Present Space- Spiritual Direction

Weekend invitation: Your true self…is even deeper than your reactions & responses to the world around you. Keep looking & listening beneath behaviour, because even ‘acceptable’ behaviour might not be springing from your truest self!

When someone encourages you, that person helps you over a threshold you might otherwise never have crossed on your own. There are times of great uncertainty in every life. Left alone at such a time, you feel dishevelment and confusion like gravity. When a friend comes with words of encouragement, a light and lightness visit you and you begin to find the stairs and the door out of the dark. The sense of encouragement you feel from the friend is not simply her words or gestures; it is rather her whole presence enfolding you and helping you find the concealed door. The encouraging presence manages to understand you and put herself in your shoes. There is no judgement but words of relief and release.

JOHN O'DONOHUE

Excerpt from his book, Eternal Echoes
Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store

Galway, Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill

It’s been awhile since I posted, but it’s not too late to say Happy New Year! I’ve been soaking in & soaking up this song of blessing inspired by Numbers 6: 24-26. It’s my prayer of blessing you for 2025 also! 🥰

The Blessing (Official Lyric Video) - Bethel Music feat. We The Kingdom | Peace "The Blessing" sung by We The Kingdom from the Peace Album. We The Kingdom appears courtesy of Sparrow Records.Lyrics:VerseThe Lord bless youAnd keep youMake...

Yes…

When you take the time to draw on your listening-imagination, you will begin to hear this gentle voice at the heart of your life. It is deeper and surer than all the other voices of disappointment, unease, self-criticism and bleakness. All holiness is about learning to hear the voice of your own soul. It is always there and the more deeply you learn to listen, the greater surprises and discoveries that will unfold. To enter into the gentleness of your own soul changes the tone and quality of your life. Your life is no longer consumed by hunger for the next event, experience or achievement. You learn to come down from the treadmill and walk on the earth. You gain a new respect for yourself and others and you learn to see how wonderfully precious this one life is. You begin to see through the enchanting veils of illusion that you had taken for reality. You no longer squander yourself on things and situations that deplete your essence. You know now that your true source is not outside you. Your soul is your true source and a new energy and passion awakens in you.

JOHN O'DONOHUE

Excerpt from Beauty: The Invisible Embrace (US) / Divine Beauty (Europe)
Ordering info: https://johnodonohue.com/store

County Clare, Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill

I’m in a couple of ‘paused’ spaces…and breath prayer helps me to stay ‘paused’, when I’m impatient for action!

A corollary to my early post today on the invitation to ‘let go’ in Fall. 🍁
I agree…sometimes it’s an invitation to ‘let be’…the leaves are falling - let them - let them lay where they fall. No raking required! I’ll be musing on this as well. 🍁

Yes…and Yes! 🥰 Going to grab my journal & go ‘soul-spelunking’!

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

JOHN O'DONOHUE

Excerpt from the blessing, 'A Morning Offering,' found in his books,
To Bless the Space Between Us (US) / Benedictus (Europe)
Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/store

Fanore Beach, County Clare, Ireland
Photo: © Ann Cahill

Saturday meditation. 🙏

“Life is amazing. And then it's awful. And then it's amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it's ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That's just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it's breathtakingly beautiful.”
L.R. Knost

Phil Greenwood - Spanish Fields, n.d.