Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J.

One hundred twenty one years ago today Jesuit priest and poet Gerard Manley Hopkins died.

I’ve liked his poetry for many years, but I’ve not always understood it. What moves me is his celebration of creation where God shines through.

“The world is charged with the grandeur of God” begins the poem “God’s grandeur.”

Another poem, “Though art indeed just, Lord,” written in a time of desolation, ends with the poignant phrase “send my roots rain.”

And, in “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” he writes

I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his going graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is—

Christ—for Christ plays in ten thousand places.
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.

Hopkins seems to have been a bit melancholic but it is reported that on his death bed he commented, “I am so happy.”

Where is happiness?

For me, it's being with the poor, the marginalized, who are the salt of the earth!