The Dominican Sisters ~ Grand Rapids and Associates are engaging the Season of Creation in a number of ways including: prayer, reflection, and pilgrimage. We welcome you to engage with any or all of these activities during this period of prayer and action that begins Monday, September 1 and concludes on the Feast of St. Francis October 4.
This year we will be guided by the vision of the prophet Ezekiel (47:1–12): a river flowing from the temple of God, which grows without stopping and brings life where everything seems barren.
Water heals, restores, and makes creation flourish. But it also challenges us: to recognize ecological damage, to embrace our interconnectedness, and to immerse ourselves in the responsibility of caring for and restoring our Common Home.
May this Season of Creation be a path for the healing of the Earth and human well-being to flourish together.
- Tuesday, September 1 — Opening Global Prayer Service
9:00 am ET Online
Join Sisters and Brothers around the globe for an online prayer service. Religious leaders from around the world invite you to discover the Season of Creation 2026: Living Water and to join them on this journey of faith and action. Watch it on YouTube, invite a friend, as together we work to transform awareness into action and commitment into hope for our common home. https://youtu.be/xVVZ8LSpcRk - Tuesday, September 1, 2026 — Land Justice Liturgy
3:00 – 3:45 pm ET PLEASE NOTE, this program will not be recorded.-
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- Organized by Land Justice Futures, join this live online event.
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- Facilitated by Sr. Sharon Zayac, OP and Brittany Koteles, we’ll enter this year’s theme, Living Waters, through prayer, song, poetry, and ritual—nourishing our spirits, deepening the soul-work of land justice, and remembering our belonging within the web of creation. Join us for a contemplative time of honoring the life-giving waters that bind us all and ground us in right relationship and right action.
- Wednesday, September 23, 2026 — Living Water Blessing
10:45 am – 11:45 am ET
Location: outside at Marywood, near the east entrance to the St. Francis Sculpture Garden
Inspired by our Congregation’s ECO-SPIRITUALITY commitment to right relationship with Indigenous Peoples, as well as our involvement with Land Justice Futures, we will gather with members of the Grand River Bands of Ottawa Indians. Bringing together both traditions, we will share prayer, reflection, storytelling, and ceremony as we honor water as a source of life, healing, and connection. All are welcome to join us for this time of prayer, gratitude, and reflection.This gathering is part of a collaboration with congregations across LCWR Region 7 to celebrate the Season of Creation and strengthen our shared commitment to care for our common home.
- Closing Prayer Service for the Season of Creation (Online)
October 4, 2026 | 9:00 am (ET)
On St. Francis Day, attend this worldwide, ecumenical event to close the Season of Creation. Join online using the link Join online using the link https://bit.ly/4gP8Pt8
We Pray — Living Water
Holy God, whose Spirit hovered over the waters at the beginning, we gather as part
of your community of all creation, thirsty for your grace. We give thanks for the gift
of water, the veins of our common home, that sustains the cedar and the whale, the
pasture and the city. We are grateful for the local waters that nourish our
homelands and our fellow creatures. We give thanks that in your well-watered
garden, every drop is a sacred testament to your love.
Yet, we confess that we have treated this gift as a mere commodity. We have
choked the seas with our waste and watched the warming tides rise in judgment.
We lament the cracked earth of the drought-stricken and the salty tears of the
climate refugee. Melt our frozen hearts, O God, and let the waters of repentance
flow.
Lord of all Life, you promised that wherever the river flows, everything shall live.
Stir in us a calling to care for the waters — to protect the watershed, defend the
rights of water, and honor the dignity of the thirsty. May your Word be a spring
within us, gushing forth for the healing of the nations.
May God our Father who brought water from the rock sustain us in the desert. May
Christ our Lord who is Living Water refresh us for the work of restoration. And may
the Holy Spirit carry us on currents of grace until justice rolls down like waters and
righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Amen
Additional Ways to Participate —
Reflection Series
Living Water — As we begin the Season of Creation, we are invited to reflect on water—a gift that sustains all life. Water can also be a source of renewal, healing, and connection with God. This week, take some time to notice your own relationship with water and the ways it may be inviting you to slow down, let go, and be renewed.
In addition to the events above, multiple resources will be available each week to support to help guide and inspire your journey to a renewed relationship with God and Creation.
- A Season of Creation Prayer Card will be available at Marywood, Aquinata Hall, Dominican Center Marywood at Aquinas College, and at Sunday Assembly this month.
- Sunday Assembly Liturgy will follow a Season of Creation theme each week.
