"Deep down there is only one faith that all human beings have, and that is deep trust in life."

"I see the future going in this direction, that more and more people will realize how important interreligious dialogue is."

Photography, according to Abbot Barnabas Senecal of St. Benedict's Abbey in Atchison, Kansas, is an exercise in monastic mindfulness, and he says his pictures express "being aware of the presence of God with you and in the world."

Abbot Barnabas Senecal, a Benedictine monk, reflects on the Psalms, prayer, photography, and the Benedictine desire "to seek God daily."

"Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days?" Those stirring words come at the beginning of one of the most durable spiritual guides of all time, the Rule of St. Benedict.

There will always be a purpose to monastic life, say the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, as long as there is a need in the world for silence, prayer, simplicity, and balance.

"Is there anyone here who yearns for life and desires to see good days?" Those stirring words come at the beginning of one of the most durable spiritual guides of all time, the Rule of St. Benedict.

Wangari Maathai became the first African woman to win the Nobel Prize for peace. She is a conservationist whose movement has caused the planting of 30 million trees in Kenya and also helped lead to free elections. Recently, Maathai visited Chicago, as Judy Valente reports.

There is a group of Benedictine nuns in Missouri who bake and sell millions of Communion wafers, small and large. But some would-be communicants complained that they are allergic to the gluten in the wheat in the nun's wafers. So they could not receive Communion. For the sisters that was a challenge.