Horizons: A little over a week from now, I will make my final vows as a Sister of Saint Joseph. This past year has been one of intensive discernment of what it means to say yes to forever.

From A Nun's Life podcasts - In this Random Nun Clip, Franciscan Sr. Eileen Ripsin discusses being in contemplation all day — including when she's running, out in the wonder of creation.

To make the transition to a sustainable future, humanity must pay attention to cities and the attendant challenges of affordable housing, energy-saving and transportation, say sisters who attended a recent three-day United Nations conference on sustainable urban areas.

Nearly 10,000 people living in eight villages in northwestern India have found new meaning in their lives after the intervention of the Missionary Sisters, Servants of the Holy Spirit in 2012. Through water projects, micro-loans, farming diversity and other means, the nuns not only checked migration to cities but also fought several social evils that subjugated women, such as child marriage.

In 2005, I was on mission to mentor teachers at a high school in in Kalima, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The very first time I met with the sixth level students, I cried for some of them, because they were unable to read or write.

How much of the talk about the future of religious life is really about the future of our religious traditions, not the life itself? Vowed members will continue to be as important to the lifeblood of the traditions as non-vowed members are coming to be.

Adrian Dominican Sr. Elise García tells GSR that she is used to finding herself between two worlds. At 69, she has only been in religious life for 14 years, so she identifies with both sisters her own age, and millennial sisters still relatively new to religious life. "I'm very much a bridge," the LCWR president-elect says.

"He who calls you is faithful." The trusty clock radio's alarm goes off and a new day gets underway that is ready to receive your best efforts, your best thinking and your best self.

Summer affords precious time for ethnic students in Vietnam's Central Highlands to prepare for the coming academic year with the help of several communities of women religious. The students take courses in such subjects as math, English, Vietnamese and music.