Gerald Manley Hopkins

Prayers are sometimes answered in unimaginable ways. Take the story of Gerald Manley Hopkins (1844-1889). He wasn’t particularly successful as a poet. He published only a few poems during his lifetime. Nor was he effective as a priest. People in his church regarded his sermons as obscure and hard to understand. He wrote his last poem seven months before his death at the tender age of forty-five. His poem has a curious title, “Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord.” The opening line was drawn from Psalm 119. He asks God why everything he has done has come to nothing while what unbelievers accomplish have been successful. He asks a second, related question in the poem as to why his endeavors end in disappointment. The final line of the poem gives voice to his petition. He asks God to send rain to water his parched soul and prays for the ability to make something of his life.
Hopkins died before he could realize the answer to his prayer. Thirty years later, a friend published a few of Hopkin’s poems and his popularity has been growing ever since. He is regarded today as a thoroughly modern poet and hailed as one of the most original of English lyricists. God indeed answered his prayer and made something of his life. While the middle part of his prayer is something of a brain teaser, his opening and closing words give voice to our questions and express our longing for God: