See for Yourself - News reports this week announced that the film, “Fifty Shades of Grey,” rocketed to Number 1 as the box office draw for Valentine’s Day weekend 2015. Is anyone surprised at that? I’m not. After all, when the Catholic church specifically singles out this movie as something not to go see, isn’t that all the more reason to go see it?

GSR Today - I learned about last week’s triple homicide in Chapel Hill, N.C., on Twitter. Checking Twitter on my phone is one of the first things I do in the morning, and I didn’t have to scroll long to see post after post both about Deah Bakarat; his wife, Yusor Abu-Salha and her sister, Razan Abu-Salha. There was also a lot of talk about the lack of media attention given to their deaths.

The Social and Charitable Services Society, one of Vietnam’s youngest institutes and societies for women who are not professed religious, was founded by the late Bishop Paul Nguyen Thanh Hoan of Phan Thiet diocese in southern Vietnam in 1995. Sr. Mary Nguyen Thi Quynh Nga, 33, is an herbalist who entered the society in 2002. She currently serves as its superior. 

Español/Spanish-language version of 'An open letter to the Great Generation' - Sí, la Hermana Dot perteneció a la Gran Generación. Ustedes, – la gran generación que escuchó el llamado del Concilio Vaticano II, que transformó la vida religiosa con la energía que le dedicaron a la renovación, que reescribió nuestras constituciones, que aprendió que todos éramos el “Pueblo de Dios” y celebró esta identidad, que optó preferencialmente por los pobres, caminó y vivió con las personas en los márgenes, que escribió una teología que nos enseñó quién era Dios, su creación y quiénes somos como iglesia – sí, ustedes, la gran generación de mujeres valientes, atrevidas, fuertes, sin miedo, abiertas al riesgo y la experimentación.

In honor of Sr. Dorothy Stang: Before the phrase “preferential option for the poor” was coined, Dorothy, from listening to the Gospel in church, school and family had absorbed the message, and it was deepened in her religious formation during the years of the Vatican II renewal.

Three Stats and a Map - Last week, headline after headline recounted violence against Christians, Muslims and Jews. On Tuesday, there was the triple homicide of three young Muslims in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. On Saturday, a gunman opened fire at a synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, killing a security guard. On Sunday, ISIS released a video they claim shows the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians.

"We do belong to one another, and the mud that marks us each Ash Wednesday is a reminder of this belonging."

GSR Today - Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite days. I love being part of the lines of people, young and old, slowly snaking forward towards the altar to have the mud of ashes and water marked in a cross on our foreheads. As I walk along, I wonder what is so attractive about this day.

Movie critic Sr. Rose Pacatte covered her first red carpet event in January, scoring a spot in the media scrum at the Los Angeles premiere of Kevin Costner’s new movie, “Black or White.” On Saturday, Pacatte takes center stage at an even bigger Hollywood event – the annual Golden Raspberry awards, better known as The Razzies. For 35 years the tongue-in-cheek Razzies have “honored” the worst of Hollywood – bad acting, bad writing, bad directing, bad movies. Think of them as the opposite Oscars.