... and bless when I understand

Three quotations for the new year - with thanks to Mark Oakley and his chapter on Discovery in The Collage of God



I greet him when I meet him, and bless when I understand.
Gerard Manley Hopkins (Wreck of the Deutschland)

We had the experience, but missed the meaning.

T S Eliot (The Dry Salvages)

We never catch

him at work, but can only say,

coming suddenly on an amendment,

that here he has been.

R S Thomas (Adjustment)