Get to know.

Let me add: I have an aversion to those who remove the fun out of faith.

The Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, wrote the following poem from which has been taken the title of this blog:

“As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;

As tumbled over rim in roundy wells

Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s

Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;

Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:

Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;

Selves — goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,

Crying What I do is me: for that I came.

I say more: the just man justices;

Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings 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.”

It speaks about the ontological significance of natural, individual and human activity — the truth about Christ being me, and I being Christ. That the world is indeed charged with the grandeur of God. Whatever things posted here are my take on Hopkin’s insight: recognizing Christ in ten thousand places and the features in people’s faces.

*Selves: v. “fulfills its own individuality”

**justices: v. “acts in a godly manner, lives fully energized by grace, justness, sanctity” (RV Shoder SJ)