She's in her 30s ‒ only 1 percent of women religious are. And she's an elementary school teacher. Fewer than 2,000 women religious ‒ 2 percent of all sisters ‒ teach in U.S. Catholic grade schools. Yet she said she's joyfully where she needs to be and is not discouraged by the few number women choosing religious life. "I wouldn't necessarily say there's a drop in vocations as much as there is a drop in the 'yes' ‒ you know, the response to the call," she told Catholic News Service during a recent interview at St. Peter Indian Mission School in Bapchule. "I think God is calling and calling and calling."

GSR Today - It took a radical notion about serving the marginalized to encourage Sr. Eileen Reilly to accept a job at the United Nations.

Much has already been written about Laudato Si’, the encyclical released last week by Pope Francis on the care for our common home. Initial reactions range from the celebratory to the critical and come from all corners of church and society. Even my 81-year-old father asked me on the phone the other day if I was excited about the encyclical. To be truthful, excited is a mild descriptor.

Notes from the Field - When I applied to be a VIDES volunteer, living in community with the sisters was a strategic move. One, I wanted to be living in a safe environment; I trusted that a community of nuns would be able to provide that. Two, I wanted to grow in my faith. Three, I particularly like structure and order, which life in community promises.

GSR Today - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled today 5-4 that same-sex marriage is constitutional and that states must recognize such marriages performed in other states. National Catholic Reporter has reaction from Catholic bishops and others here.

See for Yourself - At a national professional association meeting recently, I found myself sitting at a luncheon table next to a healthcare software developer from California.

Notre Dame Sr. Thecla Tran Thi Giong, who earned a doctoral degree in counseling and psychotherapy from the Philippines in 1993, has taught at universities and in inter-congregational theological formation programs for men and women religious for more than 20 years in Vietnam. Giong is among the first Catholic nuns who were allowed to study abroad in the late 1980s after the country was reunified under communist rule in 1975 when the war ended.

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.” 

Since 2001, more than 2,000 women have not only found safety but learned skills at St. Monica's Vocational School in Gulu, Uganda, directed by Sr. Rosemary Nyirumbe. In her words: "They are fighting back with needles and sewing machines and not with machine guns."