<p>I have a dynamic Facelets page that needs to show information from database when the page loads. At this point in the flow, there have not been any form submissions. Every JSF example I can find only shows a form submission with dynamic results on the next page.</p>

<p>Every call I make to our database is currently takes place after an action has been triggered by a form submission. Where should this code go if there hasn't been a form submission, and how do I trigger it? A code snippet would really help me out!</p>

You write (with my emphasis added):
Every call I make to our database is currently takes place after an action
  has been triggered by a form submission. Where should this code go
  if there
hasn't been a form submission
, and how do I trigger it? A
  code snippet would really help me out!
It sounds to me that you want to retrieve information from the database
prior
to form submission.
It seems to me that you want to make an Ajax call to query the database. The Ajax call can fire on a different event than the form submisson event. This will probably entail using Javascript rather than the Faces framework.