Notes from the Field - My previous posts have touched on the work we are doing for the Big Laurel Learning Center and as aides in the local schools. Equally exciting is the work we have do during our personal time on the property of Big Laurel, learning what it means to live in rural isolation and practice some homesteading techniques.

The Nativity scene is what comes to mind for many of us when we think about Christmas. There is the manger with Mary kneeling by the infant Jesus with Joseph by her side. Often there are shepherds and a few sheep as well as some angels hovering in the sky. When St. Francis of Assisi created this image in the 1200s, he did it to remind people that this holy day is about worshiping God rather than gift giving. But this visual image did far more than that. For the people of his time it spoke to the felt sense of what this mystery was about, and it became a permanent part of our religious imagination.

Pope Francis advanced the sainthood causes of a Lutheran convert who established a branch of the Bridgettine order in her country and a U.S. missionary who died while ministering to the wounded in Vietnam.

"If we look at our hands, we are fearfully and wonderfully made. No one shares the same thumbprint, and no one has in the past, nor will in the future. We have different roles in God's kingdom, but we are all in the same garden. We are all special flowers, and it does not matter what denomination you are if you have love."

GSR Today - Every day, we're writing about those living in poverty, those suffering abuse and those otherwise marginalized from mainstream culture — all people groups that are easily stereotyped — and all in addition to covering Catholic sisters who have a whole history of being stereotyped themselves.

Every August, the Franciscan Sisters, Third Order Regular, of the Penance of the Sorrowful Mother in Toronto, Ohio, go through what they call "transitions." The sisters move to mission houses, novices make first vows, postulants become novices, and new postulants arrive at the monastery. For temporarily professed Sr. Mary Gemma Harris, 27, the transitions this year were particularly hard. Last year, after making her first vows, she was assigned to the kitchen in the motherhouse. This year, while her classmates went off to other assignments, Harris was named coordinator of the kitchen.

On the one hand, it's true that in showing mercy, I can feel good about myself because I'm doing something virtuous. I can give myself a pat on the back subconsciously. I'm being magnanimous and benevolent. On the other hand, it seems that, to receive mercy, I need to admit that I did something wrong or that I am not perfect.

Responding to an increase of unaccompanied minors arriving at the southern border, the federal government selected three temporary shelters in December to house immigrant children.

“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”