John O'Donohue
Irish poet, philosopher, and former Catholic priest, one of the most beloved spiritual writers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Born in 1956 in County Clare, on the limestone Burren of Ireland's western coast, he wrote his doctoral thesis on Hegel and spent two decades as a parish priest before leaving the priesthood to write full-time. His 1997 book Anam Cara — Gaelic for 'soul friend' — introduced English-speaking readers to the Celtic spiritual imagination and became one of the most quoted contemporary spiritual texts. His subsequent books, especially To Bless the Space Between Us (his collected blessings, published the year of his sudden death in 2008), made him a household name in the global contemplative community. His blessings — 'For a New Beginning,' 'For Solitude,' 'Beannacht' — are read at weddings, funerals, and ordinary mornings around the world.
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Quotes by John O'Donohue
107 quotes“In the parched deserts of postmodernity a blessing can be a great gift to a soul.”
“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.”
“When you cease to fear your solitude, a new creativity awakens in you.”
“Beauty calls us not only to seriousness, but to thankfulness.”
“You do not need to go away outside yourself to come into real conversation with your soul. The Anam Cara is who you already are.”
“Real friendship or love is not manufactured or achieved by an act of will or intention. Friendship is always an act of recognition.”
“Stress is a perverted relationship to time.”
“The hunger to belong is at the heart of our nature.”
“Each one of us is a gift to the world.”
“A friend is a loved one who awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you.”
“The wonder of being human is that we are continually becoming.”
“Beauty isn't all about just nice loveliness. Beauty is about more rounded substantial becoming.”
“There is no need to leave your home to find God. God is the most home of all.”
“You have a unique presence and contribution to the work of God.”
“The soul has more room than you would imagine.”
“Time as the rhythm of soul.”
“Possibility is the secret heart of time.”
“Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits.”
“You can never love another person unless you are equally involved in the beautiful but difficult spiritual work of learning to love yourself.”
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