bySister Mary Alice McCabe, SNDdeN
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It is described as "magical," "therapeutic," and "transformative" by parents, teachers, and members of the local community.
Cuvilly Arts and Earth Center is a creation-centered treasure to be found on the land of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Sister Patricia Rolinger, SNDdeN, foundress and executive director of the center, states its guiding principle: "All life is sacred, and the diversity of life is essential for the well-being of the planet."
For 40 years, Cuvilly (named for the French village that was the birthplace of foundress St. Julie Billiart) has been a ministry of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur that has sought to address the issue of ecological justice, inspiring people of all ages, preschool through adults, to explore their connection to the whole Earth community, to all living creatures.
Cuvilly's oldest programs, its preschool and kindergarten, teach young minds much more than ABC's and 123's. Children from diverse backgrounds begin to experience themselves as an integral part of the natural world. In the school's outdoor classroom, they have a chance to "fall in love with creation so that when they grow up, they will preserve what they love."
"That," said Sister Pat, "is Cuvilly's mission."
The preschoolers' daily outdoor activities include learning to garden in the outdoor play yard and identifying and delighting in various plants, insects, and wildlife as they walk the trails and fields. They make friends with the center's barn animals: four alpacas, four pigs, two goats, two sheep, a mini-palomino horse, a donkey, and a noisy crowd of geese, chickens, and ducks. They help with the mucking and re-bedding of the stalls, preparing animal feed, and filling water buckets. Cuvilly's preschool director, Kelly Rich, explains: "In doing these activities, the children begin to understand the unique needs of each being and begin to realize their connection to them."
In our increasingly worrisome world of climate change -- scorching temperatures, floods, and droughts -- Cuvilly's tiny trailblazers and fledgling farmers are being prepared to do their part to slow down climate change and save planet Earth. As one parent observes: "Cuvilly's creation-centered preschool is seen as different, unique. And indeed, it is! But in fact, it is this kind of education that all our children need."
Cuvilly's unique education model is also extended to eight students per week from Notre Dame Cristo Rey High School who serve as interns in the preschool and bring diversity to Cuvilly's faculty.
Another Cuvilly program, the Ecojustice Network, seeks to reach youth and adult populations. One of its far-reaching efforts is the creation and offering of a six-module curriculum: Landscaping for Biodiversity, inspired by the work of Dr. Doug Tallamy in his book "Nature's Best Hope," which teaches how landscaping can save the pollinators, thus save plants and save food sources and save Earth. This curriculum, geared to middle and high schools, is available on Cuvilly's website, www.cuvilly.org. Students from St. Patrick Middle School in Lowell, also a sponsored ministry of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, will begin regular visits to Cuvilly in the fall for hands-on experience with Cuvilly's creatures, diverse native plants, and biodiversity gardens.
Cuvilly's organic farmer and Ecojustice Network coordinator, Lauren Kusinski, has spoken with several high school audiences about the message of the Landscaping for Biodiversity Curriculum. She conveys its message of hope that it is not too late to dig in and cultivate biodiversity on every possible patch of earth to save the pollinators who are trying, against tremendous odds, to save our planet. She also engages high school audiences in analyzing how changing their consumer habits can help save the planet. Lauren's message of hope seeks to counteract the doomsday message that weighs heavily on today's generation: that they are condemned to live with the consequences of climate change caused by their ancestors.
Volunteer days have brought energetic partners to Cuvilly. Among them were Emmanuel College's IT Department members who gave generous hours of digging in-preparing guilds around Cuvilly's orchard trees and eliminating invasive plants from the gardens and trails.
A tour of the Cuvilly campus offers moments to contemplate all of God's creatures living in a shared ecological community. In the 175-year-old barn, formerly an onion barn constructed with wooden posts and beams, you will meet the barn staff, Natalie, Kylee, Vera, and Phoenix. They care daily for the barn creatures' every need, from feeding and watering to maintaining clean stalls. (In 2002, Cuvilly acquired a historic barn from the neighboring town of Danvers; the barn was disassembled and reassembled with the help of the Timber Framers' Guild.) Volunteers, as well as preschool children, often help with these tasks. The barn is a place of earth smells and earth sounds. To quote one of the staff: "Our animals live beyond their life expectancy because they know we love them."
Cuvilly's Secret Garden and Children's Garden are vibrant, living images of creation's harmony of flowers, trees, butterflies, bees, and birds -- places to pause and stand in awe.
As you walk Thomas Way, a path through the woods, the silence speaks beauty and peace. When you reach the pond, you want to sit and pray with Native American St. Kateri Tekakwitha, who, as the patroness saint of ecology, has overlooked this sacred place for many years. Then, you continue up the path to Postulants' Hill, which offers a panoramic view of a North Shore landscape to the ocean. This hill is considered a site of archeological sensitivity dating back to prehistoric times. Groups of retreatants from Notre Dame's Spirituality Center often walk these paths, finding the revelation of the Creator in their silent journeys.
The front entrance of Cuvilly, previously a lawn, has now been transformed into a landscape for biodiversity. Visitors are first invited to read the Land Acknowledgement declaring:
". . . That the Cuvilly Arts and Earth Center stands on the ancestral homelands of the Pawtucket People, the original inhabitants of these lands, having been here for thousands of years with lasting connections to and stewardship of the unceded land and waterways. We would like to pay our respects to the ancestral bloodlines of the Pawtucket People and their descendants who still survive today."
Along the stone paths are signs with quotations from Pope Francis's "Laudato Si'," Thomas Berry, Chief Seattle and Teilhard de Chardin, all speaking to us of ecological justice. A colorful array of native plants, a monarch butterfly garden, birdhouses, a bug hotel, and a growing population of pollinating creatures declare to all who walk this path that "All life is sacred, and the diversity of life is essential for the planet's well-being."
Sister Mary Alice McCabe, SNDdeN, worked with rural communities as a Christian community organizer in Brazil and Nicaragua from 1970 until 2017. During recent years, she, along with 32 other Sisters of Notre Dame, served at the Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas, and in the Matamoros, Mexico Immigrant Camp, where they welcomed refugee families seeking asylum in the U.S. Sister Mary Alice is co-coordinator of the Laudato Si Action Platform Team for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur East-West Province, which aims to respond collectively to Pope Francis's urgent call -- "Laudato Si, Care for our Common Home." She serves on the board of directors of the Cuvilly Arts and Earth Center and Cuvilly's Ecojustice Network.