Thoughts on Laudato Seeds of Change Week

by Sr. Mary Alice McCabe SNDdeN

Last Fall when Kathryn Yanik,-E-W JPIC Director and Sabrina Harper, E-W Vocation

Promotion Director visited our Notre Dame land in Ipswich and its Cuvilly Arts &

Earth Center, they saw this land as a magnificent gift of the Creator - the perfect

place to call together a group of women seeking a more direct contact with

nature to “deepen how to live, pray and care for the Earth.” In this sacred space,

women could explore their shared call to ecological justice.

So they set about making it happen. The first Laudato Seeds of Change- An Immersion Experience was held in Ipswich, MA, June 21-28, 2026.

Kathryn and Sabrina created an integrated week-long program of action and reflection which had as its main focus connecting with the community of creation.

Each morning the group began the day at Cuvilly where Sr. Pat Rolinger lead a reflection as all circled together in song and prayer focusing on deepening relationships with all beings in the community of Creation. In the words of participants:

”This was my favorite part of the day circling together in song and prayer.”

“Thank you for waking me up and reminding me who I am becoming!”

Participants were then introduced to Cuvilly’s campus and various gardens: regenerative vegetable gardens, permaculture and pollinator gardens and children’s garden – all part of the landscape for biodiversity. Cuvilly’s farmers, Gabe and Gray, worked together with the women for 3 to 4 hours daily, digging in - preparing the soil for food forest permaculture and for a medicinal herb garden. One group joined the barn staff, Natalie and Phoenix, mucking the barn stalls and repairing the chicken house and yard all the while befriending Cuvilly’s barn creatures: alpacas, pigs, goats, sheep, horse, donkey, geese, chickens, and ducks.

The Ipswich Spirituality Center provided warm hospitality where the participants had their own community space to prepare meals and have their moments of group time. Afternoon time included speakers from Greenbelt Land Trust and Plum Island Ecosystems Research who described with passion the ecological importance of land and marsh conservancy. Other afternoon sharing focused on the Land Ethic of the East-West Province, on Pope Francis’s Laudato Sí, and on excerpts from Elizabeth Johnson’s Come to Breakfast and Brian McLaren’s Life After Doom. And on one evening the Seeds of Change group met with the Sisters of the Ipswich Community to share their impressions of the week. Enthusiastic sharing of stories, past and present, went on for several hours.

Did the immersion experience achieve its goal? The answer might best be summed up in these words of participants:

• "This was the spiritual deepening that I was seeking.”

• "Cuvilly is a gift that will continue to shape my life and my ministry.”

• "I am so grateful that I was able to experience Cuvilly. What an incredible space!”

• “This experience helped me deepen my relationship with all beings.”

• "We need to seek ecological justice for the whole Community of Creation.”