The Mystery of Goodness in Creation

Our Season of Creation 2025, September 1(World Day of Prayer for Creation) to October 4 (Feast of St. Francis of Assisi) is culminating this week with the Feast of St. Francis. 800 years ago, St. Francis sang the Praise of our Creator in the “Canticle of the Creatures”. This year we have celebrated this with Pilgrimages of Hope for Creation across the nation including here in Minnesota and our own Diocese of Winona-Rochester.

Participants listen to a speaker

Minnesota and the Laudato Si Movement of Minnesota chose the deeply connecting aspect of “water” as the focus for these pilgrimages. There is a mystery in the way we relate to water and how that interrelates to all of creation. St. Francis called her “Sister” Water emphasizing our relationship. Pilgrimages called us together to reflect on this relationship. This is a reflection from our Rochester Pilgrimage that took place at the Cascade Meadows wetlands:

… I loved that the theme was the beauty of creation and that we each have a role in maintaining and improving it. That approach, in my opinion, leads to believing that I can make a difference instead of just feeling overwhelmed by the scope of the problem.

John Weiss was my favorite speaker. Bringing his measuring tube and speaking to his local experience of water quality was informative. I related to his being on the go outdoors, and his effort to bring himself to just sit still in nature and be part of it without doing anything. Nature never fails to help me feel closer to God, and I want to try being still instead of always moving through it.

Being with like-minded people at the pilgrimage re-enforces my own efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle. It's important to lead by example and also to have conversations with family members and friends of all ages about how small actions by each of us will make a difference and could lead to a wave of change! -Vicki Erickson

Another reflection from a Pilgrimage along the Mississippi River near “Section C”, which is a toxic waste dump site, states:

Pilgrims walk through Cascade Meadows in Rochester, MN

There is a mystery in the way our Sister Mother Earth tries to “absorb” what is dumped onto her. The trees and brush, the natural rock and sediment, the small creatures and birds continue to find life amid the rubble. This is goodness but does not deny or address the “mess” that has been left or the responsibility to clean it up…to a certain extent it hides [the mess] and we can forget what lies beneath the surface.What lurks beneath the surface is in the floodplain of the Mississippi River and a geologically porous area. When the “containers” holding this toxic waste degrade, decay and begin to leach the contents, it will be into the artery of water. “Water is life!” St. Francis describes the “nature” of Sister water as, “Useful, humble, precious, and chaste.” As a pilgrim on this journey of hope, with other pilgrims who care for creation, I must ask myself: how am I changed by the Mystery of this Goodness? And how are we, collectively, changed to respond in protection and to repair the Mystery of Goodness? I was reminded of the sacred connection of “sister” by an Indigenous woman who is a “Water Protector”. Sister Water provides life and as a “sister”, I can provide protection. -Pilgrimage Participant

We are all on pilgrimage with “sister” water and “sister” Mother Earth to walk, not just in a wetland or by a river, but to walk with “sister” water and “sister” Mother

Earth in relationship with the “Mystery of Goodness”. We invite you to further explore and risk being changed by the “Mystery of Goodness” in our Panel on Creation Care, Saturday, October 11, 5:45pm in the Fellowship space.