THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK: Offaly columnist reflects on a season of growth and abundance
Clara's Ronan Scully says Summer can be a powerful time for spiritual reflection and connection
"He makes the grass grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of people, that he may bring forth food from the earth..." Psalm 104:14.
This verse speaks to God's provision and care for creation, which is exemplified in the abundance of summer. Summer, with its vibrant energy and extended daylight, can be a powerful time for spiritual reflection and connection. Many traditions see it as a season of growth, abundance, and the manifestation of what was planted earlier. As the sun shines brighter and the days grow longer, summer invites us to pause and appreciate its beauty and significance. This season, often seen as a divine gift, serves as a reminder of the importance of rest and rejuvenation.
Just as God took a moment to rest after creating the world, we too are encouraged to step back from our busy lives. For students and professionals alike, summer offers a chance to recharge after a year of hard work. It’s a time for family gatherings, adventures, and creating lasting memories. Whether it’s a beach trip, a hike in the mountains, or simply enjoying a backyard barbecue, these moments of joy and relaxation are essential. So, let’s take a moment to express our gratitude for this vibrant season and the opportunities it brings to connect with loved ones and ourselves. It's also a time to reconnect with nature, enjoy moments of leisure, and find joy in the present and as I write this thought for the week,
I am just after returning from a beautiful walk along a beautiful beach road where finally the season of summer has shown itself in full bloom and it gave me a sweet taste of the hopefully warm summer days before us. Hopefully it will make us in some ways feel younger and more alive! Summer is a season that refuses to be ignored. Whether you love it or hate it, whether it is to you a time of chaos or an invitation to rest, summer is loudly alive and attention grabbing. Thanks to long days of bright sunshine, life bursts out everywhere, bombarding our senses. We feel summer in our bodies, feel summer on our skin, taste and smell summer, see and hear summer. Bugs biting and mosquitoes buzzing, Grills cooking, Sprinklers running, Fruit ripening, Ice Cream melting, Hurls clashing. Other seasons may allow time to contemplate new life or reflect upon inevitable decline, but not summer. These months teem with life.
Revitalizing Summer
Summertime brings with it not only a change in the weather, but also a change in the way we experience the world around us. The summer season gives us opportunities to discover our world and our life in new and revitalizing ways. A thought that came to me during my walk is that I love and adore the season of Summer. I love the sunshine of the summer months as it brightens up the world, and with it, brings days of new warmth and gives obvious signs of awakening and renewal wherever we look. It amazes me how the evening's start to lengthen to its fullest and how the heat of the sun comes back into the air.
For me, summer is the symbolic season that reminds one to grab hold of all that life has to offer. Summer is the fulfilment of a hopeful Spring. To make the most of summer is, for me, to make the most of all that is good in life. Gone are thoughts of winter despair or a chilling and wet spring. Everything around us now in this summer season is alive and vibrant and in full maturity. If I seize a summer day, I believe I seize life itself and find in it all that gives pleasure and meaning. But nothing is as beautiful as all the trees, flowers, shrubs and bushes that are in full bloom and full of life and energy. It is truly a beautiful, magical and wonderful time of our year. It makes me think about the many blessings that summer shines upon us, such as the warmth and freshness in the air, the warm sun on my skin, wonderful humid breezes, singing of the birds, the growth of nature all around me, animals of all kinds fully emerged, fresh and sea waters flowing, trees, plants and flowers fully blossomed in an array of numerous colours, and of course the oncoming of the summer holidays.
Summer spirituality
The months of May and June when all our children and students get their holidays from school and college marks the start of the summer and a time to enjoy and experience life. We all need to be positive and embrace abundance, love, care and joy into our lives, treasuring each moment as it comes. We get so wrapped up at times, well I know I do, with thinking about the past, a lot of the time trying to control the future and forgetting to enjoy and be at peace in the present moment of now.
Whether in the country or just passing neighbours’ gardens or public parks or close to beautiful seaside beaches, summer reminds us of the insane generosity of God. Trees and plants flower and fruit in a way that can seem almost criminally wasteful. If the spirituality of summer tells us anything, it is that the fruit of the earth, the fruit of time spent contemplatively going about our daily tasks, is always going to be more than we can calculate and make use of in obvious ways. A sense of the sacrament of the present moment can liberate us from the tyranny of time, dominated by market forces and the idolization of work, of cost effectiveness, of productiveness as value. Wasting time with the God whose times and seasons are full of generous wastefulness can remind us of what truly matters. The God who is with us always to the end of time is not limited to any season. God is both within and beyond times and seasons, but invites us in the summer, perhaps more vividly than at other times, to hear ‘this is my body’ as an invitation to savour the beauties of creation.
This includes ourselves, the other, whether family, friend or stranger and the earth in full flower and fruit as the power of the risen Christ liberates all creation from bondage and gives us so many summer blessings to be grateful for. In this world there is strife. There is hardship, and there is suffering. There is inequality. There is injustice. There is also abundant beauty amidst it all. And within that beauty there are reminders tucked away everywhere, encouraging us to persist, to strive, and to bring our dreams for a better world to life. We have only to open our hearts and look, and we will see them. Please this summer try to embrace the positive in your life as it’s meant to be. We all need to start focusing on positive thoughts and creative ideas that make us happy and content. Less negative thinking, it only brings down our spirits and serves no purpose. Let's all try this summer and always to make the most of all that is good in our lives and be grateful for our summer blessings.
A Summer's prayer
The following is a beautiful summer prayer blessing called "Blessed Summer's Prayer" by two of my favourite prayer poets Joyce Rupp and Macrina Weiderkehr that goes as follows, "Blessed are you, Summer, season of long days and short nights. You pour forth light from your golden orb, energizing the earth and calling forth growth. Blessed are you, Summer, with your generous gift of heat. Your warm breath animates creation, encouraging all growing things to stretch toward the sun. Blessed are you, Summer, you call us into playfulness, encouraging us to pause from work. You renew our spirits. Blessed are you, gracious season of Summer, you surprise us with a variety of gifts from the earth. We, too, gaze into the earth of ourselves, beholding gifts waiting to be honored. Blessed are you, nurturing the season of Summer, your fruits and vegetables appear on our tables, Changing them into altars. Tastings of your life, we are made strong. Blessed are you, Summer, host of a star that shines with passion. Sun-soaked, we reach for your energy that drives us upward and outward. Blessed are you, the sacrament of Summer, nature’s green season, the sweet echo of Spring. You speak to us in living color as you renew the earth with symbols of life for our bodies and souls. Blessed are you, Summer, season of roots that reach for water. Even through the cracks in the sidewalk the song of your seed can be heard. Blessed are you, Summer, season rooted in reality. Even as the perspiration collects on our brow, We experience your earthly joy. Blessed are you, Summer, and your dragonfly evenings, you minister to the child in us. You feed our hunger for beauty. Amen"
Thought for the week
As your thought for the week, I pray that as the signs of summer begin to show themselves all around us, you will remember that each new day is like a cleared field ready for planting. Your thoughts, attitudes, and actions are the seeds you plant. This summer choose only the seeds that will produce a bountiful harvest of love, joy, health, kindness, faith, care, prosperity, and peace. Here is a nice Summer blessing for each of you for a blessed and beautiful summer - "For more light in the day, we thank you. For gentle mornings, we thank you. For nighttime conversations, we thank you. For friends and family, we thank you. For gardens and all manner of nature and creatures, we thank you. Help us, Creator and lover of our souls. Help us love this earth. Help us dwell wholeheartedly in our lives this day and in this season of summer. Help us pray as we walk, work, play, rest, and create. May we walk with God this summer in whatever we do and wherever we go. Walking with God means, walking with honesty and with courage.
Walking with love and respect and concern for the feelings of others. May we talk to God this summer and every day and In every situation. Talking with God means, praying words of praise for the beauty of creation. Saying prayers of thanks for friends and good times. Asking God's help In all your decisions and expressing sorrow when you have failed. May we talk with God every day. Take time to claim your strength; they are gifts of God. Take time to have fun; it's God's way of teaching you your strengths. Take time to grow yourself; only you can grow you. Take time to trust yourself; God trusts you.
Take time to be self-reliant; it is better than being dependent. Take time to share with others; they will bless you, and you will bless them. Take time to have hope, you are a child of God. Let's put ourselves into the hands of the Lord, and pray that God will bless us and our families during the wonderful months of summer. May we all help make our home a place of relaxation, joy, love, faith, peace and safety. May we be generous and considerate, not thinking only about ourselves, but helping others enjoy the blessings of summertime. Lord God, Creator of all things guide our steps and strengthen our hearts, during these months of summer and time of holidays. Grant us refreshment of mind and body.
May we constantly strive to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our loved ones and in the world around us as we enjoy the warm days of summertime. Help us to enjoy a beautiful summer of many summer blessings and however you choose to seek God's watering this summer, remember that every season has gifts and challenges and that growing into the people God made us to be is a journey, not a race to the finish. Don't try to hurry the season you're in. Experience it. Rest in it. And above all, listen for God's still small voice to guide you through. May we be generous and considerate, not thinking only about ourselves, but helping others enjoy the blessings of summertime. Lord God, Creator of all things, guide our steps and strengthen our hearts, during these months of summer and vacation days.
Grant us refreshment of mind, body and soul. May we emerge from this season more rested to do God’s work, more committed to serve God’s people, and more in love with our God who created and loves us. And as it says in Ecclesiastes 11:7-8 which encourages us to savor the simple pleasures of life, including the beauty of summer days, "Sunshine is sweet; it is good to see the light of day. People ought to enjoy every day of their lives, no matter how long they live." Amen