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Maren C. Tirabassi's avatar

Wonderful post and I love O'Donohue! (I am a clergyperson by profession and just love this post altogether.

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Darrow Woods's avatar

Thanks Maren. I gave a lot of thought to whether it would "water down my brand" to add the occasional sermon type thing. I decided that if folks are reading a mystery set in a church, with a pastor as protagonist, it might not be a big stretch. Then I worried that my theology might be too "out there" for some. O'Donohue is one of my go-to's. When I lose track of why I would pastor or preach, it does my heart good to listen to one of his audio books.

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Maren C. Tirabassi's avatar

Amen to that! And since my series of cozies has a clergywoman and high school vice principal as teamed-up protagonists, it makes perfect sense to me ! (though I am pretty busy just preparing one each week to add online ones. The poetry is enough.

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Darrow Woods's avatar

I wouldn't write a new sermon just to post. But since I already post all my sermons to a conventional blog, I thought I'd try putting a few out on Substack- but just the ones that really seemed to work. This one, even my wife liked, and she's a retired clergy person, and has high standards. (Usually involving brevity!)

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Maren C. Tirabassi's avatar

She must be related to my husband Don!

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Darrow Woods's avatar

I have the first in your series. It's next in line to read after I finish the latest Louise Penny.

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Taegan MacLean's avatar

Really enjoyed this Darrow! How you tied it together with Marry Poppins. And I love how O’Donohue interpreted Eckhart. I discovered Eckhart while reading Jung and found him deeply fascinating.

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Darrow Woods's avatar

Thanks Taegan. Hard to go wrong with John O'Donohue. I am interested in Jung. Have you read much? I am looking for a good place to start.

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Taegan MacLean's avatar

Hmm... probably Modern Man in Search of a Soul. He wrote it as an introduction and it leverages a lot of his research without digging into the weighty specifics too much.

I’d also recommend Marie Louis Von Franz. She was his primary pupil and on some ways better at explaining his concepts than he was. She also was the interpreter of his dreams, which once you read some Jung you’ll understand to be a really big deal.

If you can find it, she wrote a book called Puer Aeternus that’s... well for men in particular it’s amazing.

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