Category: Poetry

  • A Blessing for Beauty

    by John O’Donohue

    May the beauty of your life become more visible to you,
    that you may glimpse your wild divinity.

    May the wonders of the earth call you forth
    from all your small, secret prisons
    and set your feet free in the pastures of possibilities.

    May the light of dawn anoint your eyes
    that you may behold what a miracle a day is.

    May the liturgy of twilight shelter all your fears
    and darkness within the circle of ease.

    May the angel of memory surprise you in bleak times
    with new gifts from the harvest of your vanished days.

    May you allow no dark hand to quench
    the candle of hope in your heart.

    May you discover a new generosity towards yourself,
    and encourage yourself to engage your life as a great adventure.

    May the outside voices of fear and despair
    find no echo in you.

    And may you know that despite confusion, anxiety and emptiness, your name is written in Heaven.

    And may you come to see your life as a quiet sacrament of service, which awakens around you a rhythm where doubt gives way to the grace of wonder, where what is awkward and strained can find elegance, and where crippled hope can find wings, and torment enter at last unto the grace of serenity.

    May Divine Beauty bless you.