“The wildness of God is the sensuousness of God. Nature is the direct expression of the divine imagination. It is the most intimate reflection of God's sense of beauty.”
Work
Discover the Celtic Circle of BelongingJohn O'Donohue, poet, philosopher, and scholar, guides you through the spiritual landscape of the Irish imagination. In Anam Cara, Gaelic for "soul friend," the ancient teachings, stories, and blessings of Celtic wisdom provide such profound insights on the universal themes of friendship, solitude, love, and death as:Light is generousThe human heart is never completely bornLove as ancient recognitionThe body is the angel of the soulSolitude is luminousBeauty likes neglected placesThe passionate heart never agesTo benatural is to be holySilence is the sister of the divineDeath as an invitation to freedom
Quotes
Showing 1-24 of 34
John O'Donohue
Canonical work source
“The wildness of God is the sensuousness of God. Nature is the direct expression of the divine imagination. It is the most intimate reflection of God's sense of beauty.”
“For the Celts, the world is always latently and actively spiritual.”
“If you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no...”
“The life and passion of a person leave an imprint on the ether of a place. Love does not remain within the heart, it flows out to build secret tabernacles in a landscape.”
“In subsequent Christian tradition, and especially among the Church Fathers, there was a deep suspicion of the body and a negative obsession with sexuality. Sex and sexuality were portrayed a...”
“We do not need to grieve for the dead. Why should we grieve for them? They are now in a place where there is no more shadow, darkness, loneliness, isolation, or pain. They are home.”
“Every friendship travels at sometime through the black valley of despair. This tests every aspect of your affection. You lose the attraction and the magic. Your sense of each other darkens a...”
“When time is reduced to linear progress, it is emptied of presence.”
“Your body knows you very intimately; it is aware of your whole spirit and soul life.”
“There is a labyrinth within the soul.”
“To describe the human body as the temple of the Holy Spirit recognizes that the body is suffused with wild and vital divinity.”
“To spend time in silence before the mystery of your body brings you toward wisdom and holiness.”
“The moment your fear transfigures, you come into rhythm with your own self.”
“Inspiration is always a surprising visitor.”
“Spirituality is the art of transfiguration. We should not force ourselves to change by hammering our lives into any predetermined shape. We do not need to operate according to the idea of a...”
“Sometimes our spiritual programs take us far away from our inner belonging. We become addicted to the methods and programs of psychology and religion. We become so desperate to learn how to...”
“Beannacht / Blessing On the day when the weight deadens on your shoulders and you stumble, may the clay dance to balance you. And when your eyes freeze behind the grey window and the ghost o...”
“We should avoid the false dualism that separates the soul from the body.”
“No one else has access to the world you carry around within yourself; you are its custodian and entrance. No one else can see the world the way you see it. No one else can feel your life the...”
“You do not have to go away outside yourself to come into real conversation with your soul and with the mysteries of the spiritual world. The eternal is at home--within you.”
“Each of us needs to learn the unique language of our own soul.”
“Far sooner than your mind, your body knows how privileged it is to be here. It is also aware of the presence of death. There is a wisdom in your physical, bodily presence that is luminous an...”
“...the only difference between a young person at the height of their exuberance and a very old person who is frail and physically wasted is time.”
“Your soul mediates between your body and your mind; it shelters the two and holds them together.”