Hopkins

Rev. Thomas Ryan, CSP, is a Catholic priest and member of the Paulist Fathers. He coordinates ecumenical and interreligious relations for the Paulist community in the United States and Canada. The author of twelve books, his works include The Sacred Art of Fasting: Preparing to Practice (SkyLight Paths); Interreligious Prayer: A Christian Guide; Four Steps to Spiritual Freedom; and the DVD Yoga Prayer. He lives in Washington, DC.

Rev. Thomas Ryan, CSP, is available to speak on the following topics:

• Fasting: A Fresh Look
• Challenge and Inspiration from Other Religions
• The Ecumenical Gift Exchange: What Do the Churches Have to Offer One Another for Their Mutual Enrichment?
• Soul Fire: Accessing Your Creativity
• Remember to Live: Embracing the Second Half of Life

Born in England in 1844, Gerard Manley Hopkins began writing poetry at an early age. In his early twenties, Hopkins converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism and in 1868 joined the Society of Jesuits. Hopkins continued to write poems thereafter, while serving as a priest and university teacher, but he burned most of his early poems out of a deep sense of conflict between his art and his faith, and he published very little in his lifetime."God's Grandeur" appeared in the first collection of his poems, edited by his friend Robert Bridges and published in 1918, long after the poet's death in 1889.