Notes from the Field - In May 2013, I fell in love with Central America. After my graduation from Carroll College, I had the opportunity to be immersed in the Guatemalan culture for two weeks with a group of fellow students, faculty and staff. We learned about the people and culture, volunteered and encountered the church and her people on a totally different level. The experience planted a seed of desire to deepen that experience.  

"For the very same kind of people Jesus attended to as he walked from Galilee to Jerusalem, sisters give themselves away. Like Jesus, they refuse to abandon the refugees that so many today call lepers. . . ."

After Mass and breakfast at the Motherhouse one morning a few weeks ago, Sister Flo asked me to stop by her room with her; she had something to give me. Florence Cremering has been a Sister of Charity for 70 years. She is 91 years young! Living on the Motherhouse property during the time of Novitiate, I’ve gotten to know her over breakfast chats and visits to her room. She is faithful, loving and wise as only a woman with such life experience could be. In her years of retirement, she has remained hope-filled about the future of our community and takes great delight in praying for those in discernment and formation. In fact, it’s speculated that once Flo starts praying for you, you are in trouble!

"The vision of the world to come seldom encourages the flourishing of the material world, but flight from it. It does not promote the splendor of the world we have, but the glory of the next."

It is a confusing, bittersweet time for my city. On May 26, Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson and the U.S. Justice Department announced a sweeping agreement to reform the Cleveland Police Department. That evening, our beloved Cleveland Cavaliers won the Eastern Division basketball championship. The next morning's Cleveland Plain Dealer carried the oddest front page I have seen in 37 years of living here. Predictably, in this crazy-for-sports-town, the Cavs had the biggest headline: ON TO THE FINALS! Directly beneath, in smaller type, I read: DEAL SEEKS SWEEPING REFORMS.

See for Yourself - Air travel just isn’t that much fun anymore. With smaller capacity airplanes, less overhead compartment space, the need to pack more efficiently to avoid baggage charges, cramped passengers, and the seemingly endless security checks before boarding, I can think of other travel activities that are more enjoyable.

It does seem to me that women never cease finding ways around institutional structures that limit their participation in society and church life. Women’s groups in many traditional African societies have done just that. Today the Catholic Women’s Organizations continue to play a similar role in a church where women seem “not to count.” In Nigeria, the Diocesan Councils of Catholic Women’s Organizations provide avenues for women to be counted.

Three Stats and a Map - How much solar energy would it take to power the United States? Apparently not that much – or so says Tesla CEO Elon Musk. When Tesla announced the creation of its home battery last month, Musk said that to power the entire United States with solar energy, only 160 million homes – or a few counties in Texas, as Fusion pointed out – would need solar panels

A group of Holy Family Sisters in Old Goa, western India, manage St. Xavier’s Academy, a school where staff provides children with physical and learning disabilities patient and individualized attention so that they can make strides in independent living, academic achievement and finding a way to make a living. The school has transformed the lives of hundreds of differently abled children since opening in 1987. Its reputation has spread throughout India, so much so, that admission seekers come from as far away as Assam, some 2,050 miles away.