John Donne | Holy Sonnets |At The Round Earth’s Imagined Corners
At the round earth’s imagin’d corners, blow
Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scatter’d bodies go;
All whom the flood did, and fire shall o’erthrow,
All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,
Despair, law, chance hath slain, and you whose eyes
Shall behold God and never taste death’s woe.
But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space,
For if above all these my sins abound,
‘Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace
When we are there; here on this lowly ground
Teach me how to repent; for that’s as good
As if thou’hadst seal’d my pardon with thy blood.
John Donne | Holy Sonnets | At The Round Earth’s Imagined Corners
The poem speaks within the tradition of Christian eschatology, drawing on imagery of the Last Judgment as found in the Book of Revelation. The opening command, ‘At the round earth’s imagin’d corners, blow / Your trumpets, angels,’ invokes the apocalyptic vision of angels summoning the dead from the four corners of the world. The imperative verb ‘blow’ places Donne in a position of assumed authority, yet the command is not sustained. The invocation of cosmic forces collapses into a more personal meditation on sin, repentance, and divine grace.
The enumeration of those who have died—’All whom the flood did, and fire shall o’erthrow, / All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies, / Despair, law, chance hath slain’—fuses biblical destruction with the contingencies of earthly existence. The reference to the flood places the poem within the framework of divine judgment, while the mention of fire suggests a future eschaton. The catalog of causes of death progresses from cosmic devastation to the mundane, moving from grand-scale calamities to the arbitrary workings of ‘law’ and ‘chance.’ This narrowing of scope reflects the shift from the universal to the individual, reinforcing Donne’s self-reflection.
Despite this initial invocation of judgment, Donne hesitates: ‘But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space.’ Here, the call for resurrection is suspended in favor of personal penitence. The word ‘mourn’ signals recognition of guilt, and the phrase ‘a space’ suggests Donne’s awareness that time is limited. The structure of the poem enacts a reversal: rather than seeking immediate deliverance, Donne prioritizes repentance over resurrection.
The admission ‘For if above all these my sins abound’ places personal transgression in greater relief than the cosmic catastrophe previously described. Donne suggests that his own sins surpass the accumulated weight of all deaths throughout history. The phrase ‘‘Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace / When we are there’ acknowledges that repentance belongs to the present life, not to the afterlife. Donne recognizes that divine mercy is granted in the temporal world, not after final judgment. The distinction between ‘here’ and ‘there’ establishes a theological urgency: salvation must be secured before death.
The final lines, ‘Teach me how to repent; for that’s as good / As if thou’hadst seal’d my pardon with thy blood,’ position repentance as the path to divine mercy. The phrase ‘Teach me’ acknowledges human insufficiency; repentance is not a simple act but a learned discipline. The comparison to Christ’s sacrifice—’as if thou’hadst seal’d my pardon with thy blood’—suggests that true contrition allows the sinner to participate in the redemptive power of the Crucifixion. The poem thus enacts a movement from the external drama of the Last Judgment to the internal process of penitence.
By the end, Donne does not seek immediate resurrection but instead requests instruction in repentance. The sonnet, structured as a progression from grand cosmic imagery to personal introspection, demonstrates theological concern that salvation is not an inevitable event but a state that must be actively sought. Donne’s initial impulse to command the Last Judgment is replaced with humility, placing himself in a position of submission. The transition from imperative verbs (‘blow,’ ‘arise’) to the supplicatory ‘Teach me’ marks the central shift in the poem’s argument.
The theological core of the poem is its assertion that repentance is a necessary precursor to redemption. Donne, recognizing the weight of sin, acknowledges that divine grace must be received through active contrition rather than passively awaited at the Last Judgment. The final realization—that learning to repent is as good as Christ’s atoning sacrifice—places human agency within the framework of divine mercy. The poem thus transforms eschatology into an ethical imperative, shifting the focus from divine intervention to human responsibility.
Psalm 109 is unique and challenging. This psalm is often classified as one of the ‘imprecatory’ psalms due to its intense language of cursing and calls for judgment against the psalmist’s enemies. The psalm stands out for its raw emotion and the stark contrast it presents to the more familiar themes of praise and worship found in other psalms [ … ]
Christian Art | A Boy At Prayer With Jesus | Eucharist Office Of Readings | Eastertide Week 3, Sunday | A Reading From The First Apology Of Saint Justin Martyr In Defence Of The Christians | Celebration Of The Eucharist ‘Celebration of the eucharist.’ Saint Justin Martyr: Celebration of the Eucharist Saint Justin Martyr’s account of Christian Eucharistic worship, written around 155 AD, is one of the earliest and most significant descriptions of the liturgy outside of the New Testament. Composed as part of his First Apology—a formal defense of Christianity addressed to the Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius—this passage reveals not only the centrality of the Eucharist in the life of the early Church but also the theological, communal, and sacrificial dimensions of Christian worship as it was practised just a few generations after the apostles. Faith, Baptism And The Moral Life As Prerequisites Justin opens by affirming that no one may partake of the Eucharist unless they believe the Church’s teachings, have been baptized (‘washed in the regenerating waters’), and live according to Christ’s commands. This threefold requirement—orthodoxy (right belief), sacramental initiation (baptism), and orthopraxy (right living)—highlights the deeply integrated nature of early Christian identity. Eucharistic communion was not a casual or symbolic act; it was a profound participation in the mystery of Christ, accessible only to those who were fully incorporated into his Body, the Church. Real Presence And Eucharistic Transformation Justin’s teaching on the Eucharist is unmistakably clear: the bread and wine, through the ‘prayer of thanksgiving’ (Greek: eucharistia), become the body and blood of the incarnate Jesus Christ. This is not metaphorical language. Drawing on the Incarnation itself as an analogy, Justin explains that just as Christ became flesh by the power of the Word, so the Eucharistic elements become his flesh and blood by the power of the same Word, invoked in prayer. This theological reasoning lays a foundation for later doctrinal developments such as the Church’s formal teaching on the Real Presence and transubstantiation. Notably, this passage predates the formalization of these doctrines by centuries, yet the essential belief is already fully formed—a powerful testimony to the apostolic origin of the Church’s sacramental theology. The Apostolic Command And Continuity Justin grounds the Eucharistic rite in the direct command of Jesus: Do this in memory of me. He attributes this tradition to the apostles’ ‘recollections’ (anamneses), which are equated with the Gospels. This demonstrates the early Church’s consciousness of its liturgical life being not a novel invention but the faithful continuation of Christ’s instruction, carried on through apostolic succession. The fact that this teaching is described in a public defence of Christianity underscores Justin’s desire to correct Roman misunderstandings about Christian worship, which had been accused of cannibalism due to misinterpretations of Eucharistic language. Sunday Worship And Scriptural Proclamation Justin describes the Sunday assembly (koinē synaxis) as a weekly gathering of Christians from both city and countryside, centered around the reading of Scripture—first the writings of the prophets (the Old Testament), then the apostolic writings (what we now call the New Testament). After the readings, the presider (likely a bishop or priest) offers a homily, encouraging moral and spiritual growth. This structure is clearly recognizable in the Mass today: the Liturgy of the Word followed by the Liturgy of the Eucharist. Importantly, Justin situates this practice within the broader theological framework of the Lord’s Day—the first day of creation and the day of the Resurrection. Thus, Sunday worship is simultaneously eschatological and cosmological: it celebrates not only the new creation in Christ but also the re-creation of the world through his rising from the dead. The Eucharistic Prayer And Communion Justin’s account continues with the presentation of bread, wine, and water, followed by a Eucharistic Prayer during which the president offers thanks ‘to the best of his ability’, and the people respond with ‘Amen.’ This prayer is the epicentre of the liturgy, paralleling the Canon of the Mass. The Eucharist is then distributed to those present, and deacons carry it to those absent—perhaps the sick or imprisoned. This detail reveals the strong pastoral and communal dimension of the Eucharist. It is not a private devotion but a gift of Christ shared with the whole body, particularly the vulnerable. Charity And Ecclesial Responsibility The offering of gifts by the wealthy, administered by the president and used for the support of the poor, widows, orphans, and the imprisoned, reflects how closely the Eucharist was tied to practical charity. The Eucharist made real the communion of the faithful with Christ and with one another. It was not only a mystical participation in Christ’s body but also a lived expression of solidarity and sacrificial love. This aspect finds resonance in Acts 2:42–47 and remains central to Catholic social teaching. Apostolic Tradition In Action Justin’s testimony, written a mere century after the Resurrection, powerfully confirms that the early Church’s Eucharistic worship—centred on the Word, Sacrament, community, and charity—was already well-developed and firmly grounded in apostolic tradition. His witness is critical not only for understanding the historical roots of the Mass but also for deepening modern appreciation of the Eucharist’s enduring meaning. In our own time, when the mystery of the Eucharist is often misunderstood, taken for granted, or even rejected, Justin’s words remind us that the Church has always confessed the true and substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharist. His account also reinforces the communal, sacrificial, and transformative nature of this sacrament, which, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church states, is the ‘source and summit of the Christian life’ (CCC 1324). A Reading From The First Apology Of Saint Justin Martyr In Defence Of The Christians | Celebration Of The Eucharist No one may share the Eucharist with us unless he believes that what we teach is true, unless he is washed in the regenerating waters of baptism for the remission of his sins, and unless he lives in accordance with the principles given us by Christ. We do not consume the eucharistic bread and wine as […]
Little Gidding, the fourth and final poem in T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, examines themes of time, redemption, and spiritual renewal. Written in 1942 during World War II, this poem brings together reflections from the previous three poems and culminates in a unified vision of human experience and transcendence [ … ]
Search Jesus Here | Try Holy Land Jerusalem Pilgrimage :