We don’t always know who we’re going to encounter on the Internet or in any other place where people gather. We can bump into not only the joy-filled, funny, thoughtful, and creative types, but also the surly, heart-broken, fragile, and unfriendly too! On any given day, we ourselves might be any or many of these. What can we do to bring our best selves to our online encounters with others? How can we extend hospitality online?

"We fail to see that some are mired in desperate and degrading poverty, with no way out, while others have not the faintest idea of what to do with their possessions, vainly showing off their supposed superiority and leaving behind them so much waste which, if it were the case everywhere, would destroy the planet."

Sacred Heart Sr. Florence de la Villeon and nine other sisters are training to minister to refugees in Sicily, Italy, attending to people's spiritual needs and helping to build bridges between the refugees and the Sicilian population.

"When the harvest is plenty, why are so many people left hungry?"

NCR Preview - Women play a key role in helping to fulfill Pope Francis' message of mercy, service and compassion, three women leaders of the largest Catholic social service organizations said in a panel discussion at Georgetown University on Oct. 22.  

NCR Preview - The leader of the umbrella group for some 600,000 global Catholic women religious has said that in the wake of this month's Synod of Bishops the women are called to carry forth the pastoral work that the official church is sometimes not able to do. Sr. Carmen Sammut — who participated in the Oct. 4-25 Synod as one of 32 women who took part in non-voting roles alongside the 270 prelate-members — said the women religious should engage with people church institutions may not even know need help.

GSR Today - Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Mexico and others as Hurricane Patricia has passed through. And we remember the sisters who were killed 35 years ago in El Salvador and 23 years ago in Liberia.

The way the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy have been responding to people's needs has changed dramatically in recent decades. Founded in 1829, the congregation had 110 sisters at its peak in the 1960s. Now there are 14, so they partner with other groups under the nonprofit Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach to serve more than 11,000 people a year. The largest effort is on Johns Island, where it has a health and dental clinic and the largest program in the country that teaches English to speakers of other languages. Founded in 1989, just two weeks before Hurricane Hugo devastated the area, the organization took over operating Neighborhood House from the Charleston diocese in 2005.

Reducing the illiteracy rate among the less privileged children in Patna, especially of the girls, who have only a 53.3 percent literacy rate, is how they can advance in life and be stronger members of the community and nation. In India, women and men are denied the opportunity to go to school for a variety of reasons, like having to become bread winners for their families or have running away from home due to sheer hunger.

"All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered."