Meanwhile, on Al Jazeera...

I plastered this all over Twitter and Facebook last week, but in case you do not use those two platforms with any regularity, here's what the week held in store for me:

Early in the week, I got a Twitter message from a member of the production team of Al Jazeera America's program "The Stream." Evidently, the show asks viewers to alert them to any interesting phenomenon they come across on social media, and then follows up if it seems interesting enough, organizing a show around that theme. And someone sent them a picture of Sister Helena.

That and more than one link to online stories featuring that unique Pauline. Well, Sister Helena wasn't available to do a show (she's writing another book! and finishing up a movie!), so they contacted me. And Sister Rose Pacatte, the movie reviewer. And Sister Simone Campbell, the nun on the bus. And Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe, one of Time Magazine's 100 world influencers. And they created a panel discussion of sisters engaging with social media, in real time, with us streaming in via Skype (well, Sister Simone, being a lobbyist, was already in D.C.). That was Thursday night (here in England). The Internet in my room being somewhat unreliable, I had to borrow Sister Mary Lou's computer.

The show was not available in the US during the broadcast, but we had many live viewers from around the world, and I have been getting a lot of feedback from Africa and Egypt about it.  Now that the Thursday program on "Social Sisters" is simply archived on the Internet, you might be able to watch it. (I'm not getting through myself, but that might be the Internet's fault here; my family was able to get it.)

This week I am looking forward to my first trip into the city! On Wednesday, I will meet a Twitter contact for coffee (tea?), and on Thursday Sister Mary Lou and I will go to a children's Mass at the Cathedral where her painting of the Good Shepherd will be featured, and then to Foyles bookshop, where I will meet one of my long-time friends, a professor of World War II history, who is in town for research. And the week after that, several of us are hoping to participate in "Spirit in the City," an outdoor Catholic festival. I'll take my camera, voice recorder, and lots of give-aways!