From the very beginning O'Donohue states his underlying belief that "The human soul is hungry for beauty." We long for beauty, for in beauty we get a glimpse of the essence of God. God offers us these wonderful sights and encounters with beauty everyday, but so often they go unnoticed. Right before our eyes is something beautiful and transforming, something revealing the majesty and glory of God and yet we are blind to it.
We have become a culture of glamour. Our eyes and attention are captured by that which glitters and shines. "It has become the habit of our times to mistake glamour for beauty." O'Donohue continues by quoting Robert C. Morgan, "Beauty is not glamour. Most of what the media...the fashion world...Hollywood...the art world has to offer is glamour. Glamour, like the art world itself, is a highly fickle and commercially driven enterprise that contributes to...the "humdrum". It appears and disappears...No one ever catches up to glamour."
We live in a world mesmerized by glamour. Glamour is deceptive and manipulative. Glamour is produced and quickly fades. Beauty is truth telling and life giving. Beauty is born and created and stands the true test of time. Beauty is inherent in the nature of God. Beauty gives us hope and transforms our souls. Glamour will leave us empty and unsatisfied. True beauty will fill our souls and nourish us.
We feel empty because we have been caught by the world's empty promise and allure of glamour, but God offers us beauty, true beauty, divine, holy and life giving beauty. Beauty that will sustain us. Beauty that will not fade nor betray us. Beauty that will fill us and not leave us still starving and unsatisfied. The beauty of life and love, of creation and renewal. The beauty of compassion and hope, of forgiveness and mercy. The beauty of creativity and dreams. The beauty of death and resurrection.
O Lord, open our eyes that we might see, open our ears that we might hear, open our hands that we might touch, open our lips that we might taste and our heart that we might feel your beauty and in turn be a reflection of that beauty in your world.
Peace,
Paul+