Coming soon
Book title I'm working on
"The Chair and the Light"
There’s a chair on my porch that rocks with memory.
It doesn’t ask me to be strong.
It just holds me while I breathe.
Some mornings, I sit there before the world wakes. The porchlight is still on, casting its quiet glow across the railing. It’s not a spotlight. It doesn’t demand attention. It simply says, You’re not alone.
This book was born in that chair.
Not in triumph, but in fragments.
Not in answers, but in mercy.
If you’ve ever felt like a mosaic of what once was—this is for you.
Chapter One: When the Storm Came
Maybe it didn’t come all at once. Maybe it arrived in fragments—grief layered over disappointment, silence where there used to be song. Maybe it came like a slow unraveling, or like a sudden gust that knocked everything loose.
However it came, you’re here. And that matters.
This chapter isn’t about fixing the storm or pretending it didn’t happen. It’s about naming it. Honoring the ache. Sitting with the truth that something sacred was broken—and that you’re still here.
Some of you have been trying to rebuild for years. Others have just begun. And some are still in the middle of the storm, unsure if healing is even possible.
This book is for you.
Not to rush you. Not to offer easy answers.
But to say: You are not alone.
There’s a chair here, and it rocks with mercy.
There’s a light on, and it’s for you.
Come rest awhile. Let’s begin—one fragment at a time.
The Nature of Storms
Storms don’t always announce themselves. Sometimes they arrive as a diagnosis, a betrayal, a silence that stretches too long. Sometimes they come as a slow erosion—of trust, of joy, of the sense that you belong.
And sometimes, they come with no clear cause at all. Just a heaviness. A fog. A sense that something inside you has shifted, and you’re not sure how to name it.
If that’s you, you’re not broken. You’re human. And mercy doesn’t wait for clarity—it meets you in the confusion.
Books Written by Mark O’Reilly, MACC
A growing collection of reflections, written from the front porch to companion the weary.
New Release
The Foxes Have Holes
“But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”
A meditation on displacement, spiritual longing, and the quiet places where grace finds us.
ISBN-13
979-8270409715
Available on Amazon
Understanding the unseen wounds
ISBN-13
979-8292926627
Understanding the Unseen Wounds: A Healing Journey from Silent Trauma to Sacred Transformation This book explores the impact of quiet traumas—subtle emotional and spiritual injuries that shape how we feel and relate. It guides readers through everyday hurts that settle deep in the body, mind, and soul. Blending theological insight, neuroscience, and compassionate pastoral guidance, it offers tools for emotional and spiritual renewal. Chapters include: Unseen Wounds and Silent Trauma When Worry Won’t Let Go Living with Hypervigilance The Weight We Carry Finding Your Anchor Paths to Holy Healing Breaking Generational Chains When to Seek a Helping Hand God Does Not Waste Wounds Core message: Suffering is not weakness. God walks with us in darkness. Healing is sacred and possible.
Not the Patient, Still in Pain: A Companion for Caregivers Navigating Love, Loss, and the Long Journey of Mental Illness
ISBN-13
979-8298716215
This book is a companion for the already exhausted.It offers gentle reflections and blessings for caregivers, spouses, spiritual leaders, and anyone who carries invisible wounds. It speaks to those who hold the line when no one sees them, who whisper they can't do this and still do it. For those who miss the man they married and love the one who remains, who feel like a ghost in their own story, who keep showing up.These pages name what others overlook and honor the sacredness of presence. You are not invisible. You are not weak. You are not alone.
You Are Not Alone:: Recognizing & Healing from Abuse
ISBN-13
979-8287985905
You Are Not Alone: Recognizing & Healing from AbuseYou Are Not Alone is a compassionate guide for survivors seeking healing and wholeness. Grounded in both psychological insight and deep theological reflection, the book offers a gentle yet structured path through the complexities of trauma toward hope and restoration.
With clear language, soul-stirring devotions, and practical next steps, it speaks directly to those navigating the aftermath of abuse—inviting them to reclaim their worth, reestablish trust, and rediscover God’s sustaining presence.
Whether you're a survivor, caregiver, or advocate, this resource provides both comfort and clarity for the journey.
Who is a Christian Husband
ISBN-13
979-8294819460
A sanctuary in print guiding couples toward a marriage rooted in presence, not performance.
This book draws from years of spiritual companionship, honest narrative, and tender reflection to offer a voice beside yours—not above. It honors the sacred mess and quiet beauty of covenant love, resisting abstraction and easy answers.
Through stories, metaphors, and meditations, readers are invited to rediscover marriage as a daily act of grace, attention, and restoration.
If you are longing for a resource that listens first and teaches second, this is your companion—crafted with care, humility, and trust in the holiness of ordinary love.
Spirituality isn't a straight line: Listening for lived Spirit in Autistic Rhythm
ISBN-13
979-8296139689
Spirituality Isn't a Straight Line is not a roadmap—it's a reckoning. In this narrative companion, Mark invites readers into the mess and mystery of a spiritual life that resists tidy conclusions. Through memoir, reflection, and quiet provocation, he honors the crooked paths, unexpected detours, and sacred stumbles that shape a journey rooted in presence rather than certainty.
Drawing from his own ruptures and restorations—from walking away from spiritual control to companioning the dying—Mark offers readers a sanctuary for grief, wonder, and fiercely honest faith. This is a book for those who have been told their way was wrong, but kept walking anyway. For those who ache for a spirituality that feels lived-in, not labeled. For those who trust that grace isn't linear—it loops, meanders, and waits.
Presence at the Threshold: A Chaplain's Journey Through Death, Grief, and Grace
ISBN-13
979-8297248700
When certainty shattered, presence began.
After being brutally beaten by members of his own religious cult, Mark found himself immobilized in a hospital bed, questioning everything he thought he knew about faith. God's response came not as comfort, but as challenge: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"
That moment launched him into hospital chaplaincy—a ministry at the raw edges of human existence where easy answers crumble and only authentic presence remains. In these pages, he shares the profound lessons learned from those approaching death's threshold:
A stepfather who led his dying roommate to faith even as his own body failed. An eight-year-old girl with terminal cancer who painted dragons "big enough to carry me." Parents facing the unthinkable loss of their sixteen-year-old son. COVID patients who died alone behind sealed doors, their final farewells stolen by pandemic protocols.
Through intimate, unflinching stories from accident scenes, hospital rooms, and family homes, Mark reveals what the dying taught him about love, loss, and the sacred work of simply showing up. This isn't a book about having theological answers—it's about discovering that presence can be more powerful than explanations, that listening matters more than speaking, and that grace often appears in the most unexpected places.
Presence at the Threshold offers no easy comfort, but something more valuable: the hard-won wisdom that accompaniment transcends explanation, that love persists beyond death's boundary, and that our most important ministry often happens when we're broken open enough to let light through the cracks.
For anyone who has faced loss, questioned faith, or struggled to find words in the face of suffering, this memoir is a guide to the transformative power of staying present when staying is the hardest thing to do.
Perfect for readers of When Breath Becomes Air, Everything Happens for a Reason, and Being Mortal.
On Our Knees, Still: Intercession as Presence in the Life of the Shepherd
ISBN-13
979-8263648923
This is not a book about how to pray. It is a book about how to remain.
Across thirty chapters, On Our Knees, Still explores the quiet landscape of pastoral life. From ordination without fanfare to sabbaticals that challenge us, from retirements that bring release to the long seasons where ministry deepens away from public view. Through each transition, Chaplain Mark O'Reilly guides readers toward a practice of intercession that values presence over performance.
Written for companions, chaplains, caregivers, and all who kneel beside those who are weary, this work provides liturgies for what cannot be spoken, reflections for those who feel misunderstood, and prayers that hold rather than attempt to fix. This is a book built on restraint, faithfulness, and the quiet discipline of staying low.
Whether you serve as a shepherd, practice intercession, or are learning to bless what cannot be resolved, this book will not ask you to rise. It will ask you to remain.
