Category: News

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Earth Awareness Fair 2021

Learn more about the 2021 City of Springfield Earth Awareness Fair online platform including all types of educational material, including downloadable how-to guides and videos.


Sister Sharon Zayac, OP and Sister Anita Cleary, OP share about the things to experience at Jubilee Farm and how green burial shrouds are made. The Earth Awareness Fair video was produced by the City of Springfield, Illinois Mayor’s Office.

What is Jubilee Farm? A peaceful destination, a place of integrity, a home to farm animals and wildlife, an educational resource, a demonstration of living in an ecologically responsible way, an oasis for spirituality, a special gift to those who seek solace and spiritual enrichment in nature. Sponsored by the Dominican Sisters of Springfield, Illinois, Jubilee Farm is a 164 acre center for ecology and spirituality located just west of Springfield, Illinois.

Our programs and services, ministry of hospitality and gently rolling expanse of grassland provide a setting where individuals and groups can nurture their spiritual and emotional growth. Come walk the land or spend time in quiet retreat. Our walking trails, outdoor labyrinth, creek and ponds offer tranquil settings for reflection.

Jubilee Farm’s programs and classes promote an understanding of our interdependent relationship to the whole of creation and offer insights into how to live more sustainably on our home planet. Our vegetable gardens and orchard produce healthy, chemical-free foods and are complemented by our classes that teach holistic and sustainable ways of eating.

We offer tours and programs for children and adults. Handmade pottery, fiber and woodworking items are for sale at our Creative Arts Center, which also has a large meeting space for groups. We also offer spiritual direction and private or directed retreats at LaCasa, which is located close to the gardens. LaCasa accommodates small group gatherings and a reading room with a lending library of books, audiovisual materials and children’s curriculums.

Learn more about the City of Springfield Earth Awareness Fair via Facebook. 

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The Big Read at Jubilee Farm


New Berlin, Ill.—Listen to the sounds of creation, enjoy fresh air, and get a respite from the noise and frenetic pace of life during “Sound Scape,” at Jubilee Farm, 10:00-11:00 Saturday, April 24, 2021.

The free public event is offered by Jubilee Farm, a ministry of the Dominican Sisters of Springfield in partnership with the Academy of Lifelong Learning (ALL) at Lincoln Land Community College, host of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Big Read in Sangamon County. The NEA Big Read: Sangamon County focuses on the book Lab Girl by Hope Jahren, an American geochemist, geobiologist, and professor.

“We are delighted to be part of this community building program,” said Sister Rose Marie Riley, OP, Director of Jubilee Farm. “The NEA Big Read has an incredible listing of free and diverse programs offered by the partner organizations. Our contribution, “Sound Scape,” is an invitation to LISTEN to the sounds of creation. It provides time to step away from our busy and noise-filled lives and pay attention to Nature’s language.” The program will be led by Sister Sharon Zayac, OP.

Participants are invited to wear comfortable clothes, bring a journal, and have something to sit on. Registration is required. For further information and to register call 217-787-6927.

More information about the NEA Big Read in Sangamon County is available here.

Jubilee Farm is located at 6760 Old Jacksonville Road, 3.8 miles west of Veteran’s Parkway. Follow Jubilee Farm on Facebook at www.facebook.com/thejubileefarm. It is one of 50 local organizations partnering for the NEA Big Read in Sangamon County.

The Dominican Sisters of Springfield are part of a worldwide Dominican family, the Order of Preachers. For more than 800 years, Dominicans have preached the Gospel in word and deed. The Springfield Dominicans were established in Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1873 and relocated to Springfield in 1893. Today, thousands of Dominican sisters, nuns, priests, brothers, associates, and laity minister in more than 100 countries around the world. To learn more about the Dominican Sisters of Springfield visit springfieldop.org.

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Sister Suzanne Donner’s Signature Tip for Starting Seedlings; Sisters to the Land, March 2019

The daily reading for Tuesday, October 27, 2020 was Luke 13:12-21
Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like?
To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.
When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”
Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?
It is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

Sister Suzanne thinks the smallest seed is a lettuce seed, but knows the amazing creations of God, and faith, grow from something small with a little dedicated nurturing and care. Take a look at this short video from the Sisters to the Land event in March 2019 and learn Sister Suzanne Donner’s signature tip for starting seedlings.