RELIGION AND ECOLOGY

One of the sources I have read for my workshop on Ecology and the Environment:

CHRIST AND FALL MIGRATION

Saturday, Oct 4th

Time: 10am---3pm

Where:Mt. St Alphonsus Pastoral Center, Esopus, NY

Phone: 845-384-8052

is Mary Evelyn Tucker and her John Grim from Yale. They show how the different religious groups, for instance myself and other Roman Catholics are "coming alive in our love and desire to connect with the whole living environment"

Please enjoy this YouTube video which is "right down the alley" that I will walk with you this Saturday here at THE MOUNT.

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FACING "INCONVENIENT TRUTHS..OUR EARTH

I have been putting the "finishing touches" on my workshop on CHRIST AND FALL MIGRATION for this coming:

Saturday

Oct 24th

9am--4pm

Mt. St. Alphonsus Retreat

845-384-8000

I will be a good workshop that challenges me and you to have, as Thomas Berry always said: "a mutually enhancing with all people and life systems of our earth"

I have been selecting YouTube videos that reflect what I will share with you who come next Saturday. I like this one because it actually shows a tearful Jesus Christ looking upon what have been the "short term" and what will be the "long range effects" of global warming upon the earth: the suffering it has caused and WILL cause if not combatted bringing pain and sadness to God' s earth. (The sequences are from Al Gore's film, "An Inconvenient Truth".)

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'MERCY FOR ME"---Song of the Earth

As beautiful as you may find the pictures I put on here of Vermont in the autumn I continue to invite you to come to my CHRIST AND FALL MIGRATION one day workshop:

Saturday, Oct. 24th

from 9am till 4 pm

Mt. St. Alphonsus Retreat Center

Esopus, NY

845-384-8000

And enjoy this song about protecting the Earth, our home You can also find the written lyrics on Marvin Gaye's Lyric Page at:

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Mercy-Mercy-Me-The-Ecology-lyrics-Marvin-Gaye/93D3799177E4A89748256BD40012C55C

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A Nice Autumn Trip to Arlington VT--Mt. Equinox

Last week my friend Norman and I went to Mt. Equinox, VT which is near Bennington Vermont. We spent some time "above the mist", but later enjoyed Shaftsbury State Park and another beautiful lake which is a reservoir along Route 7a which is the scenic route. Out on the island there were a number of large comorants drying off their wings after fishing. And, although our Canada Geese were "masters and mistresses" of the reservoir, we also saw a few Great Blue Herons. (And I "think" I saw an immature American Bald Eagle glide over me just after I took the picture of me with the light that "fortuitously came through the trees behind me". Autumn, with its splash of greens, yellows, reds and browns is a great way to say "Goodbye" to summer and a reluctant "Hello!" to winter.

Moss Covered Rock in Shaftsbury State Park, VT

Lake at Shaftsbury State Park--Bennington, VT

Hudson River Birder at in Vermont Autumn Woods

Wooden Bridge at Shaftsbury State Park, VT

Reservoir near Bennington VT

...."PEOPLE PROTECT WHAT THEY LOVE" (Jaques Costeau)

file:/ This Hudson River Birder reminds you all of my Environmental Workshop which will be here at Mt. St. Alphonsus Pastoral Center starting at 9am on Saturday, Oct. 24th, 2009. I have worked hard preparing PowerPoints on the Universe, the formation of the Universe as well as focusing on our need to respect, connect and protect Earth which is our home. Below are two videos from YouTube that articulate some of the ideas of my workshop on the environment. Please come! There will be a fine lunch. The cost is only $35. I also present this :30 sec video from Jaques Costeau who invites us to PROTECT WHAT WE LOVE. Jaques himself believed and lived what he said. Let's do it too!
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OUR ENVIRONMENT NEEDS "OUR HELP"

The last post I put had a YouTube video on Thomas Berry's ideas on how we need to have a "mutally enhancing relationship with all of Creation". This means, of course, our fellow human beings. But it includes all living things that God has placed here in our "mutual home" On Oct 24the which is a Saturday from 9am until 4 pm I invite those of you who can to come to my "Christ and Fall Migration" workshop. It costs only $35 and includes a fine lunch. In this workshop I will help us to understand our relationship to the universe and our planet earth so that we can understand what we can and need to do to connect with, reflect upon, respect and protect our home...EARTH. I invite you to see this other quite powerful video from YouTube which shows lots of both the benefits of protecting our Earth as well as the sad consequences of not doing this. Watch and reflect.
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MY OCT 24TH WORKSHOP ON THE NEW CREATION STORY

Here at The Mount I have grown in my love of what Thomas Berry and the astronomer, Brian Swimme call "The New Creation Story" On Saturday, Oct 24th from 10am till 4pm I will present what I have studied about the formation of the physical world, showing how truly gigantic and wondrous our universe truly is, and how dangerously fragile our planet earth has become. My workshop will show, as Fr. Berry, Brian Swimme and many others believe that we must do all we can, STOP doing what we should so that our relationship with our fellow human beings of all nations and our relationship with the biosystems that keep us alive....become "mutually enhancing". For me this phrase "mutually enhancing" means in plain English that, "Our wounded planet makes out and we who are here to care for it also make out".
Here below is a video clip that will give you an idea what my workshop is about. PLEASE CONSIDER COMING. The day includes a great lunch, coffee and cookies and is only $35.

NATURE'S HALF ACRE

One of the nature documentaries that I will always remember was done, I think, by the Disney people. It was called, "Nature's Half Acre" It was all about bees and bugs and worms and the creatures that are right there beneath our feet. When I was in the Bronx one of my happiest projects were three years of running Summer Day Camps. It is so great when kids can get out in the country and discover birds,flowers, fresh ponds and streams....and Yes...bugs!!!! I remember that there were some kids, mostly but not always..girls, who did not like to be near dirt and bugs, salamanders and the like. I was initially quite misunderstanding about this. But now I know that all people do not have the same sensitivity to the outdoors. But one thing that I most certainly believe that all people, like or not like dirt and bugs...is that we are "all connected". Those little critters in Nature's Half Acre all have their purpose in the web of life and it is not just to be shunned by the people they disgust or try to bite. They all are important or they would never have come into the circle of life. I say this because one of the easiest things I can do with my little digital camera is take great shots of bees, flowers and bugs. So enjoy.

MORE SHAUPENEAK PEAK BEE SHOTS

Shaupeneak Bee' Work is Never Done

Rambing Through Pell Farm on Labor Day

My brother Dan and I took an early walk to the Pell Farm. The Purple Beach, which is one of about four, "may or may not" be 200 years old. Many of these trees were planted by Robert Livingston Pell himself. Or they "may" have been there long before he inherited the farm. They are powerful and beautiful. There is a small cementery with what were probably Pell workers behind what seems to be a "House of Leaves". There are the name Terpenning there. There is one grave to an "AMANDA" who was born around 1732. Fr. Gene takes care of the cementery in the sense that he mows around and up to it. The cementery measures about 30 by 20 feet and has about 7 or eight gravestones, most of them now fallen.

Pell's "Barnless Silo" at Esopus

Pell Farm "House of Leaves"

My Brother Dan and 200 Year Old Purple Beach

My old friend: "Cedar Hill at Central Park"

In 1997 I was in New York City in September and October on a preaching assignment. On my "downtime" I discovered what was then a very well organized "Hawk Migration Count" which happened mostly on the top level of Belvedere Castle which is right below >"Turtle Pond"strong> and right at the beginning of "The Ramble" which is pretty much the center of Central Park. There I met many professional birders and bird photographers and naturalists as Lloyd Spytylnick, Debra Allen, "Birding Bob De Candido and many others. Today I was with two two gentlemen whom I have known since then: Bernie Nathan and Art Le Moyne. Now "Cedar Hill" which is right above what is known as the "Boating Pond" and leads up to the Boathouse where "The Ramble" begins is the best birding spot in all of Central Park, most especially for seeing warblers during this Fall and also Spring bird migration. In 1997 I spent my Thursdays during September at the morning Hawk Count. On days with a load cloud cover and good northwesterly winds one can see many hawks, falcons on there way south to winter and some to nest. It is a truly splendid sight to see an enormous "kettle" of accipiters or falcons soaring, gliding and spiralling sometimes a thousand feet up in the sky. The picture below is of Cedar Hill where today, even with the 60 degree temperature and the winds sunbathers and others enjoy these "last days of summer". I arrived at the Ramble around 11am and so there wasn't much movement of warblers, just a few Black Headed Blues, one Worm Eating Warbler, a number of Black and White Warblers and some Cedar Waxwings chewing away at the berries near Belvedere Castle. This "Hudson River Birder" began as a "Central Park Birder". I still feel a great love for the "lung of New York City" because that is what this great creation of two great arquitects: Frederick Law Olmstead and Calvert Vaux truly is.