J.C. parish’s Care for Creation group shared activities, prayer with I.C. students
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Kids say some of the profoundest things.
The depth of even a kindergartner’s questions can take your breath away.
“You listen to them, and sometimes they ask you some philosophical questions, and it blows your mind,” said Therese Miller, a member of the Care for Creation group at Immaculate Conception Parish in Jefferson City.
“The little ones bring so much to our conversations,” said Mrs. Miller, who helps bring activities focused on the spirituality of God’s handiwork to students at Immaculate Conception School.
“It’s refreshing, invigorating that we get to have this time together to listen to each other and experience the goodness of God’s creation,” she said.
The Care for Creation group got started with a half-dozen members about a decade ago, after Pope Francis (+2013-2025) released his groundbreaking encyclical, “Laudato Si’: On Care for our Common Home.”
In that document, the late pontiff wrote of people’s relationships with God, with one another and with God’s creation, and how they necessarily overlap.
The Care for Creation group welcomed several speakers to the parish, advocated for more nature-friendly practices for parish functions, and recommended books for fellow parishioners to read.
“We were trying to identify ways to inspire, motivate, inform, pray, unite, act and stand in wonder of God’s Creation,” said Mrs. Miller.
In 2023, members met with Heather Schrimpf, principal of Immaculate Conception School, about working on projects with students to help them recognize their role as God-appointed stewards of his Creation.
Members of the group began working with Mrs. Schrimpf; Father Matthew Flatley, pastor; school librarian Cindy Wolken and middle school religion teacher Phyllis Emmel on age-appropriate, seasonal lessons for children in kindergarten through eighth grade.
“Everyone has been super supportive,” said Mrs. Miller.
As with everything else at a Catholic school, God is the source and the destination.
“We start by reminding students that when we talk about God’s Creation, it’s something we’re all a part of,” said Mrs. Miller. “The respect and love and care that we give to all of Creation is important, because we’re all connected.
“We’re all called to care for the gifts that we have been given,” she stated. “That’s one way we love God and each other.”
Last Spring, group members worked with students to demonstrate the “Three Rs” — reduce, reuse and recycle — by working together to turn a discarded canvas into a piece of artwork for the school.
Other projects followed.
Last year, students focused on biodiversity and how all of nature exists in magnificent equilibrium.
To illustrate this delicate balance, each class created a shoebox diorama illustrating one of the major environments in which life flourishes.
Among these were deserts, prairies, oceans and alpine forests.
Students then assembled each into an intricately leveraged “biodiversity tower,” its design inspired by the Jenga game.
“‘Playing the Jenga biodiversity game’ reminds us to honor the interconnectedness of nature by ‘moving a block’ only with thoughtful and careful consideration,” members of the Care for Creation group noted.
“As in the Jenga game, peace with Creation happens when every piece counts.”
This year, from Sept. 1 through Oct. 4, the group helped students observe the Season of Creation by focusing on the theme, “Living Water.”
The theme comes from Ezekial 47:9-12, which includes the phrase, “Wherever it flows, the river teems with every kind of living creature. ... Everything lives where the river goes.”
Lessons for each grade focused on exploring the wonder, beauty, power and lifegiving ways of water.
The students prayed, reflected and acted together through demonstrations and experiments highlighting the “Wonder of Water,” the “Power of Water,” the “Beauty of Water,” and “Living Water.”
They learned about and shared ways to conserve and care for the watershed and local water supply.
Members of each of the middle school “houses” created a prayer fountain — an integrated project of prayer, Scripture, world water issues and solutions, art and engineering.
“They used prayers that relate to water in the many different ways it is depicted in the Bible,” said Mrs. Miller. “They did that as a way of integrating this life-giving compound into their physical life and their faith life.”
Students conducted four “little experiments” at their tables during library period.
They also helped create a “living water wave” of streamers outside to weave into the fence outside one of the school buildings, highlighting their own role as “wave makers.”
Mrs. Schrimpf summed up the lessons for the students at the conclusion of an all-school Mass.
“Every day, we have opportunities to make a difference,” she noted. “We can choose to conserve water. We can care for the world God has entrusted to us. We can notice when someone needs help. We can bring kindness, encouragement and hope to others.”
She emphasized that Jesus identified the gift of his very self as Living Water.
“Jesus is the source of the grace, hope and life that we need,” she pointed out. “He tells us that those who come to him will never thirst.”
“God is the source of all life, and we are called to help his Creation flourish,” she stated. “May we leave this Mass ready to be wave makers — bringing Christ’s love and Living Water to the people and the world around us.”
Participation among students in these Care for Creation activities has intensified over the years.
Mrs. Miller likened students’ reactions to a panel from a 1980s “Calvin & Hobbes” comic strip, in which a little boy tells his best friend, “If people sat outside and looked at the stars each night, I’ll bet they’d live a lot differently.”
“Everyone’s response is unique,” Mrs. Miller observed. “What stands out for me is having them see something differently that they take for granted every single day. They’re in awe! It’s like, ‘Wow! God’s Creation is incredible!’”
