Rediscovering the Art of Reverence - John O'Donohue
What you encounter, recognize or discover depends to a large degree on the
quality of your approach. Many of the ancient cultures practiced careful rituals
of approach. An encounter of depth and spirit was preceded by careful
preparation.
When we approach with reverence, great things decide to approach us. Our
real life comes to the surface and its light awakens the concealed beauty in
things. When we walk on the earth with reverence, beauty will decide to trust
us. The rushed heart and arrogant mind lack the gentleness and patience to enter
that embrace.
In order to become attentive to beauty, we need to rediscover the art of
reverence. Our world seems to have lost all sense of reverence. We seldom even
use the word any more. The notion of reverence is full of riches that we now
need desperately. Put simply, it is appropriate that a human being should dwell
on this earth with reverence. As children we become aware of the word
'reverence' as used to describe the way a person is present in prayer or
liturgy. When a priest celebrated the mass with a sense of reverence, you sensed
the depth of his presence to the mystery. Though the church was full of people,
he was absorbed in something that could not be seen. Ultimately, reverence is
respect before mystery.
But it is more than an attitude of mind; reverence is also physical — a
dignified attention of body showing that sacred is already here. Reverence is
not to be reduced to a social posture. Reverence bestows dignity and it is only
in light of dignity that the beauty and mystery of a person will become visible.
Reverence is not the stiff pious posture which remains frozen and lacks humour
and play. To live with a sense of reverence is not to become a prisoner of dull
piety.
Playfulness, humour, and even a sense of the anarchic are companions of
reverence because they insist on the proper proportion of the human presence in
the light of the eternal. Reverence is also the companion of humility. When
human hubris intrudes on or manipulates the sacred, the consequence is
inevitably humiliation. In contrast, a sense of reverence includes the
recognition that one is always in the presence of the sacred.
To live with reverence is to live without judgement, prejudice and the
saturation of consumerism. The consumerist heart becomes empty and lonesome
because it has squandered reverence. As parent, child, lover, prayer or artist —
a sense of reverence opens pathways to beauty to surprise us. The earth is full
of thresholds where beauty awaits the wonder of our gaze.
About the Author: Excerpted from Beauty: The Invisible Embrace by John
O'Donohue.
