by Sister Judith Jackson, SCL
Each year we await the autumnal change of season on the campus of our Marillac Spirituality Center. We delight not only in our abundance of trees, shrubs and flowers, but in the groundskeepers who tend all our campus with such loving care and depth of knowledge of its holdings. We treasure together all of God’s creation.
We honor in particular, the waiting each year for the leaves-falling from the Ginko trees. Decades ago, our poet laureate, Sister Mary Janet McGilley SCL captured our waiting and our gratitude in the poem, Rain of Gold.
Rain of Gold
Next to the Chapel
stands a tree
called appropriately
by the Japanese
the tree of heaven.
Ah, a fair tree,
full fashioned,
rounded at the top,
with fan-shaped leaves
that are gold coins for fall
when, as legends say,
all leaves fall at once –
or to be more precise,
if less poetic,
in a day.
But so they do,
and each fall we wait
the golden rain
from the tree of heaven.
Which may say something,
Though not all,
about how heaven sends its gifts,
about how God is bountiful.
As this month of November begins, sit with this poem. Be still.
Reflect on the final lines if you so desire.
Each fall, we wait
the golden rain from the tree of heaven.
Which may say something, though not all
about how heaven sends its gifts,
about how God is bountiful.
You are invited to join us in our program offerings. Please register on our website.
Día de los Muertos
November 3, 2026
9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
Marillac Assembly
Mr. Nic Herrmann
During the season, we are called to contemplate both life and death; we cross the sacred threshold where the spirits of the past and the pulse of the present become one in a shared celebration of life and the afterlife. It’s a day to weave together global traditions and deep prayer, inviting a fresh perspective on the holy cycle of birth, death, and the light that carries us through them all.
Registration for Día de los Muertos
November 3, 2026, 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.
