GRAND RAPIDS -- They came home to be with their sisters in faith and join them in prayers for peace.

Dominican Sisters Jackie Hudson, Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte returned to their Marywood motherhouse this week. It is the first time they are all here since they were sentenced in 2003 for breaking into and vandalizing a Colorado missile silo.

Thursday night, they prayed with nearly 200 fellow Dominicans for nuclear disarmament and an end to war. After serving between 30 and 41 months in prison, they said, it was a blessing to be there.

"Our religious community has lifted us up all through our incarceration," said Platte, 71, who served the longest sentence. "To come back and express gratitude is so important to us."

"As they want to thank us for our witness, we need to thank them," said Gilbert, 59, noting other sisters' peace efforts. "We're all in this together."

That was brought home in a quiet, but powerful prayer service at the Dominican Chapel on East Fulton Street. The three sisters read a sobering reflection on the nuclear bomb and joined in singing, "Let peace fill our hearts, let peace fill our world."

The service was held during the annual gathering of the congregation's 276 sisters from around the U.S. and Latin America. The prayers provided spiritual food for thought as the Grand Rapids Dominicans consider adopting a stance for nuclear disarmament.

Encouraged by the three sisters' protest, 29 Dominican congregations are being asked to adopt a statement calling for the U.S. government to "lock down, dismantle, reduce and eliminate nuclear and all weapons of mass destruction."

Some already have adopted it.

We know nuclear arms escalates to destruction," said Sister Joyce Ann Hertzig of the local Dominicans' leadership team. "We don't need destruction."

Leaders said most Grand Rapids Dominicans support the three sisters' act of civil disobedience, in which they tapped hammers on a Minuteman III missile silo cover and poured crosses on it with their blood.

"These women so live what they believe that it's matter of conscience for them," said Sister Barbara Hansen, the Dominicans' justice promoter.

Their consciences brought Hudson, Gilbert and Platte to Grand Rapids against probation conditions that confine them to their home states of Washington and Maryland. They said they informed their probation officers of their visit.

"We want to see some of our sisters before they die," said Gilbert, originally from Traverse City.

The three remain under court supervision pending U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn's decision on whether they have provided restitution.

They have refused to pay $3,052 for damaging a fence at the silo site and are asking the judge to instead accept $6,000 in food they gave to the needy.

Their work continues against nuclear weapons, saying protest is needed more than ever to counter renewed proliferation and readiness to use nukes by the Bush administration.

They are grateful for the support of their fellow sisters and war-weary citizens.

"It's something coming to fruition," said Hudson, 72. "Now is the time; it's happening and we all rejoice."

Send e-mail to the author: choney@grpress.com