Our seventh Lough Derg value: ‘Wonder’

Value seven: Wonder

Soft bright sunlight awaits me this morning as I arrive at what we refer to as ‘The T-junction’ on the Pilgrim Path. Turn left here and you loop back to the Visitor Centre via the quarry.  Swing right and you are on the way towards Saints Island.

The information board here offers colourful photographs of some of the more distinctive features of the flora and fauna of the area from season to season.  But mostly it is ‘the simple beauty of nature in this out-of-the-way corner of God’s creation’ that invites me to contemplation and to wonder.

For the pilgrim on the Island, too, while there are occasional moments of awe – perhaps at sunrise or at sunset, mostly the sense of peace comes from just the simple awareness of being surrounded by the water of the lough and the low hills beyond, between the far shore and the horizon.

I pause here to join in prayer with the Psalmist of old and to think: ‘How many are your works, O Lord!’

Watch Fr La reflect on the fifth Lough Derg value ‘Faith’ here

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