This address was given on 21st August 2018, based on David Adam's work: The Wonder of the Beyond, for the Spiritual Reading Group at the Carmelite Library, Middle Park. Three snippets from the writings of David Adam: Firstly, a… a lovely story in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of three Irishmen who landed in Cornwell after having crossed the sea in a boat made of hide and without oars. When they were asked in the presence of King Alfred of Wessex why they had come they replied, “

‘I was born in a limestone valley. To live in a valley is to enjoy a private sky.’ Anam Cara p107 The valley that John O’Donohue grew up in was situated in the Burren, County Clare, West Coast of Ireland. He was a poet, philosopher, priest, mystic but always described himself as a ‘peasant of the valley.’ He was born here in 1956 and is now buried. At John O’Donohue’s funeral in 2008, his brother Pat described him as: ‘a big, beautiful and gentle presence in the world, also

God knows what it’s like to be one of us. And, like the well the Samaritan woman stood beside when she met Jesus, ours is a faith that we ca