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Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions

Anam Cara

1. Why is Celtic Spirituality achieving such a resonance in our world today? How can it contribute to our way of living now? What is the Celtic Circle of belonging? What kind of friendship is the Anam Cara? What is the difference between acquaintance and friendship? What does true friendship bring us?

2. How have the senses been treated in the Western Tradition? Why has there been such a separation of body and soul in Western Spirituality? What new dimension would the unity of soul and senses bring to a life? In your own life, which of the senses are dominate and which are inevitably always neglected?

3. Why do we fear solitude? Must true individuality always be solitary? What are the fruits of solitude? How does the closeness of the eternal alter our view of spirituality? How can familiarity be alienation?

4. What difference could an awakened imagination make to your work? What are the forces that paralyze us and prevent us from changing? Why is the need for expression so intense and necessary in the human person? What forms of deep expression do you feel would better manifest who you really are?

5. How do you view time? What kinds of time do you inhabit (chronological, stressed, rhythmic, and eternal)? Which season of the heart are you living in now? Do you practice the ³religion of rush²? Why and how does passion keep us young? Why is the wisdom and prescience of the Elders so neglected in contemporary society? How would you like to grow old? What is meant by ³second innocence²?

6. Describe fully what understanding of death you have worked out for yourself. How do fear and death relate in your life? Has postmodern culture lost all sense of ritual in relation to dying and bereavement? Could death be birth in another guise? What is your concept of Eternal Life?

Anam Cara
by John O'Donohue

  • Publication Date: November 1, 1998
  • Paperback: 234 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Collins
  • ISBN-10: 006092943X
  • ISBN-13: 9780060929435