This week in our "Chaplains" series, we tag along with a Zen Buddhist monk in New York City. Then, how mindfulness can nourish patients and doctors.

Back in 2004, Amy Andrews and Jessica Mesman Griffith met in creative writing class. Spiritual seekers, they began exchanging handwritten letters...and never really stopped.

Primates can be amazingly altruistic-- consoling distressed group members, even prying rocks from fighting males' hands. Frans de Waal explains how we humans can trace traits like empathy back to our animal ancestors.

It turns out our primate cousins show remarkable altruism and kindness, suggesting we're hardwired for systems of morality, with or without religion.

Sister Joan Chittister invites us to embrace the great unknown. After a battle with polio when she entered the convent at 16, she learned that spiritual growth can be ignited by the most tragic moments of life.

An informed conscience is not simply your own personal opinion, Father Thomas Petri tells us. Conscience is formed in relation to the Church, trusting the wisdom of the saints and Church Fathers.

In 2012, Fr. Tony Flannery publicly challenged key church teachings and was promptly silenced by the Vatican. For him, an informed conscience is the ultimate guide; right and wrong must be discerned from the inside out.

It’s one of the oldest dilemmas in the Catholic Church: what to do when a priest’s own conscience conflicts with his vow of obedience. Two priests share their different understandings of obeying church authority.

We kick off our Chaplains series at a senior care facility where Oksana Chapman helps Russian-speaking residents to fan the embers of a spiritual life.

In a soundscape of surf and sand, Father Christian Mondor recounts how he began riding waves at age 70. In water, he finds a metaphor for the holy trinity. And in the surf, he finds a kind of baptism.