A Blessing from John O’Donohue

In his Blessing called Presence, John O’Donohue prayed these words:

“May you awaken to the mystery of being here
and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.”

These words occupied my mind and heart during a weekend retreat with our Sisters of Diversity.  So often we want to know the meaning and purpose of our lives.  We want clarity and certainty in our decisions.  While none of these is beyond the realm of possibility, they ultimately bring us to the mystery of who we are in God and in this time and space.

When we move through our analytical minds and hearts into the soul, we truly do awaken to the wonder of mystery.  Life takes on new vitality and we experience it as a sense of being drawn out of ourselves in communion with all that is.  O’Donohue expresses it by “entering the quiet immensity of your own presence.”

Have you ever thought of the quiet immensity of your presence? I would never have come up with those words but they express so wonderfully the experience of contemplation when we are drawn into the immensity of Love and are expanded through Love in a way that can be expressed as “immensity of presence.” And this experience truly opens us up to the wonder of our own mystery.

This experience creates in us an urgent need to serve others.  We see life differently.  We participate in life more gratefully–perhaps more prophetically and surely more compassionately.  We need to make a difference in our world, not from an ego-driven place but rather a place of unitive connection.  We are all one or, as Thomas Merton wrote, “there is in all things a hidden wholeness.” Touching the immensity of God I  am in touch with everything.

So I join with O’Donohue and pray that in this month of May you, too, will awaken to the mystery of your being here and enter the quiet immensity of your presence.