Malcolm Guite Quotes & Sayings

Receive this cross of ash upon your brow
Brought from the burning of Palm Sunday's cross;
The forests of the world are burning now
And you make late repentance for the loss.
But all the trees of God would clap their hands,
The very stones themselves would shout and sing,
If you could covenant to love these lands
And recognize in Christ their lord and king.
He sees the slow destruction of those trees,
He weeps to see the ancient places burn,
And still you make what purchases you please
And still to dust and ashes you return.
But Hope could rise from ashes even now
Beginning with this sign upon your brow. — Malcolm Guite

The Lord of life and love calls us out of nothingness into being, calls us out of darkness into light, and calls us, personally, to turn and begin our lives anew in him. — Malcolm Guite

The Divine Comedy, and indeed our own spiritual life, is not about rejection, or suppression, it is about redemption. — Malcolm Guite

O Rex Gentium 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 — Malcolm Guite

It may be that hidden in the poets and writers we love best is a vital clue about the heaven we are aiming for; that we should stay with and return often and with confidence to those lines and images that have most inspired us, even from our childhood. — Malcolm Guite

In vain we search the heavens high above, The God of love is kneeling at our feet. Though we betray him, though it is the night, He meets us here and loves us into light. — Malcolm Guite

as fellow pilgrims on the journey. In individual prayer, as we have seen, we have many ways of hearing and speaking with God, but in our wider spiritual life we are companioned and in conversation with friends in both the here and now and the 'great cloud of witness'. — Malcolm Guite

But here a pure change happens. On this tree Loss becomes gain, death opens into birth. Here wounding heals and fastening makes free, Earth breathes in heaven, heaven roots in earth. And here we see the length, the breadth, the height, Where love and hatred meet and love stays true, Where sin meets grace and darkness turns to light, We see what love can bear and be and do. — Malcolm Guite

It is in the nature of poetry that it speaks to the heart as well as the head. — Malcolm Guite