GSR Today - Buddhism came to this Southeast Asian nation as early as the 5th century and became the official state religion in the 13th century, its footprint since permeating the culture. Christianity, by comparison, has had only a modest impact. A few Catholic sisters, though, are doing what they can to provide education and esteem to some of the economically poorest children in the nation's capital.

Periodically during contemplative prayer, a random distracting thought pops into my mind and catches my attention, no matter how pious or spiritual my intentions when I first sit down to pray. It might be as simple as what I plan to cook for dinner that evening or as complex as composing an email. Every once in a while, however, a thought drifts in which is indeed worthy of further prayer and reflection, no matter how random it might at first seem. About a month ago, for example, I found myself contemplating “Downton Abbey” from my perspective as a younger Catholic Sister. 

See for Yourself - The winter of 2015 is surely headed for the record books as people across the country have experienced record snows, sleet and bitterly cold temperatures. Week after week kept the lock on the weather freezer. School closings were matched by business closings. It wasn’t safe for anyone to venture out during this most extreme weather.

In the Scripture, widows more often than not were cast as helpless. But rereading this passage of Acts from the perspective of the Good News for the poor allows one to see the action of the Spirit in lowly situations. The action of the Spirit, transformed in these supposedly passive members of the primitive church, moved the story of the Christ-event forward and outside its Jewish enclave. Again the unusual power of women in shaping the Jesus movement continues to unfold as we pay closer attention to issues of gender in this passage.

Heart patients in the state-run Central Hospital in Hue, central Vietnam, know Sr. Anne Le Thi Hue of Daughters of Our Lady of the Visitation as the “Sister of Heart Surgery.” For the last decade, Hue has given financial help to parents of limited means whose children have congenitally bad hearts, helping thousands of them to get access to heart operations and return to a normal life. Hue, 69, who is also head of the congregation’s charitable activities, serves as an intermediary between the young heart patients and the Medical Aid Project – Medical Aid for Vietnam.

A symposium this week at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio focuses on the legacy of Las Hermanas, a grass roots organization for Latina Catholics. The program, “Las Hermanas, the Struggle is One,” will highlight the group’s 44-year history, its impact on Latina Catholics, its role in fighting discrimination in the church and its establishment of mujerista theology. “The symposium is bringing together scholars and leaders in the field of Latina ecclesiology,” said Adrienne Nock Ambrose, 50, an assistant professor of religious studies at University of the Incarnate Word and one of the organizers of the March 19-21 conference at the university.

Starting in the early 1970s, an organization founded by two women religious worked to increase educational and leadership opportunities for Latinas, advocated for more Latino bishops and fought for the right to work with Hispanics. Las Hermanas also played a pivotal role in the foundation of the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio. “They not only mobilized women religious; they partnered with women in general, with Mexican-American Latina women who were on the front lines of social change in the late ‘60s-early ‘70s,” said Arturo Chávez, the college's president. “They were also important voices for change in the educational systems that they were a part of.”

GSR Today - Every day we are greeted with another story about women and girls being sold or trafficked somewhere in the world. And each time, I feel a kind of helplessness. What can I do? It seems such an overwhelming disease in our human family. Although we know from the Ebola epidemic that physical diseases are painfully difficult to eradicate, those that drive persons to destroy others spiritually seems even more so.

Three Stats and a Map - Earlier this month, the Public Religion Research Institute reported that while the United States is in fact becoming more religiously diverse, the majority of Americans belong to three religious traditions.

“If I know so little about my family four generations ago, the assumption follows that in four generations, they will know little about me. It changes the way you think about your life.”