Leadership Monthly

Reflection Column

Another New Year Has Begun - 2026

With the New Year comes all kinds of planning and thoughts for what we’ll do differently. We begin to put together plans for how this year will be different than last year. As we plan these changes we look again at our lives and see how these plans will fit with our day-to-day existence.

As the year begins, we see the realities inherent in our planning. We realize we may need to make changes to the plans we made in order for them to bear fruition.  With these changes, we realize that all cannot be what we thought. We spend some time thinking and once again, alter a plan that started our original thinking.

All the planning, thinking, changing, bring us to a point where we realize how the new year will be in reality and we see our lives moving along day by day. May God grant us the grace to move in his world with the grace needed for new life to flourish.

Women Religious Archives Collaborative Receives $4.7 Million Grant
to Share the Stories of Catholic Sisters

 “The Women Religious Archives Collaborative (WRAC) received a $4.7 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its national Storytelling Initiative on Christian Faith and Life. The grant will fund a 5-year project to share the inspiring stories of Catholic sisters, past and present, as examples of vibrant Christian lives and service.

Th nonprofit Women Religious Archives Collaborative was founded in 2022 by a collaboration of Catholic sisters in response to a growing need to plan for the future of their archives. The Women Religious Archives Collaborative is building an independent repository and heritage center, set to open in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2027 that will house collections from over 75 congregations and share the history of Catholic sisters through research, exhibits, and programming. Forty-four congregations have committed their collections to date.

These collections show how women religious significantly impacted the United States through heir tireless efforts in education, healthcare, spiritual formation, and social service since their arrival in 1727.

The 5-year project, So the Stories Can be Told, will connect a diverse multigenerational audience with stories of Catholic sisters by drawing on the histories within their archives. Visitors and researchers will encounter the real lives and struggles of these faith-filled women through multimedia in-person and online exhibits, storytelling programs, and a research fellowship. The project aims to increase awareness of the role of women religious, inspire reflection on Christian faith and service, and provide practical wisdom for personal and communal growth.”

(Taken from the Press Release of December 15, 2025, Cleveland, OH)

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