For a rich perspective on John O'Donohue's life and work, see www.johnodonohue.com. Many of the selections below are taken from that source.
He was a remarkable man, "born in 1956, into a native Gaelic speaking family, on the farm inhabited by previous generations in the Burren Region of County Clare, Ireland. As the oldest of four children, he learned to work alongside his parents and uncle, developing a close kinship with the wild landscape, framed by an ethereal view of a limestone valley and the beckoning waters of Galway Bay. This valley was the shell of John's soul, forging a deep and powerful connection with the elements shaping him. He was educated at the local primary school, alternating his studies with the farm chores of tending livestock, raising crops and carving peat for fuel, in his youth. John later described the profound influence of his childhood home as, "A huge wild invitation to extend your imagination…an ancient conversation between the land and sea."
"My earliest memories are of the landscape of The Burren in the west of Ireland. The Burren is an ancient kingdom of limestone sculptures carved slowly by rain, wind and time."
"John's insights into the Self as an unfolding journey of consciousness, memory and spirit reconciled our contradictory human existence as both Individual Person and Person in Relationship to Other."
"In 1997, Anam Cara [Gaelic for "soul friend"] was published, instantly becoming an international best-seller and propelling John onto the world's stage." While he continued to speak publically on social justice issues, in 2000 he retired from public priestly ministry, living and writing in a remote cottage in Connemara. Two days before his 52nd birthday, he died suddenly in his sleep on 4 January 2008 while on holiday near Avignon, France.
"John's legacy directs our search for intimacy to crucial thresholds: tradition and modernity, past and future, life and death, the visible and the invisible world. At the heart of John's awakened beliefs was the premise that ancient wisdom could offer desperately needed nourishment for the spiritual hunger experienced in our modern world. John is fondly remembered by an international readership as one who could blend critical analytic thought with imaginative evocation, enabling people to release themselves from the false shelter of the familiar and repetitive to become agents of transformation and change."
Just a few months before his death, O'Donohue was interviewed by Krista Tippett for her program "On Being," likely the finest single source for revealing the man and his work.
The following poem is entitled Beannacht, the Gaelic word for blessing. Another Gaelic word embedded in the poem is currach. A currach is an Irish boat much like a canoe, with wood frame and, depending on its age, the frame overlaid by animal skins or canvas.
Bennacht
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 of loss
Gets in to you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green,
And azure blue
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.
When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.
May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.