Sounding the Seasons: 70 Sonnets for the Christian Year

By Malcolm Guite

Poetry has always been a central element of Christian spirituality and is increasingly used in worship, in pastoral services and guided meditation. Here, Cambridge poet, priest and singer-songwriter Malcolm Guite transforms 70 lectionary readings into inspiring poems for use in regular worship, seasonal services, meditative reading or on retreat.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Canterbury Press
• Release date: Feb 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9781848255159

Malcolm Guite

Malcolm Guite is renowned throughout the English speaking church. He lectures widely on literature and theology in Britain and in North America and is the author of bestselling poetry collections and other books. His poetry blog has many thousands of regular readers www.malcolmguite.wordpress.com

Book preview

Sounding the Seasons

Sounding the

Seasons

Seventy Sonnets

for the Church Year

Malcolm Guite

© Malcolm Guite 2012

First published in 2012 by the Canterbury Press Norwich

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London ec1y 0tg.

Canterbury Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd

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www.canterburypress.co.uk

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,

in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,

photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of

the publisher, Canterbury Press.

The Author has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and

Patents Act, 1988,

to be identified as the Author of this Work

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available

from the British Library

978 1 84825 274 5

Typeset by Manila Typesetting Company

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon

Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

the sonnets

Prologue: Sounding the seasons

The lectern

The Four Evangelists

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

The Great O Antiphons

O Sapientia

O Adonai

O Radix

O Clavis

O Oriens

O Rex Gentium

O Emmanuel

Christmastide

1 Mary

2 On the edge

3 Refugee

St Stephen

New Year’s Day: Church bells

Epiphany

1 The magi

2 The baptism of Christ

3 The call of the disciples

4 Nathanael

5 The miracle at Cana

St Paul

Candlemas

Ash Wednesday

Temptations

1 Stones into bread

2 All the kingdoms of the world

3 On the pinnacle

Mothering Sunday

The Annunciation

Holy Week

1 Palm Sunday

2 Jesus weeps

3 Cleansing the Temple

4 The anointing at Bethany

5 Maundy Thursday

The Stations of the Cross

I Jesus is condemned to death

II Jesus is given his cross

III Jesus falls the first time

IV Jesus meets his mother

V Simon of Cyrene carries the cross

VI Veronica wipes the face of Jesus

VII Jesus falls the second time

VIII Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem

IX Jesus falls the third time

X Jesus is stripped of his garments

XI Crucifixion: Jesus is nailed to the cross

XII Jesus dies on the cross

XIII Jesus’ body is taken down from the cross

XIV Jesus is laid in the tomb

XV Easter dawn

Ascension Day

The Visitation

Pentecost

Trinity Sunday

Corpus Christi

1 Love’s choice

2 Hide and seek

St John the Baptist

1 St John’s eve

2 Baptism

St Peter

St Thomas the Apostle

St Mary Magdalene

Transfiguration

St Michael and All Angels

All Saints

1 The gathered glories

2 A last beatitude

3 Thanksgiving

Remembrance Sunday

The Feast of Christ the King

Epilogue: Sanctus

Appendix A: The seven ‘Great O’ Antiphons in their Latin and English texts

Appendix B: The sonnets and liturgy, by Fraser Watts

Bibliography

To the glory of God

and for the Household of Faith

at St Edward King and Martyr, Cambridge,

among whom these sonnets first lived and breathed.

After this the Lord appointed seventy

others and sent them on ahead of

him in pairs to every town and

place where he himself

intended to go.

Luke 10.1

Introduction

This book offers the reader a cycle of 70 sonnets, running in sequence from Advent, at the beginning of the Church year, to the feast of Christ the King at its end.

I was conscious as I composed this sequence of the longer traditions, both ecclesiastical and literary, in which I worked. Within those traditions, two great poetry sequences stand out, to both of which I am indebted for inspiration and example.

The first is George Herbert’s The Temple,¹ which was published posthumously by Herbert’s friend Nicholas Ferrar in 1633 and has been in print ever since. The Temple stands not only as a beautiful monument in literature but also, as its author intended, as a gateway, a ‘church porch’, through which many have entered, to walk across ‘the church floor’, to be lit by the ‘windowes’, to come to the altar, to the table where Love bids us welcome. For The Temple Herbert made use not only of