Niamh Brennan

Spirituality of Flowers

Foreword

(wrote the foreword)

The Gardened Soul

Prayer & Spiritual Formation

“This book is an invitation into ‘more.’ Mapping a landscape where the boundary of outer and inner is not clearly delineated but influenced and nourished, each by the other, David invites us into the concept of gardening as a spiritual practice whereby we tend and nourish our garden while the garden equally tends to us, our soul space in particular. In the book, David illustrates how gardening is the ultimate locus of communion between the human heart and the Divine. The act of gardening helps to cultivate our emotions whereby we recognize the ability of the outer space to facilitate the exploration of the inner space which leads the soul into a deeper experience of ‘the more.’ David deftly demonstrates how emotions animate the soul and how the manner in which we engage and garden these emotions is reflected in the choices and actions we make. The garden is revealed as a dynamic and relational space that allows us to contemplate core human questions and facilitates us in approaching them. This is a well-researched, clear and beautiful book that is a challenge to ‘any attempt to make the human soul small.’ Thomas Berry famously stated that ‘to plant a seed is to activate one of the deepest mysteries of the universe’ and in this book David leads us some way into understanding why. A wonderful resource for gardeners and spiritual seekers alike, expanding in beautiful ways the horizon and context of both.”