Beauty: A Study of Beauty in Celtic Spirituality and the Human Spirit

Beauty by John O'Donohue is a beautiful book written by a beautiful man. I find a book filled with such inspiring words difficult, almost inappropriate, to read straight through. Many lines invite us to read and reread them and then close the books and linger with their fragrance for days. I would like to give a sampling of such lines here, taken from two of my favorite chapters - The Call to Beauty and The Music of Beauty. I will also include a personal reflection on each quote. "Indeed, the subtle touches of beauty are what enable most people to survive. Yet beauty is so quietly woven through our ordinary days that we hardly notice it. Everywhere there is tenderness, care, and kindness, there is beauty." During this past year I have been studying ancient Greek philosophy. Turns out, my favorite philosopher is Epicurus. One big reason is that Epicurus himself was noted for his kindness and incorporated the importance of being caring, sensitive and kind into his philosophy. "Yet beauty's visitation affects us and invites us into its rhythm, it calls us to feel, think and act beautifully in the world: to create and live a life that awakens the Beautiful." I have been involved in the creative arts for many years but I have come to realize our greatest creation is to become ourselves a being radiating beauty. "Even, and perhaps especially, in the bleakest times, we can still discover and awaken beauty; these are precisely the times when we need it most. Nowhere else can we find the joy that beauty brings. Joy is not simply the fruit of circumstances; we can choose to be joyous independent of what is happening around us." How true. John O'Donohue invites us to raise our own inner vibration and experience the inner joy of simply being alive. This is especially needed when we are facing our biggest challenges. ". . . if our style of looking becomes beautiful, then beauty will become visible and shine forth for us. We will be surprised to discover beauty in unexpected places where the ungraceful eye would never linger. The graced eye can glimpse beauty anywhere, for beauty does not reserve itself for special elite moments or instances; it does not wait for perfection but is present already secretly in everything. When we beautify our gaze, the grace of hidden beauty becomes our joy and our sanctuary." Thank you, John. `Beautify our gaze' - the experience of beauty is an inner transformation not a change of scenery. "To behold beauty dignifies your life; it heals you and calls you out beyond the smallness of our own self-limitation to experience new horizons. To experience beauty is to have your life enlarged." Again, thank you, John. There is a rightness and clarity when we see beauty in the world and we become fuller and more attuned to not only the outside world by also to ourselves. "Beauty is not to be captured or controlled for there is something intrinsically elusive in its nature. More like a visitation than a solid fact, beauty invests the aura of a person or infuses a landscape with an unexpected intimacy that satisfies our longing." Indeed, intimate and mysterious beyond any words. "To the human ear, however, music echoes the deepest grandeur and the most sublime intimacy of the soul." I find this true to my own experience. Music hits me at a much deeper level than the other arts. It is like an internal dance with my nervous system. "In contrast to most other forms of art, music alters your experience of time. To enter a piece of music, or to have the music enfold you, is to depart for a while from regulated time. Music creates a rhythm that beats out its own time-shape." Music is so much connected to Eros and love. Both have a dynamic aspect that short-circuits reason and reflection and both are transporting, absorbing, sensuous, kinetic, and involve your whole person, body and soul, in a most corporeal and bodily way. "There is a profound sense in which music opens a secret door in time and reaches in to the eternal. This is the authority and grace of music; it evokes or creates an atmosphere where presence awakens to its eternal depth." I never tire of reading these words over and over again. Again, a beautiful book written by a beautiful man. Please pick up a copy and be inspired.

A Lovely reminder that true Beauty is the signature of God ✨

I know my headline sounds a bit cheesy, but I mean it with a whole heart. This book is so rich with poetical, literary and philosophical insight that it's worth having a copy of your own. For a book that's this full of wisdom demands its readers to return to it, like one returns to their favorite restaurant. I sent a copy to an old friend when his mother passed away. There are sections on grief in the book that I thought would console him. Too bad O'Donohue has died. I would have liked to keep reading his thoughts. You can't read this book and not feel inspired to live a life that fosters what is true and beautiful.

Lovely

It's a slow read for me, but it is worth it. Very thought provoking. As a hospice worker, I thought it may be useful to me, and I think it will be. I love the author. Almost every sentence is piercing.

John O’Donohue manages to provide a perfect balance of proffering insightful information on day-to-day philosophies of beauty while also connecting, or rather finding, other rooted philosophers perspectives in the process. It makes for peaceful reading, because even though texts on philosophy tend to be so heavily saturated with theoretical discourse associated with the major Western thinkers (Aristotle, Plato, Seneca, Kierkegaard, etc.), O’Donohue assists the reader in navigating through those individual perspectives, and threading them together to make coherent, not overly complicated.

During a recent online yoga class, the Teacher read a passage that so touched me that I immediately afterward emailed her to ask the source. John O'Donohue's work is so incredibly beautiful. It breathes right into my soul. I purchased others of his work as well after reading this volume because I felt so at peace. And was sorry to hear that he died a few years back. I would very much have liked to spend time in his presence. His words are soothing and inspiring. His love of nature shines in all his work. And his ability to see the beauty in everything and everyone is positively transforming. Read this. And his other work as well. You will feel like a new person--re-energized, hopeful, loving.

Timeless elegant words. Love this book.

Another John O'Donahue delight

Love how John O. expressed thru this phrases a soothing caress to soul !

Beautifully written. Thoughtful.

I love absolutely everything this author writes. There should be more beauty in our hearts, in our societies, in the natural environment. But what do we do? We're trying to destroy nature and each other!

Love John O'Donahue.