On a recent sunny afternoon, the stained glass windows at St. Louis in Clarksville sparkled with a radiance few could have imagined when they stood in their original home at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. Illuminated by the mid-day sun, brilliant shades of cobalt blue, deep purples and fiery reds seemed to leap from the glass and command a visitor’s gaze.

Peter Boyle, who was once a Christian Brother before he pursued a career in acting, died Dec. 12 at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Boyle, 71, had been suffering from multiple myeloma and heart disease.

In a fast-paced age of cell phones, digital television and rampant consumerism, seven Contemplative Sisters of the Good Shepherd live quite different lives at their Baltimore convent.

What Pat Evans calls the “most powerful weapon” American servicemen could ever carry is failing to make its way into the hands of many military men and women in Iraq.

It took more than four decades, but Sister Marcia fulfilled her childhood dream, professing her final vows as an Oblate during a jubilant Aug. 14 liturgy at Our Lady of Mount Providence Convent in Baltimore.