Month: September 2026

Spiders leave their calling cards

*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.

From “Peace to All Beings”
by Judy Carman
www.lanternbooks.com

Recognizing God in Creation

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 4^th the Christian Church celebrates the 800^th anniversary of the death of St. Francis.
The Roman Catholic Church is celebrating a special Jubilee Year until January 10^th 2027)

[Mr G. 20th September 2026]

9/11 Kintsugi

9/11 Kintsugi

The 11^th 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.

Amen.

– Rev. Dr. Jacqueline Lewis

[Mr G. 13th September 2026]

Beauty of the Natural World

GREEN-VEINED WHITE BUTTERFLY

My piece last week about Dolly Parton and the reference to her love of butterflies, prompted my friend Gill Henwood to send me photos of a Green-Veined White Butterfly taken in the Lake District.

The green-veined white is quite a common butterfly (though I have never seen it!). Its habitat is hedgerows, woodlands, garden and parks as well as river areas and damp meadows. It can be seen from Spring to October.

In Gill’s photos, it is taking its ease on sedum plants which are currently turning from their summer green to autumn pink/purple.
The Butterfly takes its name from the prominent green stripes on the underside of its wings. One description I read about this is: The so-called green veins on the underside of the adults are, in fact, an illusion created by a subtle combination of yellow and black scales.”
A comment made from folklore is that if you see a white butterfly at the beginning of summer, it will be rainy. If, however, you see a green-veined white butterfly it is a sign that there is hope for a little sunshine!
a different and more spiritual lore is that “the graceful, darting flight of the green-veined white represents seasonal re-birth, fragility and the clean beauty of the natural world.”

This thought makes the green-veined white is a suitable symbol of Creation on a week-end which includes a new ecumenical festival adopted by the Church of England as it joins churches across the globe in celebrating the new Festival of Creation in Christ, marking the worldwide Christian consensus that the Earth should be treasured and protected as a gift from God.

Lord of creation,
You have created the universe by your eternal Word,
and have blessed humankind in making us
stewards of the earth;
We pray for your world,
that we may share and conserve its resources,
and live in reverence for the creation
and in harmony with one another.
In your mercy, hear us.

[Mr G & Gill Henwood. 5th September 2026]