John ODonohue - Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

In this eagerly awaited follow-up to his international bestsellers Anamara and Eternal Echoes, John ODonohue turns his attention to the subject of beauty - the divine beauty that calls the imagination and awakens all that is noble in the human heart.

In these uncertain times, we are riven with anxiety; our trust in the future has lost its innocence, for we know now that anything can happen from one second to the next. In such an unsheltered world, it may sound naive to suggest that this might be the moment to invoke and awaken beauty, yet this is exactly the claim that this book seeks to explore.

Masterfully written, Divine Beauty focuses on the classical, medieval and Celtic traditions and reveals how beautys invisible embrace invites us towards new heights of passion and creativity. It also sets us free to discover the wonders of this world as our journey becomes illuminated upon a bright path between source and horizon, awakening and surrender.

John ODonohue is a man of the soul. His scholarly meditation on the continuing relevance of Irelands spiritual heritage has become a publishing phenomenon... This poetic meditation has become a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic... A lyrical epic prayer
The Times

Words of wisdom... a heady mixture of myth, poetry, philosophy... profound and moving
Independent

It seems John ODonohue, in his two bestsellers Anam ara and now Eternal Echoes is forging a new consciousness for his race from ancient Celtic mysticism... This poet, philosopher and prophet has struck a chord deep in the Irish psyche
Ireland on Sunday

www.booksattransworld.co.uk

Also by John ODonohue

ANAM CARA

ETERNAL ECHOES

PERSON ALS VERMITTLUNG

POETRY

CONAMARA BLUES

ECHOES OF MEMORY

THE INVISIBLE EMBRACE

J OHN OD ONOHUE

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Version 1.0

Epub ISBN: 9781446436271

www.randomhouse.co.uk

DIVINE BEAUTY
A BANTAM BOOK : 9780553813098
Originally published in Great Britain by Bantam Press,
a division of Transworld Publishers

PRINTING HISTORY
Bantam Press edition published 2003
Bantam edition published 2004
5 7 9 10 8 6
Copyright John ODonohue 2003
The right of John ODonohue to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The author and publishers are grateful for permission to quote from the following: lines from Roy Campbell, St John of the Cross (Ad Donker Publishers); excerpt from Before Time Could Change Them by C.P. Cavafy, Copyright 2001 by Theoharis C. Theoharis, reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Inc.; Denis Devlin, Collected Poems, Dedalus Press, 1989; poems of W.S. Graham, by kind permission of Michael and Margaret Snow; Geoffrey Hill, lines from Tenebrae, in Collected Poems (Penguin Books, 1985, first published in Tenebrae, 1978) Copyright Geoffrey Hill, 1978, 1985; Li-Young Lee, excerpt from Little Round, from Book of My Nights, copyright 2001 by Li-Young Lee, reprinted with the permission of BOA Editions Ltd; two poems from Lorca and Jimnez: Selected Poems, translated by Robert Bly, Beacon Press, Boston, 1973, by kind permission of Robert Bly; lines from The Confession of Saint Patrick by John Skinner, copyright 1998 by John Skinner, used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.; lines from Elegy 9 from The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell, copyright 1982 by Stephen Mitchell, used by permission of Random House, Inc.; Wallace Stevens, The Deathbed as Altar, from Sunday Morning, reprinted by permission of Faber and Faber; and extracts from the poems of W.B. Yeats, used by permission of A.P. Watt Ltd on behalf of Michael B. Yeats. The publishers have made every reasonable effort to contact the copyright owners of the quotations reproduced in this book. In the few cases where they have been unsuccessful they invite copyright holders to contact them direct.

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This book is for my lovely niece
Triona ODonohue
As she sets out into the world:
May Beauty bless her every breath and footstep

Certainly many instances of earthly beauty a song, the twilit sea, the tone of the lyre, the voice of a boy, a verse, a statue, a column, a garden, a single flower all possess the divine faculty of making man hearken unto the innermost and outermost boundaries of his existence, and therefore it is not to be wondered at that the lofty art of Orpheus was esteemed to have the power of diverting the streams from their beds and changing their courses, or luring the wild beasts of the forest with tender dominance, of arresting the cattle a-browse upon the meadows and moving them to listen, caught in the dream and enchanted, the dream-wish of all art: the world compelled to listen, ready to receive the song and its salvation.

H ERMANN B ROCH , The Death of Virgil

and in thy voice I catch
The language of my former heart...

W ILLIAM W ORDSWORTH , Tintern Abbey

It visits with inconstant glance
Each human heart and countenance;

Like hues and harmonies of evening,

Like clouds in starlight widely spread,
Like memory of music fled,
Like aught that for its grace may be

Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery.

Spirit of Beauty, that dost consecrate

With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon
Of human thought or form, where art thou gone?

P ERCY B YSSHE S HELLEY , Hymn to Intellectual Beauty