God's Grandeur

*** Revised Common Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: John 14:15-21 CLASSIC POEM: God’s Grandeur 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. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: Messenger Mary Oliver Found in THIRST: Poems SNIPPET: My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird — equal seekers of sweetness. … [ READ THE FULL POEM ]