www.mindfulprayerdaily.comWhen the mind is festering with trouble or the heart torn, we can find healing among the silence of mountains or fields, or listen to the simple, steadying rhythm of waves. The slowness and stillness gradually takes us over. Our breathing deepens and our hearts calm and our hungers relent. When serenity is restored, new perspectives open to us and difficulty can begin to seem like an invitation to new growth.
This invitation to friendship with nature does of course entail a willingness to be alone out there. Yet this aloneness is anything but lonely. Solitude gradually clarifies the heart until a true tranquility is reached. The irony is that at the heart of that aloneness you feel intimately connected with the world. Indeed, the beauty of nature is often the wisest balm for it gently relieves and releases the caged mind.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Excerpt from his books, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace (US) / Divine Beauty (Europe)
Ordering Info: www.johnodonohue.com/store
Flaggy Shore / Co. Clare, Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
www.mindfulprayerdaily.comWe are not as near each other as we would like to imagine. Words create bridges between us. Without them we would be lost islands. Affection, recognition and understanding travel across these fragile bridges and enable us to discover each other and awaken friendship and intimacy. Words are never just words. The range and depth of a person's soul is inevitably revealed in the quality of the words used. When chosen with reverence and care, words not only describe what they say but also suggest what can never be said.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Excerpt from the books, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace (US) / Divine Beauty (Europe)
Ordering Info: www.johnodonohue.com/store
Stone Wall / Co. Clare, Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
www.mindfulprayerdaily.comLOVED REMEMBRANCE
John O'Donohue
January 1, 1956 - January 4, 2008
We thank the Divine artist for singing John to us, praying his song will always be on our lips and in our hearts, leading us back into the rhythm of our own dance. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam dilis (God’s wish that his soul be true)
Pat O'Donohue (John's brother) on behalf of the O'Donohue family
ON THE DEATH OF THE BELOVED
Though we need to weep your loss,
You dwell in that safe place in our hearts
Where no storm or night or pain can reach you.
Your love was like the dawn
Brightening over our lives,
Awakening beneath the dark
A further adventure of color.
The sound of your voice
Found for us
A new music
That brightened everything.
Whatever you enfolded in your gaze
Quickened in the joy of its being;
You placed smiles like flowers
On the altar of the heart.
Your mind always sparkled
With wonder at things.
Though your days here were brief,
Your spirit was alive, awake, complete.
We look toward each other no longer
From the old distance of our names;
Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,
As close to us as we are to ourselves.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Excerpt from, 'On the Death of the Beloved' from his books,
Benedictus (Europe) / To Bless the Space Between Us (US)
www.johnodonohue.com/ ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
www.mindfulprayerdaily.comAT THE END OF THE YEAR
As this year draws to its end,
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they became inlaid within
Where neither time nor tide can touch them...
Days when beloved faces shone brighter
With light from beyond themselves;
And from the granite of some secret sorrow
A stream of buried tears loosened.
We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Excerpt from the blessing, 'At the End of the Year,' from the books,
Benedictus (Europe) / To Bless the Space Between Us (US)
Ordering Info: www.johnodonohue.com/store
Co. Kerry, Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill ... See MoreSee Less
Photo
