Photo of the red squirrel is by Gregor Mima from Pixabay
(Today in Ireland it is a Bank Holiday Monday)
(All the bits and pieces will return as normal here tomorrow)
The red squirrel is a protected species mainly because of the increase of the more proliferous grey squirrel. The red squirrel is one of our most iconic, much-loved mammals.
Red squirrels also play a vital role in regenerating our woodlands, burying nuts and seeds which grow into future trees that sustain a host of native woodland dwellers.
Sadly, these charismatic creatures are under threat from the invasive non-native grey squirrel. Competition from the more robust grey squirrel for food and shelter, and infection by the deadly squirrel pox virus, which greys transmit to reds, has been the main factor in the red squirrel’s decline.
Video for this week (Updated every Wednesday)
Thought For Today – October – 27/10/2022
Thought For The Week
‘The Celtic approach to God opens up a world in which nothing is too common to be exalted and nothing is so exalted that it cannot be made common. So God meets us where we are, at home, at work, in the daily, in the ordinary.’ ~Esther de Waal.
The generations who have gone before us built their lives around Celtic Spirituality. For them God was not some separate duty or event that happened occasionally. God was simply a part of their everyday lives, who they felt was with them through every experience of life. Every moment and opportunity was somehow connected to God.
It was for example at this time of year that prayers of thanksgiving for the harvest would take place. The crops were harvested, stored and put away and the next most natural thing to do was to give thanks to God. Sadly as time went on religion became more formalised and structured. It didn’t happen overnight, but our sense of God in everyday events and moments just got pulled away. Today there is an acknowledgment and an awareness of just how important it is to get back to the basics of our faith. Why complicate something that doesn’t need to be. Watch Jesus in the Gospels. He had no time for those who choked and killed the message by making it complicated and out of reach. It is time to begin reclaiming the beautiful simple message that it is.
Yesterday was Mission Sunday and it also a celebration of the simple and beautiful presence of God’s love in our world today. So many people have dedicated their lives to sharing this beautiful love all across the world. Sometimes it has been done in very difficult situations and sometimes in places where there is extreme poverty.
Mission Sunday is not about trying to calculate results or evidence of success. We know that wherever the seeds of God’s love are sown and shared there will be a bumper harvest. This is what our ancestors did through Celtic spirituality. For them God meets us where we are. Mission Sunday is a celebration of God’s love everywhere. Without it we have nothing and with it we have everything.
