Day 14: Eternity

Editor’s Note: On this fourteenth day of Advent, we invite you to reflect on The Visitation, a sonnet by Malcom Guite that inspired our Advent blog series theme “Hidden Joys.” The lovely artwork of Mary journeying to visit Elizabeth was created by DC Service Corps volunteer Joanie McMahon. 

The Visitation

By Malcom Guite

Here is a meeting made of hidden joys

Of lightenings cloistered in a narrow place

From quiet hearts the sudden flame of praise

And in the womb the quickening kick of grace.

Two women on the very edge of things

Unnoticed and unknown to men of power

But in their flesh the hidden Spirit sings

And in their lives the buds of blessing flower.

And Mary stands with all we call ‘too young’,

Elizabeth with all called ‘past their prime’

They sing today for all the great unsung

Women who turned eternity to time

Favoured of heaven, outcast on the earth

Prophets who bring the best in us to birth.