"The real question is not why the suffering, but where is God in the suffering. A loving God does not, could not, desire our suffering. Rather, God is not remote from us, especially in our pain: God suffers with us."

Linda Roby, a Sister of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is director of the deaf ministry for the archdiocese of Portland, Oregon since 1992 after holding the same position from 1978 to 1982. In the 10-year interim, she lived in Iowa, teaching in a Catholic school and later working in her community's initial formation program. "One of my greatest joys is seeing the increase in Deaf involvement and leadership in Catholic Deaf ministry," she said.

Notes from the Field - Packing all of your belongings and moving 1,320 miles to another state sounds daunting, challenging and, at the same time, exciting. These were the feelings I had as I was packing my things, ready to make my move Sept. 10 to the great Sunshine State from Chicago.

GSR Today - The old convent of the Sisters of St. Martha in St. Andrews, Nova Scotia, had been on the market for a year after the sisters decided it was too large for them. Then Pope Francis urged parishes to take in Syrian refugees.

"I leave you color as winter’s chill surrounds. I leave you hope in glory yet to be revealed. Warm yourself in the true colors of loving."

The trickle-down theory, or more recently known as trickle-down economics, is essentially that a lot of money at the top will eventually mean a lot of money for the people at the bottom of the economic scale. This theory has also been applied to other areas of inequality, such as access to education or jobs. But the theory doesn't hold up. From my 24 years of ministering in rural Mississippi, I sure haven't seen any trickle down. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is a given in this state: One that is embedded in its very culture.

While there was a time when more than half of Catholic children went to Catholic schools, that is far from true today. And within the largest and fastest-growing Catholic school-aged population — Latinos — barely 3 percent are enrolled in such schools. New strategies are slowly changing that fact.

“Every conscious action no matter how miniscule connects energetically with every other action, and the quality and quantity of awakened consciousness increases incrementally on our planet.”

"It is in the shelter of each other that the people live," An old Irish proverb teaches. Life, it seems, begins and ends in encounter. Together we support one another. We create something new; we make space. And there, within ourselves and within the world, life is sheltered and sustained. Between you and me there is created the perfect balance of resistance and reassurance — trust rooted in and returning to love — a balance better known as relationship.