John O'Donohue


beauty as a more rounded, substantial becoming;
beauty as homecoming; beauty as religion

springboards for reflection 

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Moral Beauty
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It's the beauty within us that makes it possible for us to recognize the beauty around us.
— Joan Chittister in The Psalms
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​A spontaneous act of generosity, performed with unselfish grace is an example of moral beauty, as are certain acts of courage; genuine modesty is a possible example, as is selfless love. Some people appear to possess moral beauty as others possess physical beauty. Although moral beauty may be a natural gift, it is nevertheless more likely to emerge and flourish in societies that appreciate and encourage it.
— Yi-Fu Tuan in Passing Strange and Wonderful

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My Religion is Beauty

My religion is Beauty.  This may sound iconoclastic, but I don’t mean it that way.  As an ordained minister and former pastor of two lovely, progressive congregations, I do believe in organized religion!  But not all expressions of my own faith, Christianity, can be called beautiful.  In fact, those which lean toward fundamentalism, or which seek political power and control, are, I believe, injurious to the soul and to the world at large—and even to the planet.
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The Dalai Lama is Buddhist, and yet what is his religion?  He famously says, “My religion is kindness.”  Maybe it is time to think of religion in terms of these deeper human values such as kindness or compassion or love or appreciation of diversity or the planting of trees; maybe we should measure our particular faith communities by these points of light—like stars guiding us through the darkness as we seek our spiritual home.  

I suggest that such luminaries as kindness, love, compassion, appreciation of diversity, and the planting of trees are all shining participants of a larger celestial constellation named Beauty, and that this guiding constellation can, in the dark confusion that sometimes accompanies religious or spiritual identity, help us find our way home. ​

-- Patricia Adams Farmer, Beauty as a Spiritual Home

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The Visitation: An Encounter with Beauty

But we can learn to walk through life in a new way—a way marked by anticipation, vulnerability, and patience.  We can practice reverence in our day-to-day lives—not a monotonous, dread-filled reverence, but a joyful reverence that expects beauty to show up and surprise us in even the most unlikely places.  We can practice seeking beauty—not a glittery, superficial kind of prettiness, but the deep-seated Beauty that both awakens us and calls us to surrender to new ways of living in the world.
 
As with Elizabeth’s encounter, sometimes this Beauty is intoxicating, like a Mozart aria.  As with Mary’s encounter, sometimes this Beauty is unsettling in its richness and strangeness—like a baby lying in a manger.  But always it is a gift that both ignites our imagination and calls us to surrender to the eternal strangeness that is, paradoxically, also our truest home.  If only we have eyes to see and hearts that are open.

-- Teri Daily, The Visitation