“A very great vision is needed and the man [sic] who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky.” --attr. Tasunke Witko (Crazy Horse), Oglala Lakota
THE WORLD IS CHARGED WITH THE GRANDEUR OF GOD
By Gerard Manley Hopkins
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
QUESTIONS FOR THE WEEK: When have you felt the world to be charged with the grandeur of God? Where do you see the Spirit at work in your life and the world?