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.

October 16, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – Every day is a gift from God and an opportunity to find new, creative ways to reach out to God in prayer.

That is the message that Sister Maryetta Churches, OP, hopes the users of her 2026 calendar take with them every day of the approaching year.

“The message for people who use this calendar would be to try to find the Lord in new ways this year – through art, through prayer, through journaling, through expanding your horizons – and find a new relationship with the Lord,” Sister Maryetta said.

Sister Maryetta ministered for 25 years at St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Brighton, Michigan, teaching groups to pray with art and creating All Souls Day posters featuring photos of parishioners who had died in the past year. When she left the parish in 2020 and moved to the Motherhouse in Adrian, she created a calendar based on her artwork to help parishioners remember her. She continues to create calendars, now reaching a wider audience. 

She hopes members of her larger audience will draw inspiration from the calendar – featuring artwork she created during her own journaling and prayer time in recent months. Each month also includes prompts to help people deepen their prayer life and their relationship with God.

Sister Maryetta hopes that the calendar will help people find new ways to pray. “Do whatever fits your style,” such as journaling or drawing, she said. “I’m trying to get people to do something different and make it a prayer. Communicate with God – speak and listen and use different techniques that speak to you.” 
Sister Maryetta herself is responding to a new call in her life. “It’s a call to the newness of me,” she said. “But I have no idea where it’s leading me. The call is exciting and unnerving, and I want to focus on becoming more.”

She encourages others to experience God’s call in their own lives. “He’s calling you,” she said. “You are precious in his eyes and he loves you, and I hope you can say back, ‘You are precious in my life, Lord, and I love you.’”

The calendars sell for $15 and will be available at the Weber Center Shop on the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse Campus. The Shop is open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Wednesday to Friday and 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday; it is closed for lunch from noon to 12:45 p.m. Visit the Weber Center Shop in person or reserve a copy by calling 517-266-4035.

Sister Maryetta also hopes to receive feedback from those who purchase and use her calendar. She can be reached at [email protected]. 
 

Caption for above feature photo: Sister Maryetta Churches, OP, displays a painting of the Holy Spirit, one of her works of art featured in her 2026 calendar.