Come Holy Gift: Prayer Poems for the Christian Year

By Steven Shakespeare

Reminiscent of Malcolm Guite’s bestselling Sounding the Seasons, this beautiful collection offers scripture-inspired poems for each of the major seasons of the Christian year. It includes:

• The Call to Prayer (with poetry on the nature of prayer);
• Advent, Christmas and Epiphany;
• Lent, Easter and Pentecost (including Wings of Wounded Glory, a sequence for Holy Week);
• Transforming Ordinary Time (including some feasts which fall outside the major seasons);
• In the School of Mary (poetic reflections on Mary, see as a model for prayer, contemplation and prophecy).

An introduction considers the relationship between prayer and poetry and offers suggestions for using the book in public and private worship settings, and a closing sequence contemplates Mary as a figure of prayers and witness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Canterbury Press Norwich
• Release date: Feb 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9781786224149

Steven Shakespeare

Steven Shakespeare is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at Liverpool Hope University, where he was previously Anglican Chaplain, and is editor of Modern Believing. He is a member of the Sodality of Mary, an inclusive association for Anglo-Catholic clergy whose Patron is the Archbishop of York.

Book preview

Come Holy Gift

Prayer Poems for the Christian Year

Steven Shakespeare

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© Steven Shakespeare 2022

Published in 2022 by Canterbury Press

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Canterbury Press is an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd (a registered charity)

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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

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78622-412-5

Typeset by Regent Typesetting

Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd

Contents

Introduction

Acknowledgements

Part 1: On the Way to Prayer

Lost

Divine Office

Praying with Grass

Falling

Part 2: Advent, Christmas and Epiphany

Strange Genealogies: Matriarchs, Prophets and Mothers

I. Sarah

II. Tamar

III. Rahab

IV. Ruth

V. Bathsheba

VI. Mary’s Sisters

The Joyful Mysteries

I. The Annunciation

II. The Visitation

III. The Birth of Jesus

IV. The Presentation of Jesus at the Temple

V. The Disappearance and Finding of Jesus at the Temple

The Mysteries of Joseph

I. Joseph descended from David

II. Joseph the Just Man

III. Joseph following a Dream takes Mary as his Wife

IV. Joseph warned in a Dream takes Mary and Jesus into Egypt

V. Joseph the Carpenter

For the Winter Solstice

The Angel’s View

Magus

Part 3: Lent, Easter and Pentecost

Ashes to Ashes

Deserter

The Sorrowful Mysteries

I. The Agony in the Garden

II. The Scourging at the Pillar

III. The Crowning with Thorns

IV. The Carrying of the Cross

V. The Crucifixion

tree of life

Wings of Wounded Glory

Monday in Holy Week: John 12.1–11

Tuesday in Holy Week: John 12.20–36

Wednesday in Holy Week: John 13.21–32

Maundy Thursday: John 13.1–17, 31–35

Good Friday: John 18 and 19

Holy Saturday: John 19.38–end/Matthew 27.57–end

Easter Sunday: John 20.1–18

Unused

Descended into Hell

Ecce Homo

After the Earthquake

The Glorious Mysteries

I. The Resurrection

II. The Ascension of Christ into Heaven

III. The Descent of the Holy Spirit

IV. The Assumption

V. The Coronation of Our Lady in Heaven and the Glory of the Saints

Come, Holy Gift

Beltane Spirit

Part 4: Transforming Ordinary Time

Ordinary Time

The Luminous Mysteries

I. The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan

II. The Wedding at Cana

III. The Proclamation of the Kingdom

IV. The Transfiguration

V. The Institution of the Eucharist

Diakonos

The River

Hoc est enim corpus meum

Sacred Heart

Transfiguration

Four Quarters

How to Eat Bread

All Saints

All Souls

Part 5: In the School of Mary

Mary’s Hands

She pondered all these Things

Assumption

Black Madonna

She rises

Introduction

Prayer, poetry and sacrament

A sure way to kill poetry is to explain it to death. That said, the reader deserves a little context for the approach and structure of this collection.

One of the problems people often identify in Western Christian forms of worship is that they contain ‘too many words’. On one level, I sympathize; where worship seems to demand that we grapple with multiple books and papers and high levels of literacy, it can appear exclusive, cerebral and alienating to those who do not know the language. It can leave too little space for silence or mystery.

Nevertheless, we should not be so quick to give up on words. It is true that words can often be debased: turned into units of currency, power, mere data. But words also have depth. They clear a space for encounter, light