John O'Donohue Quotes

It's strange to be here, the mystery never leaves you alone".

For LongingBlessed be the longing that brought you hereAnd quickens your soul with wonder.May you have the courage to listen to the voice of desireThat disturbs you when you have settled for something safe.May you have the wisdom to enter generously into your own uneaseTo discover the new direction your longing wants you to take.May the forms of your belonging—in love, creativity, and friendship—Be equal to the grandeur and the call of your soul.May the one you long for long for you.May your dreams gradually reveal the destination of your desire.May a secret Providence guide your thought and nurture your feeling.May your mind inhabit life with the sureness with which your body inhabits the world.May your heart never be haunted by ghost-structures of old damage.May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.

Perhaps your hunger to belong is always active and intense because you belonged so totally before you came here. This hunger to belong is the echo and reverberation of your invisible heritage. You are from somewhere else, where you were known, embraced and sheltered. This is also the secret root from which all longing grows. Something in you knows, perhaps remembers, that eternal belonging liberates longing into its surest and most potent creativity. This is why your longing is often wiser than your conventional sense of appropriateness, safety and truth... Your longing desires to take you towards the absolute realization of all the possibilities that sleep in the clay of your heart; it knows your eternal potential, and it will not rest until it is awakened.

Take time to see the quiet miracles thatseek no attention

Reflection comes between us and every other person and object in the world. An object or a person can be reflected in so many different ways. Yet the heart of an object or the essence of the heart can never be reflected. All faith and creativity is the hunger to cross over this frontier, it is the desire for pure and total encounter and belonging. Love is an affair between a reflection and its object.

It is lovely to meet an old person whose face is deeply lined, a face that has been deeply inhabited, to look in the eyes and find light there.

May the light of your soul guide you; May the light of your soul bless the work you do with the secret love and warmth of your heart; May you see in what you do the beauty of your own soul; May the sacredness of your work bring healing, light and renewal to those who work with you and to those who see and receive your work; May your work never weary you; May it release within you wellsprings of refreshment, inspiration and excitement; May you be present in what you do. May you never become lost in the bland absences; May the day never burden; May dawn find you awake and alert, approaching your new day with dreams, possibilities and promises; May evening find you gracious and fulfilled; May you go into the night blessed, sheltered and protected; May your soul calm, console and renew you.

The world rests in the night. Trees, mountains, fields, and faces are released from the prison of shape and the burden of exposure. Each thing creeps back into its own nature within the shelter of the dark. Darkness is the ancient womb. Nighttime is womb- time. Our souls come out to play. The darkness absolves everything; the struggle for identity and impression falls away. We rest in the night.