment for those who experienced it, said Maryknoll Sr. Miriam Perlewitz, who is based in the crowded capital of Dhaka.

After communist forces captured Saigon, the capital of a U.S.-backed South Vietnam, on April 30, 1975, more than 1 million Vietnamese were estimated to flee the country. For two decades, they went mainly by sea to nearby Southeast Asian countries, attempting to elude persecution and life under communist rule. On behalf of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Sr. Pascale Le Thi Triu of Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul offered legal and social services to thousands of 'boat people,' or refugees, for 25 years in the Philippines, where she studied social work.

See for Yourself - A colleague and I recently had a meeting about plans for a project. While I dutifully took notes in my trusty portfolio, Debbie did not. I thought to myself, "Wow, she must have a terrific memory if she doesn’t have to write anything down."

Book review - Published by Orbis in September, Transformational Leadership: Conversations with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is a collection of 18 interviews that will interest not just members of women religious' communities, but anyone in leadership seeking to act faithfully as an agent of transformation in challenging, changing circumstances.

"Divine wisdom, peace and love are part of your being, your soul."