A spider rests after web weaving. Photo of spider in Garden of number 18. Photo by Mr. G.
Thank you for those who took the time to respond to the blog about the spiders in the Lake District. It was lovely to get responses.
As I visited the web in my garden I marvelled at what might be called Industrial artistry. You can just make out the intricate and beautiful web she is making. I then remembered a poem I wrote about another spider, which made its appearance at a concert in Paris. I was there as a ‘groupie’ to the Felicitas Choir of Essex. The particular concert took place at the church of St Germain des prés and as the voices soared, I noticed the spider working itself down from heady heights, to hover over the sopranos. It was obviously an appreciator of music because it was clearly entranced by human voices in harmony, weaving song from a gossamer score.
Here’s the poem.
A Spider listens to a concert.
Down came the Spider Abseiling intrepidly, hanging by its own thread, precariously from the church roof. It stops; hovering over music ascending from collective voices. Sounds made by practiced singers. “Look, a Spider”, a soprano points out between pieces. but the Concert builds to its final crescendo. Hearts of all soar with joy’
As the music fades and the concert ends, the Spider is gone. Not just a Spider at all, but perhaps an Angel, now taking up the music to heaven, for God to enjoy!
A spider leaves a calling card. Photo taken in the Lake District by Gill Henwood
Autumn is the season for spiders both inside the house and also in the countryside and garden. Recently, two medium sized spiders took up residence in my garden and, separately, wove large webs that in the early morning catch the light. Though not quite as spectacular as the one my friend, Gill Henwood, has captured in her photo taken in the Lake District, there is something amazing about the work they do. I’ve been feeling quite protective towards them this week.
Not everyone is a fan of spiders and there are many species, from tiny mites to large, slightly threatening ones. Only a very few tend to bite human beings. According to the Natural History Museum, only about 12 species have been recorded as inflicting a bite on humans and of those, only three have left an unpleasant or painful sensation. As there are over 650 types of spider the risks are minimal. Mind, if you insist on picking them up they will defend themselves!
The evidence of spiders in our gardens and in the fields can be found on a low misty morning when the ground is strewn with gossamer webs, highlighted by frost. These can be found often in their hundreds. This is the work of one species particularly – the Common sheetweb spider or to give its posh name, Linyphia triangularis. It’s a very common species and its presence easily seen – the name sheetweb – may provide a clue!
On Sunday October 4th, many in the UK will be keeping Animal Welfare Sunday. Perhaps we could spare a thought and a prayer for these tiny creatures of God’s creation. I suspect that He had a lot of fun making them!
[Mr G 26th September 2026]
A Christian Prayer for Animal Welfare by Judy Carman
Almighty God, we come together to thank you for the beauty and glory of your creation; to praise you for your holiness and grace; to acknowledge our responsibility to animals and for our use of the created world. But, first of all, we pray for your forgiveness because of our part in sins of thoughtlessness and cruelty towards animal life.
Almighty God, you have given us Temporary lordship of your beautiful creation. But we have misused our power, turned away from responsibility and marred your image in us.
Forgive us, true Lord, especially for our callousness and cruelty to animals. Help us to follow the way of your Son, Jesus Christ, who expressed power in humility and lordship in loving service. Enable us, by your Spirit, to walk in newness of life, healing injury, avoiding wrong and making peace with all your creatures. God of everlasting love, who is eternally forgiving; in your new creation. Amen.
Photo of The Ridge, Lake District, by my friend, Gill Henwood.
The future of humanity depends on each person’s commitment to collaborate with God and with their brothers and sisters, in building up a more humane world (Pope Leo, September 2026)
POPE LEO’S Prayer of Creation.
Let us pray, that inspired by St Francis, we might experience our interdependence with all creatures who are loved by God and worthy of love and respect.
Lord, you love everything you have created and nothing exists outside the mystery of your tenderness; every creature, no matter how small, is the fruit of your love and has a place in this world. Even the simplest life is surrounded by your care.
Like St Francis of Assisi, today we want to say “Praise be to you My Lord!” Through the beauty you reveal yourself as the source of goodness.
We ask you to open our eyes to recognize You, learning from the mystery of Your closeness to all Creation, that the world is infinitely more than a problem to solve. It is a mystery to be contemplated with gratitude and hope. Help us to discover Your presence in all creation, so that, in fully recognizing it, we may feel and know ourselves to be responsible for this common home where You invite us to care for, respect, and protect life in all its forms and possibilities.
Praised be You, Lord! Amen.
~Pope Leo~
(On October 4th the Christian Church celebrates the 800th anniversary of the death of St. Francis. The Roman Catholic Church is celebrating a special Jubilee Year until January 10th 2027)
The 11th September 2001 is forever marked as one of the darkest days in the journey of humanity on this earth. That day, I was bidden to turn on the television news and I witnessed the second of the planes flying directly into the second of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York. The sense of horror was deep within me. This was an unbelievable act of demonic terrorism which destroyed not only many innocent lives but also changed forever our perception of what evil human beings are capable of. It brought back the atrocity of World War Two and Nazism. This time, the perpetrators were an Islamist extremist network called al-Qaeda who planned the attacks on both New York and Washington from Afghanistan. The first thing that came to my mind was a line from the poem by W.B.Yeats, Easter 1916 – All changed,changed utterly.
And so it has turned out because so much has divided humanity since. The experience of the demonic and the hatred, hurt, prejudice and distrust between people are only part of the legacy of that day and event. What is happening in the Middle East today is only one example of an evil gripping our race.
But, as always, there is also an opposite reaction and view.
One of the sources of prayer and reflection that I turn to is one provided by the Jesuitresource.org which is part of Xavier University in Cincinnati. (It provides resources in Jesuit education and Ignatian Spirituality.)
On its prayer website, I came across a number of prayers and reflections relating to 9/11 and its aftermath.
I was particularly touched by this reflective prayer from a Hindu source which seems to me to put into words what many felt that day and since:
As glass shattered, cement crumbled and steel melted in the inferno of senseless cruelty, the heart of humanity screamed in anguish. September 11, 2001 — a day when the evil potential of misguided ego was again exposed. While our landmarks collapsed in a cloud of smoke and debris, beneath a surge of shock and rage, something awakened in our hearts: compassion. Suddenly, our worldly obsessions faded away as we cried for the plight of others and were deeply affected by our “remen’s sacrifice.” In memory of this tragic day, let us join hands and pray for God’s grace to heal, unite and empower us to serve with love.
– Radhanath Swami
This sense of moving beyond the destruction and brokenness into a new hope of love is strongly prayed in these words. It is also what drew me to the illustration I have used above. It is a piece of glass sculpture by my dear artist friend, Kay Gibbons.
It is a piece which began as an attempt to fuse blue and green glass together. In the process it broke into 3. So she “played around, had fun, and created something quite different.”
The process in doing this she describes as, “This panel has been produced in a ‘kintsugi’ fashion, after the Japanese art of bonding broken ceramics with gold. Beauty in fracture.. Broken beauty..
It struck me that this resonates with the prayer above. The aftermath of 9/11 could be seen as a spiritually human ‘kintsugi’. Bonding broken people with the gold of repentance and love and with determination to work for a beauty which though broken is nevertheless bonded in hope and as the prayer says, filled with compassion and love.
I have no solutions to what we can do to heal our broken world but another prayer on the Xavier University resource site puts it so movingly and offers an amazing way forward if we would but take it.
One Loving Family
Loving God of Peace: On this anniversary of unbelievable sorrow, comfort those who mourn, and guide our hearts toward healing and hope. Remind us of the love of Christ, love which leapt over cultural and ethnic boundaries to feed the hungry, seek the lost and care for the least. Make of Your children, no matter how we name You, one human family, bound together in the work of justice and peace-making. Make us one with the Light that shines in the darkness and illumines a path toward understanding and reconciliation. Let love be our genuine call.
