Fr Hugh O’Donnell is a poet and ministers with the Salesian community in the parish of Sean McDermott Street in Dublin. He completed the MA course in Religion and Ecology in 2004 at the Columban Ecological Centre at Dalgan. Out of that experience came his written reflection on the intimate relationship between worship and the earth, namely, ‘Eucharist and the Living Earth‘ (Columba), which was revised in 2012.
His book of reflections, ‘Songs for the Slow Lane’, also appeared from Columba in 2014; it, too, focuses on our deep desire to be in tune with the earth. He regularly contributes to ‘A Living Word’, the RTE radio early morning reflective slot.
Fr Hugh shares the following reflection with us:
This morning I am up in time to see first light creeping over tall buildings and spreading across the sky. I am reminded of Luke’s consoling words which tell of the Loving Kindness of the heart of the cosmos ‘who visits us like the dawn from on high’.
For the nine days before Christmas, this expectation and longing is summed up by the word ‘O’. At the solstice, for instance, December 21st, we make this prayer, ‘O rising Sun. O come and enlighten those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.’
This vowel is so expressive of us. It can stretch from the anguished ‘O’ of Munch’s iconic figure crossing the Oslo bridge to the ‘O’ of hushed wonder on the face of a child to the ‘O’ of the Advent prayer which at evening introduces our dearest wish, ‘O please do come’ – the heartache of the lonely person who rings someone for no reason or who asks ‘can’t you stay longer?’ as she’s tired of shadows.
This long tradition of yearning for ‘the light of the world’ is as urgent as ever. On the first evening our concern for planet Earth is expressed in these words: ‘O Wisdom, you come forth from the mouth of the Most High. You fill the universe and hold all things together in a strong yet gentle manner. O come to teach us the way of truth’ – a hope we share with ancestors who set their passage graves in the Boyne valley to face the rising sun.