This reflection, shared with her community's permission, is from a letter written October 2, 2000, by Nieves de la Rosa, CSA, shortly before her sudden death.

If God has created us in his image and we are loved unconditionally as his children, then we are all one, no one person, nation or race having power or dominance over the other, all being asked to share the goods of the Earth and caring for the most vulnerable. During my visit to Nicaragua, many questions surfaced in me, to which I found no answers.

• How can we as a people and as a nation live with so much and let others live with so little?

• How can we allow others to be hungry, to live in such abject poverty, in circumstances not worthy of human dignity?

Sometimes I can feel pessimistic that there is so much hatred and greed existing in this world that the forces of good cannot seem to have an effect at all. But when I bring this to prayer and reflection, I realize that if I truly believe in a God of life, a God of love, and a God who liberates, then nothing . . . NOTHING . . . can stand in his way, and I am then able to let go and let God do all the rest.