John O'Donohue: A Blessing for Beauty

A Blessing for Beauty

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.

May you always trust the urgency and wisdom of your own spirit.

May the shelter and nourishment of all the good you have done, 

the love you have shown, the suffering you have carried,

awaken around you to bless your life a thousand times.

And when love finds the path to your door may you open

like the earth to the dawn, and trust your every hidden

color towards its nourishment of light.

May you find enough stillness and silence to savor 

the kiss of God on your soul and delight in the eternity

that shaped you, that holds you and calls 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.

- John O’Donohue, from Beauty – The Invisible Embrace