given glories and a hidden Kingdom
This is the last in the sequence of seven sonnets on the Lord’s Prayer which I am posting this week as part of the Church Of England’s Thy Kingdom Come week of prayer leading up to Pentecost. The Sonnets will be published together in my new book Parable and Paradox at the end of this month.
As always you can hear me read the sonnet by clicking on the title or the ‘play’ button.
I am grateful to Philippa Pearson for choosing the images that accompany this series.
Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory
The kingdom and the power and the glory,
The very things we all want for ourselves!
We want to be the hero of the story
And leave the others on their dusty shelves.
How subtly we seek to keep the kingdom,
How brutally we hold on to the power,
Our glory always means another’s thralldom,
But still we strut and fret our little hour.
What might it mean to let it go forever,
To die to all that desperate desire,
To give the glory wholly to another,
Throw all we hold into that holy fire?
A wrenching loss and then a sudden freedom
In given glories and a hidden kingdom.
Malcolm Guite 
Date: Sat, 14 May 2016 05:42:50 +0000 To: hollandderry@hotmail.com
It’s a fine sequence. There is so much to learn in the Scriptures from the recorded prayer.
I have so enjoyed these sonnets. Thank you so much for posting them.
I noticed that you give the option to share on social media…I wonder if you would give me permission to include them – fully acknowledging your authorship and this blog – in our Church’s Thy Kingdom Come exhibition based on The Lord’s Prayer?
Dear Christine yes please feel free to do so! M
Thank you so much…I know they will be a source of inspiration and consideration.