Ascension Day

‘He took us with him to the heart of things’

We saw his light break through the cloud of glory Whilst we were rooted still in time and place As earth became a part of Heaven’s story And heaven opened to his human face. We saw him go and yet we were not parted He took us with him to the heart of things The heart that broke for all the broken-hearted Is whole and Heaven-centred now, and sings, Sings in the strength that rises out of weakness, Sings through the clouds that veil him from our sight, Whilst we our selves become his clouds of witness And sing the waning darkness into light, His light in us, and ours in him concealed, Which all creation waits to see revealed.

Malcolm Guite is a priest, musician, and chaplain at Girton College, Cambridge. This sonnet is taken from his collection Sounding the Seasons: Seventy Sonnets for Christian Year with permission from Canterbury Press Norwich.

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