It's easy to see how myths and legends grew up. If we were to think of the earth in terms of the Greek goddess Gaia, it's not difficult to think of her in mourning. In the west of Scotland it's been raining since November though we've not been subjected to the terrible floods of southern England. It's as though the earth is in tears. In other parts of the world the earth seems to have withdrawn her favour and areas like California are experiencing the worst drought in years. All this is seen as the effect of climate change and while this is a natural phenomenon we know it's been accelerated by human beings and the way they've used the earth's resources.

If Gaia could talk I wonder what she would say.  Perhaps something like this:

'You are precious to me, I long for your well-being and flourishing.  I rejoice in the diversity of this beautiful planet which I have placed in your hands. I take pride in your achievements, in your ability to care for, develop and sustain this world and one another.  And yet my heart is broken. I hear the cries of many of the creatures of this world being killed for no reason except to satisfy the greed of human beings who have forgotten their intimate connection with all living creatures. I grieve the effects of accelerated changing weather patterns brought about by the indiscriminate use of the earth's resources as though they were infinite and unlimited.  You have forgotten where you have come from, that your well-being is connected to the earth which gives you breath and life, that you are part of and not independent of the great web of life, that you die if it dies. Your greed and patterns of consumption, your desire for comfort and ease have dulled your generous and caring spirit, your selfishness has led you to forget that there's much in life that you can't control, that it's a gift to be reverenced and enjoyed and treated with respect.

Yet you have great wisdom traditions which remind you of your place in the world. If only you would listen to them. Have you not heard the words of the great American Chief Seattle,
        Whatever befalls the earth    Befalls the sons of the earth.
        Man did not weave the web of life,   He is merely a strand in it.
        Whatever he does to the web, He does to himself.”?

Have you not heard the voice of Hinduism, "the earth is our mother, and we are all her children" ?

the voice of Islam" the world is green and beautiful, and Allah has appointed you his guardian over it":

the voice of Judaism " when God created the first human beings, God led them around the Garden of Eden and said, 'look at my works! see how they are - how excellent! For your sake I created them all.  See to it that do not spoil and destroy my wold; for if you do, there will be no-one else to repair it'

and the voice of Bahau'llah, ' You walk on my earth complacent and self- satisfied, heedless that my earth is weary of you'?

I am not weary of you.  I trust you and know you can treat the earth with the love and respect it deserves. If only you take time out to stop, to listen to its cries, to wonder at its beauty, to tread its paths with gentleness and reverence, to live life simply and joyfully. The future is in your hands.'

This photograph is on the wall above my desk.   It is of Pedro Arrupe, the Jesuit highlighted  this month in the calendar produced to mark the two hundredth anniversary of the restoration of the Jesuits. I am drawn to it and feel even as I look at it that I am on holy ground.  It speaks to me of  a man deep in prayer, oblivious of all that is around him, intent on listening to his inner self,  facing whatever inner struggles there might be, discerning how he should live.

It takes a lot of courage to do this.  Most of us run away from silence and stillness.  We run away from looking into our hearts, afraid of what we might find  and lose ourselves in busyness, consumerism and materialism. These are the ills of our modern society  which we're told result in unhappiness and even ill health.  To combat this it's possible to do courses in meditation and mindfulness, now recognised as therapies which originated in religion but have become independent of it.  All this is good of course if meditation and mindfulness lead to well-being but sometimes I wonder.  A friend recently sent me an article telling of two young men who have devised a mindfulness app which is now a multi-million business.  It is advertised as leading to success and contentment. Is this religion aligning itself with commercialism, selling its soul to consumerism, offering  a quick fix or simply using a skilful means to communicate a spiritual practice to people who would not otherwise encounter it?  I just don't know. 

For Pedro Arrupe prayer and meditation were part of his life.  He was the first Basque, after St Ignatius the founder of the Jesuits, to be General. He was working in Japan when the atomic bomb was dropped in August 1945 and organised for the care of many of the victims in Hiroshima. In response to the Vietnamese boat people he set up  the  Jesuit Refugee Service, now at work today in more than 50  countries worldwide.  He believed that religious faith  had to be vigorous in promoting justice and in opposing injustice, oppression and social evils such as poverty, hunger and all forms of racial discrimination.  This was a man who was not closed to the cries of our world, who discovered a real well within him which he expressed in loving and compassionate service.  All this I think you can sense from the photograph and is a lesson which goes beyond words.

But let me finish with a prayer of his.
        Nothing is more practical than  finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way.
        What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything.
        It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings,
        how you spend your weekends,  what you read, whom you know,
        what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
        Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.

Is this not worth reflecting on?  What a world we would have if love got us out of bed in the morning.

The month of January is behind us and though the weather is still bad there are signs of hope in the garden.  Snowdrops invariably manage to push their way through snow and wet to remind us that there is life and growth even in the most wintery of conditions.  And there are signs of hope everywhere if we just look for them.

Religion gets a very bad press and much of it deserved. But there is also much good in it and many religious people have made a great contribution to our world and to the well -being of others.  Within religions such as Christianity and Buddhism there are those who have dedicated themselves to the good of others in what we call religious life. Within Christianity there are many religious orders -groups of men and women who are united through a common vision and mission and who live according to the three vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. 

Once such order is the Society of Jesus, better known as the Jesuits who have come to prominence since the election of Jorge Bergoglio as Pope. Founded in the 16th century by Ignatius of Loyola, Jesuit priests and brothers have made a  great contribution to the Catholic Church, to Christianity and to the wider world.  In the 18th century they were suppressed in Catholic countries by Pope Clement XIV for political rather than religious reasons.  Jesuits throughout the world had to renounce their vows and were driven into exile. This year they celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the end of this suppression   when in 1814 Pope Pius VII restored the Society and Jesuits were once again able to serve and minister throughout the world. 

To  commemorate the event the British Province have produced a calendar which celebrates some of the giants in their community. The calendar replicates paintings commissioned from a young artist, Ellen Riley, whose husband finished the commission after her tragic and untimely death in 2012 at the age of 24. Last month celebrated Fr Pierre Teilhard de Chardin who was a French philosopher, paleontologist and geologist.  He worked extensively in Africa and Asia and was part of the expedition which discovered Peking Man. He believed not only in physical evolution but also in a spiritual evolution that would lead humanity to a moment of wholeness and completeness.  He once said " I am a pilgrim of the future on my way back from a journey made entirely in the past". 

His spiritual reflections were regarded with suspicion and he was forbidden to publish his works during his lifetime.  His work, however, survived and has made a great contribution to the dialogue between science and religion. He was a man who has shown us that the future is in our hands. The future is not certain, it is not closed, it is not negative.  We are all pilgrims of the future and the future will be what we make of it.  Every act of love, of compassion, of courage, of selflessness, of struggle to establish good relations and dispel prejudice and discrimination are seeds which  can give us hope in a world that so often focuses on the negative.