Limerick (Ireland). On 20 August 2024, on the occasion of Heritage Week – from 17 to 25 August, which celebrates Ireland’s cultural, architectural, and natural heritage – and in close proximity to the start of the Season of Creation, the Cosmology Group of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians of Our Lady Queen of Ireland Province (IRL), in collaboration with the Laudato Si’ Group of the Diocese of Limerick, organized the event, “Connections to nature and wellbeing”. The title was inspired by the theme of the 2024 Heritage Week: “Connections, routes, and networks”.
The event consisted of a meditative walk, accompanied by musical pieces and poetic texts, along a path through the park of the Little Company of Mary Care Center, which ended in the parish of the Salesians of Don Bosco of Castletroy, Limerick. The participants were able to admire the beauty of the trees and the diversity of species, and to grasp the relationship nature with care and wellbeing.
The Cosmological Group of Salesian Sisters in Ireland has for many years been raised awareness of the reality of the ‘common home’ in the Province. This is done through seminars and through notes in the Province newsletters alerting us to current issues. Established in 2008, it was initially all composed of Salesian Sisters. Then from the 1st Feburary 2017 the group included lay people and members of other religious communities. This developed particularly in Limerick where we have six Salesian Sisters communities and two SDB communites.
Over the years, has formed a positiive partnership with the Limerick Diocesan Laudato Sí Group. and there has been a wide sharing of creativity and resources. This has benefitted the Diocese of Limerick, along with the many participants who engage with the various events. Three FMA – Sister Teresa Devine, Sister Betty Baker, and Sister Brid Shanahan – actively animate the group along with the other religous and lay people. The publication of Laudato si’ by Pope Francis served as an urgent wake-up call to protect the environment and to grow in daily life in a spirit of integral ecology.
During the walk, some of the participants felt a deep harmony with the words of the poet Mary Oliver, taken from her poem, “When I am among the Trees”, read along the way:
… Around me the trees stir in their leaves/ and they call out: “Stay awhile”. / The light flows from their branches. / and call out, “Stay awhile” / The light flows from their branches. / And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say / “and you too have come / into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled/ with light, and to shine.
“Walking gently on the earth, we hear its cry and the cry of the poor all around us”, commented a Salesian Sister.
