I was in Bloomingdales in Chicago yesterday morning and I picked up an email on my iPhone as Joan shopped. It was from a stranger wanting to contact my friend Martin quickly.
I forwarded it to him.
I have just flown in from Chicago and received the message that our friend John O'Donohue has died.
John died yesterday morning.
John was on holiday in France with the family of Kristine, a wonderful woman he met at Greenbelt just last August.
I was there when Kristine and him met.
I snapped a series of pictures and delighted in that first contact with them.
I am shocked.
This is just a short short message as I recover from missing a nights sleep and this massive sad news.
Poet, priest and philosopher, John was a one-off, the warmest, funniest, wisest person you could hope to meet.
His most recent book, 'Benedictus', was published just before Christmas.
It is a book of blessings and this is an extract from one.
'May there be some beautiful surprise
Waiting for you inside death
Something you never knew or felt,
Which with one simple touch
Absolves you of all loneliness and loss,
As you quicken within the embrace
For which your soul was eternally made.
'May your heart be speechless
At the sight of the truth
Of all your belief had hoped,
Your heart breathless
In the light and lightness
Where each and every thing
Is at last its true self
Within that serene belonging
That dwells beside us
On the other side
Of what we see.'
.
