Patrick Comerford
My frequent visits to Lichfield provide me with times for quiet reflection, contemplation and prayer.
In recent days, I have been wrestling with some difficult questions, without necessarily finding the answers I hope for or think I need. So Friday’s visit to Lichfield was important for my spiritual health.
After an early bus journey to see Shire Oak near Walsall, I returned to follow the daily cycle of prayer in Lichfield Cathedral, with the mid-day Eucharist at the High Altar, celebrated by Canon Paul Greenwell, Vicar of Hoar Cross with Newchurch and former Master of the Charterhouse, Hull.
There was time to meet and talk with old friends, time for walks along Beacon Street, through Beacon Park and out along Cross in Hand Lane into the Staffordshire countryside, and for lunch in the Hedgehog Vintage Inn.
I had another stroll around Minster Pool at sunset, shortly before returning to the cathedral for Choral Evensong and Choral Evensong in the Lady Chapel, led by the Canon Precentor, Canon Andrew Stead, and the Canon Chancellor, Canon Gregory Platten.
Later, before catching a late train back to Milton Keynes, I joined an old friend and some members of the choir for a social drink in the Duke of York, on Greenhill, close to Saint Michael’s Church. This was my first time back there since I had stayed there over half a century ago, when I woke to hear the news of the coup against Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973. The Duke of York has the date 1644 over the front door and a sign proclaiming it is ‘The Oldest Pub in Lichfield’ … although it can hardly beat the King’s Head for age.
In between these moments, there was time during the day – as there always is – to visit the chapel in Saint John’s Hospital. Since my teenage years, I have seen this chapel and Lichfield Cathedral as my spiritual homes, the places where my spirituality and my personal understanding of Anglicanism, are rooted.
On Friday afternoon, in the arched entrance to Saint John’s, I noticed an A4 page with words of welcome that I had not seen before but that would be appropriate inside any church porch:
Welcome!
You have just entered a home
Where God dwells.
Whoever you are, He welcomes you,
With your joys and pains,
Your successes and failures,
Your hopes and disappointments.
You are welcome!
Generations before you
Have loved this place,
Embellished it and prayed in it.
Please respect this place.
Observe silence.
If you are a believer, pray!
If you are searching, reflect!
If you are in doubt, ask for light!
If you are suffering, ask for strength!
If you are happy, give thanks
And ask that you remain so!
May your visit to this place
Warm your heart
And give joy to your eyes!
Whoever you are, God welcomes you.
May you welcome Him in turn!
No comments:
Post a Comment