John O'Donohue

John O'Donohue (1 January 1956 – 4 January 2008) was an Irish poet, author, priest, and Hegelian philosopher. He was a native Irish speaker, and as an author is best known for popularising Celtic spirituality. John was awarded his Ph.D. in Philosophical Theology at the end of his doctoral studies at the University of Tubingen, Germany in 1990. After retiring from priestly ministry in the year 2000, he devoted himself full-time to writing. He was ordained as Catholic priest in 6 June 1979. O'Donohue moved to Tübingen, Germany in 1986, and completed his dissertation in 1990 on German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel for his PhD in philosophical theology from Eberhard Karls University. "On The Death Of The Beloved" is one of his famous poem. 

Reference > https://www.poemhunter.com/ 

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 colour.

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 live, awake, complete.

We look towards 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.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,
We know our soul's gaze is upon your face,
Smiling back at us from within everything
To which we bring our best refinement.

Let us not look for you only in memory,
Where we would grow lonely without you.
You would want us to find you in presence,
Beside us when beauty brightens,
When kindness glows
And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,
Darkest winter has turned to spring;
May this dark grief flower with hope
In every heart that loves you.

May you continue to inspire us:

To enter each day with a generous heart.
To serve the call of courage and love
Until we see your beautiful face again
In that land where there is no more separation,
Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,
And where we will never lose you again.

John O’Donohue

John O'Donohue Quotes ...

1. “There can be no growth if we do not remain open and vulnerable to what is new and different. I have never seen anyone take a risk for growth that was not rewarded a thousand times over.”

    John O’Donohue

2. “The best decision I ever made was to become a priest and I think the second-best was to resign.”

    John O’Donohue

3. “The joyful heart sees and reads the world with a sense of freedom and graciousness.”

    John O’Donohue

4. “To the judgmental eye, everything is closed in definitive frames. When the judgmental eye looks out, it sees things in terms of lines and squares.”

    John O’Donohue

5. “There is great beauty in the notion of desire. Each of us is a child of the desire of our parents for each other.”

    John O’Donohue

6. “All through your life your soul takes care of you...your soul is alive and awakened, gathering, sheltering and guiding your ways and days in the world. In effect, your soul is your secret shelter.”

    John O’Donohue

7. “We can often forage for years in the empty fields of self-analysis and self-improvement and sacrifice much of our real substance for specks of cold, lonesome factual truth.”

    John O’Donohue

8. “Negativity is an addiction to the bleak shadow that lingers around every human form you can transfigure negativity by turning it toward the light of your soul.”

    John O’Donohue

9. “Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits.”

    John O’Donohue

10. “When you send that love out from the bountifulness of your own love, it reaches other people. This love is the deepest power of prayer.”

    John O’Donohue

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