What's Happening

October 16, 2025, Florissant, Missouri – About 20 pilgrims hiked through the wetlands along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers on September 27-28, 2025, to deepen their appreciation of God’s creation, and especially the role of water. They were participating in “Pilgrims of Hope for Creation: The Rivers as Waters of Life,” hosted by the Pallottine Retreat and Conference Center in Florissant, Missouri.

Adrian Dominican Associate Celeste Mueller, DMin, President of the Board of Directors of the retreat center, organized and led the pilgrimage, convened at the end of the 2025 Season of Creation. The purpose was to “walk together to observe, listen and learn from the Rivers and the communities of plants, animals, and humans that depend on these living waters,” according to information on the retreat center’s website.

During the walk, Celeste told participants that they were hiking on “sacred sites” and encouraged them to treat these sites with an expectation that their encounter with them “might change something in us.” 

Laura Law, another Adrian Dominican Associate, also participated in the pilgrimage, and said she appreciated the meditation experience of the retreat. 

Read more about the retreat in an article by Laura Kosta published in The St. Louis Review, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.

Feature photo at top: Some of the participants in the Pilgrimage of Hope for Creation, hosted by the Pallottine Retreat and Conference Center in Florissant, Missouri, take time to pose for a photo.

August 26, 2025, Detroit – The Meta Peace Team, formerly the Michigan Peace Team, received the Teacher of Peace Award during a national conference of Pax Christi USA, held July 25-27, 2025, in Detroit. 

The Meta Peace Team, a long-time recipient of an Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Ministry Trust Fund grant, trains volunteers to serve as a nonviolent presence and offer peaceful resolution in situations that could involve violent conflict – both in the United States and around the world.

“Fearlessly and prophetically training and deploying unarmed civilian protection teams around the country and the world, especially in Palestine, Meta Peace Team is a shining star to Christians everywhere of what discipleship of the nonviolent Jesus looks like,” wrote Jessica Sun, leader of the Pax Christi USA Young Adult Caucus, in her nomination.

Sister Ellen Burkhardt, OP, a member of the Board of Meta Peace Team, noted the Adrian Dominican Congregation’s long-time connection, beginning with the significant role that the late Sister Mary Pat Dewey, OP, played in its founding. “Others of us have continued to be part of this mission in the intervening years,” she said.

Founded in the 1980s as Michigan Faith and Resistance, the organization was renamed the Michigan Peace Team in 1993, the year that the organization first placed an international team in Bosnia at the time of war. 

Read more about the Meta Peace Team and the Teacher of Peace Award here.