December the 22nd brings us to the sixth great ‘O’ antiphon, O Rex Gentium. This Antiphon calls on Christ as King, yet also calls him corner stone and pictures him getting his hands dirty and shaping us with clay, wonderfully incongruous combination! But he is the king who walks alongside us disguised in rags, the true Strider! In this Sonnet I also reflect on on how God shapes us through all that happens to us in our living clay. He hasn’t finished with us yet! You can hear the antiphon and poem by clicking on the play symbol or on the title of the poem. for an excellent series of reflections on Christ as our maker and shaper, why not check out Diana Glyer’s Clay in the Potters Hands? There is more about the antiphons to be found at UmilitaI am grateful to the photographer Margot Krebs Neale for the image that follows the poem.
Like the other Advent sonnets, this one is now collected and published in my larger sonnet sequence Sounding the Seasons, from the Canterbury Press, also available from Amazon etc.
These Advent sonnets have also been taken up and transformed into song on Steve Bell’s wonderful new Album Keening For The Dawn
O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem,
quem de limo formasti.
O King of the nations, and their desire,
the cornerstone making both one, Come and save the human race,which you fashioned from clay
O King of our desire whom we despise,
King of the nations never on the throne,
Unfound foundation, cast-off cornerstone,
Rejected joiner, making many one,
You have no form or beauty for our eyes,
A King who comes to give away his crown,
A King within our rags of flesh and bone.
We pierce the flesh that pierces our disguise,
For we ourselves are found in you alone.
Come to us now and find in us your throne,
O King within the child within the clay,
O hidden King who shapes us in the play
Of all creation. Shape us for the day
Your coming Kingdom comes into its own.
unfound foundation, cast-off cornerstone
Malcolm Guite 