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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker describes a night of intense spiritual struggle with God.
In plain terms
I spent the night wrestling with God.
What can you take from it?
Spiritual struggle is a deep human experience.

Where it applies

  • crisis
  • doubt
  • prayer

Putting it to work

  • engage with doubts
  • persist in faith

Questions to consider

  • How do you wrestle with beliefs?
  • When do you feel spiritually tested?

Another view

It frames faith as conflict which may not fit all believers.

More from Gerard Manley Hopkins

  1. Not, I'll not, carrion comfort, Despair, not feast on thee; Not untwist-slack they may be-these last strands of man In me or, most weary, cry I can no more. I …

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  2. No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief, More pangs will, schooled at forepangs, wilder wring.

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  3. O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap May who ne'er hung there.

    Permalink to quote #57

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