John O'Donohue 1954-2008
Beloved Irish Poet, Philosopher, Teacher, Priest, Environmental
Activist, Druid, Lover of Life, and Friend of the Soul
Author of Anam Cara: A Celtic book of Wisdom; Eternal Echoes; Beauty: The Invisible Embrace;
Connemara Blues and Benedictus: A Book of Blessings.
John O'Donohue died peacefullyin
his sleep on January 3-4, 2008, at the age of 53.
There was a Memorial
Service in Celebration of John's Life on February 2, 2008 in Galway Cathedral in Ireland. and we gathered around the hearth
at Jeanne's house in Mattituck, on Sunday, February 3, 2008 Noon-3 pm. Click for More details
Reflections
on John O'Donohue's Impact on My Life
by Jeanne Marie Merkel
Poet, David Whyte has written
"John was a love-letter to humanity from some address in the firmament we have yet to find and locate." and I am eternally
grateful that love-letter reached my ears.
I first discovered
the tapes of Anam Cara when I was going through a dark night of the soul. I had been feeling very alone in my life path, having decided after seminary that
I could not minister within the traditional forms. I was working in an agency
for the developmentally disabled, feeling the huge, deadening weight of bureaucracy and the emptiness of the culture all around
me – a culture so cut off from the deep sources of spiritual nurturance and from nature.
John’s voice was like a warm and gentle wind coaxing me and drawing me out of the dark night, affirming that
I was not alone in the universe -- that someone else experienced the inner world in the deep, rich ways I had known since
childhood, yet had no mirror for in the external world. Anam Cara was my homecoming
call, and in the year that followed, I found my own form of retreat and workshop ministry and called it “Anam
Cara Center.” The circle of soul friends that Spirit gathered came to think of themselves as the “Anam Cara Community”
We had several gatherings in which we listened to the tapes of Anam Cara together over Homemade Soup and Bread, and the
deep wisdom of John's words, spoken in his soothing Irish brogue, knit us together in a beautiful kinship of shared
insight.
When I finally had the great privilege of meeting John O’Donohue
at a Miriam’s Well event, I asked him to dedicate my copy of Anam Cara to
the Anam Cara Community, and he wrote these words – which I want to share today with the larger Anam Cara Community
– all of you in the circle of soul friends who have been blessed by John’s teaching and presence:
For Anam Cara Community
--
May all the Light &
Wisdom of your work
return to bless ye
a thousand times.
John O’Donohue
As the light and wisdom of John’s work return to bless
him a thousand times, so may we bless one another by bringing all that his teaching inspired to grow within us into glorious
flower. May we each find our own ways to bring to form all that is coming to
light in our clay shapes -- that which can come to this unique form in no other person - as John so often reminded us. May we let our light and wisdom go out into the world unimpeded and joyous.
Thank you, dear Soul Friend, for the love-letter of your life,
and for your continued presence in our hearts.
Jeanne Marie Merkel
It seems fitting to share this poem which John wrote and which captures
all the ways that his life touched ours:
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 might 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
For more reflections on John O'Donohue by David Whyte and others visit
http://miriamswell.org
