This week is the final week of our Advent 2021 series, Living Laudato Si.
Continuing with the theme of caring for our common home, we journey to the Cabragh Wetlands in Co Tipperary, where Fr. Michael Long SPS, explores our interconnectedness with the biosphere, along with our story of creation. Fr. Michael reflects on the vulnerability of all of nature and highlights the human impact on biodiversity and the urgency with which we must shift our consciousness toward an ecological conversion. He notes how this season of Advent is an ideal time to consider this transformation.
“At this time of year, you’re heading into winter. Nature is quiet. Nature is resting. The earth is resting… as it awaits the return of the sun to illuminate the earth and bring back life. At this time of Advent, we too are in expectant mode as we await the arrival of the Son of God.”
(Re)Connecting with the biosphere – an evolutionary cosmic journey
“By comparison [to our ancestors], we tend to be quite literate but disconnected… a challenge for our times is to recover that sense of wisdom, that earth wisdom, that earth literacy, to give value to that story of creation…we have a creation story, a cosmic story that makes it very clear that our welfare is tied up with the welfare of all our species”
Fr. Michael Long, Cabragh Wetlands Centre
About the Cabragh Wetlands Trust
The Cabragh Wetlands Trust was established in 1993 to support the devastation of wetland habitats after the filling-in of the settling pools by the closure in 1989 of the Thurles Sugar Factory. The wetlands are situated in the floodplain of the River Suir just 4km south of Thurles in Co Tipperary and is a critical part of the river catchment in terms of its support to biodiversity. It encompasses some 15 different habitats including ponds, reed swamps, hedgerows, streams and wildflower meadows. Cabragh Wetlands is considered by BirdWatch Ireland to be one of the best locations in the country for birdwatching and insect spotting!
For more information see Cabragh Wetlands at: http://www.cabraghwetlands.ie/blog/
To share this video with others, please copy and paste the following link:
Final word of thanks:
This week marks the end of the AMRI Advent series 2021 on Living Laudato Si. We hope that you have enjoyed the journey exploring the diversity of creative ways in which some AMRI member congregations and individuals have responded to the ‘cry of the earth’ in caring for ‘our common home’.
We would like to thank all of those who very kindly supported this initiative, in particular:
Fr. Brendan McManus SJ; Frs Pat Murphy and Seamus O’Neil SPS at St. Patrick’s Missionary Society Kiltegan; the Dominican Sisters at An Tairseach Organic Farm and Ecology Centre in Co Wicklow; Fr. Michael Long and David Hall at the Cabragh Wetlands Trust in Thurles, Co Tipperary; Sean Connolly and Paul Connolly for filming and editing of week 1 in Co. Fermanagh; Sally Roddy at Viatores Christi and the staff team at AMRI.
Please do let us know if you enjoyed this series, and if your congregation would be interested in telling their unique journey on Living Laudato Si, please contact Toni Pyke at justice@amri.ie
