When I asked the New Orleans volunteers what made the biggest impresssion on them during our service trip, I got a lot of similar answers. That people still have faith here is amazing... that people have a deeper, stronger faith than before the storm... it's just hard to understand.Each morning and evening our days began and ended with prayer together. We gathered -sometimes using words, silence or

Several of the volunteers said that they were asked by their friends and family why they were going to New Orleans now. Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. It seems hard to believe that large parts of the city are still devastated. With a shaky infrastructure and many professionals leaving and not returning after the storm, the city is slow to recover. A group of us in the Sisters of Charity Federation

We just returned from the Big Easy. Our service trip last week, to help Katrina Victims, was the first of five trips that we had our own place in which to stay. The House of Charity was only a dream and a hope until the first week of January 2010.Thirty of us piled in to the House of Chairity in New Orleans. We were excited to explore the house - the sisters attending the trip had email descriptions

National Vocation Awareness WeekJanuary 10-16, 2010The observance of National Vocation Awareness Week (NVAW) began in 1976 when the Bishops' Conference designated the 28th Sunday of the year as the beginning of NVAW. In the 1997 this celebration was moved to coincide with the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, which falls on January 10 in 2010, marks the initiation