Before he became the 117th Pope of Alexandria, Nazir Gayed was a young layman writing for The Sunday School Magazine, wrestling with the demands of and rediscovery of the spiritual life in mid-twentieth-century Egypt. The essays and poems collected in The Release of the Spirit, first published in 1957 and reprinted six times over the following decades, trace his path from the streets of Shubra to the monasteries of Wadi al-Natrun and to the seat of the ancient throne of St. Mark. They offer a rare window into the early spiritual theology of one of the most consequential leaders in modern Coptic history. This annotated and expanded edition presents a fresh English translation of the complete text, including poetry previously unavailable to English-speaking audiences, alongside the Arabic introductions to all four editions. With over five hundred editorial footnotes and an extended introduction situating these writings within their historical, ecclesial, and theological contexts, The Ascent of the Spirit recovers the voice of the young Nazir Gayed and invites readers to encounter his vision of the soul's liberation from worldly constraint and ascent toward divine communion.