www.mindfulprayerdaily.comToo often people try to change their lives by using the will as a kind of hammer to beat their life into proper shape. The intellect identifies the goal of the program, and the will accordingly forces the life into that shape. This way of approaching the sacredness of one's own presence is externalist and violent. It brings you falsely outside yourself and you can spend years lost in the wildernesses of your own mechanical, spiritual programs. You can perish in a famine of your own making.
If you work with a different rhythm, you will come easily and naturally home to yourself. Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more importantly, it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Excerpt from his book, Anam Cara
Ordering Info: www.johnodonohue.com/store
Co. Clare, Ireland
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www.mindfulprayerdaily.comEASTER BLESSINGS
"On this Easter morning, let us look again at the lives we have been so generously given and let us let fall away the useless baggage that we carry -- old pains, old habits, old ways of seeing and feeling -- and let us have the courage to begin again. Life is very short, and we are no sooner here than it is time to depart again, and we should use to the full the time that we still have.
We don't realize all the good we can do. A kind, encouraging word or helping hand can bring many a person through dark valleys in their lives. We weren't put here to make money or to acquire status or reputation. We were sent here to search for the light of Easter in our hearts, and when we find it we are meant to give it away generously.
May the spirit and light of this Easter morning and the special spirit and light of this abbey at Corcomroe bless us all, watch over us and protect us on our journey, open us from the darkness into the light of peace and hope and transfiguration."
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Dawn Mass Reflections at Corcomroe Abbey
Excerpts from his books: Walking in Wonder (US/UK) / Walking on the Pastures of Wonder (Ireland)
Corcomroe Abbey, Co. Clare, Ireland
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www.mindfulprayerdaily.comMay I live this day
Compassionate of heart,
Clear in word,
Gracious in awareness,
Courageous in thought,
Generous in love.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Excerpt from 'Matins' in his books, Benedictus (Europe) /
To Bless the Space Between Us (US)
Ordering Info: www.johnodonohue.com/store
County Kerry / Ireland
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www.mindfulprayerdaily.comJOURNEY OF THE SOUL
One of the qualities that you can develop, particularly in your older years, is a sense of great compassion for yourself. When you visit the wounds within the temple of memory, you should not blame yourself for making bad mistakes that you greatly regret. Sometimes you have grown unexpectedly through these mistakes. Frequently, in a journey of the soul, the most precious moments are the mistakes. They have brought you to a place that you would otherwise have always avoided. You should bring a compassionate mindfulness to your mistakes and wounds. Endeavor to inhabit the rhythm you were in at that time. If you visit this configuration of your soul with forgiveness in your heart, it will fall into place itself. When you forgive yourself, the inner wounds begin to heal. You come in out of the exile of hurt into the joy of inner belonging.
JOHN O'DONOHUE
Excerpt from his book, Anam Cara
Ordering Info: www.johnodonohue.com/store
County Clare, Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill ... See MoreSee Less
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