"The Celtic idea of friendship . . . brings us back to the intimacy of the human face and the infinite world that stretches behind the face. In a sense, the whole journey of creation from the dark night of the cosmos, from the silent and concealed night of the clay, has been a journey toward the intimacy that comes alive in the human face. If you practice silence before the otherness of the human face, you will gradually come into a sense of the eternity that it incarnates. The mystery of the face will draw you into the fascinating journey of intimacy. This is the heart of the divine--the transfiguring warmth that turns the anonymity and darkness of the vast cosmos into intimacy"
John O' Donohue in Lapis #4, 1997; adapted for Utne Reader Nov/Dec 1997