I have been enchanted by the poem The Grandeur of God, by Gerard Manley Hopkins, for years. I practiced Lectio Divina, a sacred reading practice, with this poem and wrote about it in God’s Grandeur: Praying with Poetry.

I cannot confess to understanding every word of this Victorian-era sonnet, published nearly 30 years after Hopkins’ death in 1889, but I feel the same passion for the beauty and sacredness of creation “that gathers to a greatness like the ooze of oil / Crushed” with which he writes. Hopkins writes with celebratory confidence,

“And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things”

But we know as global temperatures rise, more droughts, storms, rising sea levels, melting glaciers and warming oceans are impacting both human and animal life. Nature has been used and abused in so many ways. Is it true that “nature is never spent?” Can this earth withstand the heavy burden of “man’s smudge…and smell?” Indeed, we seek comfort in the notion that the sun will always rise as “the brown brink eastward, springs” and always sets as “last lights off the black West went.”

We hope for the future of our planet, but we must be caretakers, not just takers. We must be co-creators with the Divine to ensure the “grandeur of God,” our planet, is full of wonder and awe for future generations.

“Glance at the sun. See the moon and the stars. Gaze at the beauty of earth’s greenings. Now, think. What delight God gives to humankind with all these things. All nature is at the disposal of humankind. We are to work with it. For without we cannot survive.”

-Hildegard of Bingen

 I appreciate how the perfect images came together in a special SoulCollage® card after reflecting on The Grandeur of God on a recent retreat. Journaling with the prompt “I am one who…” and the following questions (What do you have to give me? What do you want from me?) brought deeper insight into my card:

I am one who wants to be protected, to trust that there is protection. I am one who is a beautiful part of creation, a member of the divine community, who wants creation and all that is vulnerable to be protected for the future.

God is Protector. I am one who is made in the image of God and I must cooperate in protecting what and who is vulnerable. I am one who is beautiful, divine, innocent, and vulnerable—worthy of being cared for. My feathers are of the Great Protector’s feathers. I am one and many. I am part of the whole.

Name of card: The Grandeur of God

Core essence: Care for Creation and the Vulnerable

I am comforted by a Divine Protector, “Because the Holy Ghost over the bent / World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.” The metaphor of Christ as the mother hen who uses its body to protect her chicks reminds me that I am in a relationship with my Creator. I am a critical part of the relationship between the Creator, the earth, people, animals, plants, and all living things that make this planet “the grandeur of God.”

“How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.” Matthew 23:37

Consider praying with the poem The Grandeur of God by Gerard Manley Hopkins and/or creating a collage expressing your insights. Please share in the comments!

© Jodi Blazek Gehr, Being Benedictine Blogger