I took this photo yesterday at Altamount, Millstreet, Co.Cork

This is the striking and beautiful Mahonia shrub with its beautiful yellow colours. We are soon about to start our journey into November. Any colour in our garden at this time of year is such a bonus. It is also bee friendly as well. Along with the ivy it is one of the last flowers that bees will go to for nectar and pollen, before winter sets in properly

My Latest Video 🎥

This is my latest video and it is called ‘The Floods One Year Ago – Then and Now’ with a little spiritual thought towards the end of the video.  A new video is posted here every Wednesday morning

The video below I had up last week and it is called – ‘Crows In Song – We Are United Together’. If you would like to see a selection of my other videos on Youtube you can click this link here. https://www.youtube.com/@JamesMcSweeneyFr/videos

 

Thought For The Week

There is a story about two men walking down a country lane and across some fields. One of them forgot to close one of the gates. After seeing some cows, he realized his mistake and walked back to close it. He said it reminded him about the words an old man shared with him many years before, “As you travel down life’s pathways, remember to close the gates behind you.”

Such advice is one we could also keep close. Life is never straight forward and there are many attractions, distractions, obstacles and challenges. We sometimes make mistakes, we could have made better choices and we sometimes regret not having done something completely different.

But we shouldn’t allow these to dominate or take over our lives. That is why it is so important to close the gate and simply move on. What gates in my life have I still left open? Can I close them, move on, knowing there is no need to reopen and go back.

Jesus in our Gospel stories closed many gates for people who were stuck in the past. By closing these gates he also invited them to move forward and to cherish each day as a fresh start and a new beginning.

We have just celebrated Mission Sunday. It is a celebration of so much good work done all over the world. It is a celebration of how the story of Jesus has been shared all over the world. How this story is shared has evolved over many years. Some gates are closing with the shortage of priests, sisters and dedicated missionaries. But definitely other new gates are opening and evolving. Mission Sunday is also a celebration of these new green shoots.

Thought For The Week is updated each Monday