Notes from the Field - I’ve known since taking my seat on the 32-hour journey to Nong Khai, and even before, that there would be another eerily similar flight lurking in the future. The difference would be that the next flight would be heading back to the United States, and at the time it seemed light years away.

The church does not have a mission — rather, God's mission has a church, a priest told a gathering of women religious Thursday morning. Divine Word Fr. Stephen Bevans told approximately 800 members of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious gathered here for the group's annual assembly that only by focusing on the Holy Spirit can they quench the thirsts of the world. To live God's mission, Bevans said, the church must live in what he called "prophetic dialogue."

“We speak of the great deep as a reserve of wisdom that we believe can be accessed by living a life of contemplation.”

See for Yourself - The public television station in the community where I live recently celebrated the 48th anniversary of its annual on-air auction to raise funds for programming. A key success factor each year is the army of volunteers who augment the event's nightly experience during the entire auction week.

The controversial investigations of U.S. women religious by the Vatican — and resulting tensions — stemmed largely from a "cultural chasm," the group's president, Immaculate Heart of Mary Sr. Sharon Holland, said Wednesday. But that chasm is closing, she said, and a new era of communion seems to have begun.

In the second public address of the first full day of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious' 2015 assembly, St. Joseph Sr. Janet Mock spoke about the changing reality of religious life, likening it to the resurrected body of Christ. "If your congregation has done all it can do, you must place the collective wisdom that is yours at the service of the world through prayer and suffering, entering into the passivity of Christ for the good of the world," she said, adding that life always comes out of death.

The announcement six years ago of an apostolic visitation of United States congregations of women religious caused a stir among many sisters. This attempt by the Vatican to exert unwanted control posed a threat to the identity and mission of the congregations and initiated a crisis. However, a good number of the congregations faced the challenge head on with a response reminiscent of the swarming behavior of starlings.

Notes from the Field - Sitting in the shade of a mango tree, I see people go by, busy with their work and tasks. As I sit, people stare at me while they walk, some even stopping before continuing on their way. When I am outside of the sisters’ compound I get a lot of attention.

The 2015 annual assembly of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious officially began Tuesday evening with centering song followed by greetings from Sr. Marcia Allen, president-elect; Sr. Sharon Holland, president; and Sr. Carol Zinn (past president). This is the first such gathering for the approximately 1,400 leaders of the United States' sisters in several years that is taking place without being under the cloud of Vatican investigations. LCWR represents about 80 percent of the 50,000-some women religious in the U.S., and almost 800 of the leaders are in Houston, Texas, this week for "Springs of the Great Deep Burst Forth: Meeting the Thirsts of the World."

To hear Rachel Maddow tell it, Daughter of Charity Sr. Mary Peter Diaz single-handedly took on the billionaire Koch brothers and publicly defeated the conservative activists who spend millions of dollars supporting their candidates and causes. Diaz, not surprisingly, sees it a little differently.