Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity share our Sister Julia Van Denack’s Canticle of Sister Water as we focus on our Sister Water these coming months. Sister served as a biology professor at Holy Family College (Silver Lake College 
of the Holy Family) and was interested in everything about water living her consecrated life as a Sister near Silver Lake and Lake Michigan for many years.
To read the whole Canticle of Sister Water, click here: Canticle of Sister Water by Franciscan Sister Julia Van Denack2
Canticle of Sister Water
1
Praised be you, my Lord, 
through Sister Water
Which is very useful and humble
and precious and chaste.
Without her no earthly life is possible;
She is the womb of the earth
In which you, my Lord,
First formed the marvel of the living beings!
2
Praised be you, my Lord,
through Sister Water
Which covers four-fifths of the Blue Planet,
our earthly home.
She is the medium for transport
Around the world
And in the bodies of all your creatures.
3
Praised be you, my Lord,
through Sister Water
Which retains for so long the heat of Brother Sun
And warms the land that it surrounds
And retains the coolness of the night
To temper the heat of the day.
4
Praised be you, my Lord,
through Sister Water
Whose clarity admits the rays of Brother Sun
To energize the teaming life of ocean, lake and stream.
5
Praised be you, my Lord,
through Sister Water
Which is cohesive and buoyant and
Marvelous to behold,
Whose molecules adhere to one another
To be drawn up the length of a soda straw,
Or to float a leaf, or a ship on its surface.
Read more: Canticle of Sister Water by Franciscan Sister Julia Van Denack2
