Throughout history—and still to this day—there are individuals who have been willing to speak out, challenge situations, and try to help make a change.

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, reviews By the Grace of God, The Peanut Butter Falcon, and The Riot Act.

Have you ever made a decision based on very little information that will surely affect the rest of your life—as well as the lives of everyone in your family—and which has no assurance of success? At the end of this past summer, my wife and I made a decision like that. We bought a house.

Harriet Tubman and Franz Jägerstätter share seemingly insignificant, humble backgrounds. They were people who in the course of ordinary events would have lived and died without notice. But they responded to that divine spark of conscience that led them to resist powerful social and political oppression and the dearth of authentic Christian teaching of their times to make a difference.

Over the years, I’ve thought and written a lot about the idea of interconnection. I think it’s one of the most brilliant conclusions of modern science, from biology to physics to sociology. It echoes the insights of our religious traditions—spanning the doctrine of the Trinity to the revelations of the mystics to the thoughtful words of Pope Francis in his encyclical “Laudato Si’. ” That all things are in some way related to all other things seems to be a basic operating principle of God’s creation.

Wearing sandals, clad in a plain brown robe, and full of youthful zest, Sister Stephanie Baliga raises a small bullhorn. She stands near the doorway of a food pantry in Chicago, set to open in minutes.