Catholicism, holiness and spirituality

Piecemeal peace

Peace

When will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut,
Your round me roaming end, and under be my boughs?
When, when, Peace, will you, Peace? -- I will not play hypocrite

To my own heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but
That piecemeal peace is a poor peace. What pure peace allows
Alarms of wars, the daunting, wars, the death of it?

O surely, reaving peace, my Lord should leave in lieu
Some good! And so he does leave Patience exquisite,
That plumes to Peace thereafter. And when Peace does here house
He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo,
           He comes to brood and sit.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

A few epigrams from Hopkins

Some lighter-than-usual fare from Gerard Manley Hopkins:

(i)

Of virtues I most warmly bless,
Most rarely see, Unselfishness.
And to put graver sins aside,
I own a preference for Pride.

(ii)

You ask why Clarissa can't hold her tongue.
Because she fears her fingers will be stung.

Patience

Patience, hard thing!

Patience, hard thing! the hard thing but to pray,
But bid for, patience is! Patience who asks
Wants war, wants wounds; weary his time, his tasks;
To do without, take tosses, and obey.

Rare patience roots in these, and, these away,
Nowhere. Natural heart's-ivy Patience masks
Our ruins of wrecked past purpose. There she basks
Purple eyes and seas of liquid leaves all day.

We hear our hearts grate on themselves: it kills
To bruise them dearer. Yet the rebellious wills
Of us we do bid God bend to him even so.

And where is he who more and more distills
Delicious kindness? - He is patient. Patience fills
His crisp combs, and that comes those ways we know.

After reading Mark's thoughts this morning, I came across this poem from Gerard Manley Hopkins. Patience is indeed a hard thing, when we are used to living in an on-demand culture. But spirituality, closeness with God, holiness, whatever you want to label it, requires patience. Patience to bend our will towards the will of God. Patience to wait in silence for God. Patience with our own weaknesses.

Your will is law

'The times are nightfall'

The times are nightfall, look, their light grows less;
The times are winter, watch, a world undone:
They waste, they wither worse; they as they run,
Or bring more or more blazon man's distress.
And I not help. Nor word now of success:
All is from wreck, here, there, to rescue one -
Work which to see scarce so much has begun
Makes welcome death, does dear forgetfulness.
Or what is else? There is your world within.
There rid the dragons, root out there the sin.
Your will is law in that small commonweal.

When I read this poem from Gerard Manley Hopkins, I felt like he was giving guidance to those who want to try to make the world a better place but never really get out there to do it. Those people who want to volunteer their time to help others, but always find something holding them back. I've been in that position before, and have come away feeling like I had let someone down.

But here, Hopkins says we can work on the world within - the one within ourselves: 'There rid the dragons, root out there the sin.' And we can do that, because inside ourselves - our internal commonweal - our 'will is law'. At least, that's how it comes across to me.

Willpower, it seems, is related more these days to the avoidance of unhealthy foods than to spiritual and moral discipline. God gave us willpower for a reason, I think, and it has a lot to do with bending, training, and straightening our own will to the will of God.

The best ideal is the truth

Summa

The best ideal is the truth
  And other truth is none.
All glory be ascribed to
   The holy Three in One.

Man is most low, God is most high.
   As sure as heaven it is
There must be something to supply
   All insufficiencies.
For souls that might have blessed the time
   And breathed delightful breath,
In sordidness of care and crime
   The city tires to death.
And faces fit for leisure gaze
   And daylight and sweet air,
Missing propserity and praise,
   Are never known for fair.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Love of neighbor

'Love me as I love thee'

Love me as I love thee. O double sweet!
But if thou hate me who love thee, albeit
Even thus I have the better of thee:
Thou canst hate not so much as I do love thee.

Gerard Manley Hopkins