I spent four hours watching women share stories "for a creative exchange of ideas from a female perspective." There were some amazing narratives.

GSR Today - Italy’s news-making singing nun, Sr. Cristina Scuccia, went to Tokyo this week to promote her new album. While there she took questions from fans on a variety of topics, including one person’s bad habit of snacking on chips before bed. I kid you not. Read on.

A few weeks ago I learned the word askesis, Greek for “practice” or “training.” Before the Christian ascetics got hold of the idea (askesis is the root word of asceticism), the Greeks used it to refer to athletes’ physical training. I was captured by this idea, and when I discussed it with a mentor, she suggested that I choose another part of my life in which I’ve developed good discipline and transfer some of those skills to my prayer life. The answer was clear: running.

African religious women are invited to assume an important mission in the formation of a new African culture that does not call for a retrospective journey to traditional culture or its complete abandonment, but rather for a critical reading and assessment of the past, an objective analysis of the present and an optimistic projection into the future in the light of the Gospel as the message of life, love and hope.

See for Yourself - I’m working on a project and need a number of boxes. Beer cartons are perfect, and Angie works in the “Spirits Nook” at the grocery store where I shop. A key person is stockman John who’s in charge of the beer aisle. He saves the boxes for me, and Angie keeps them behind the counter.

If you’re excited about the upcoming The Nun in the World symposium, you’ve got Carmen Mangion, in part, to thank. Mangion, a historian with an expertise in women religious in the U.K., is one of the conference’s three co-organizers. When she’s not planning international conferences, Mangion is a history lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London. She’s written three books about women religious and has authored numerous articles on those same topics.

Liliana Gomez is just the kind of person the organizers of the National Catholic Sisters Week conference on discernment hoped to attract: passionate about her faith and social justice, and open to the idea of religious life as a future path. Gomez was one of about 60 students and sisters who attended the NCSW kickoff conference March 6-8 at St. Catherine University. Its theme of discernment seems tailor-made for her, with its focus on learning how to negotiate a direction when two paths are equally attractive.

"Some people love the world, but they don't love people. You have to respect the dignity and worth of every human being. Love everybody."