Around the City - thoughts on Exeter’s past 6

The Cathedral Close by Rev’d Paul Collings

Colossians 1:9-10 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

For centuries past, along this way,

Pilgrims and priest have come to pray‘

‘Long cobbled street by red stone walls,

There hear cathedral bell, that tolls.

Worn by the tramping of such feet,

I wonder if those stones could speak;

What stories would their words unfold,

What tales of comfort, woes be told.

Yet here today this thoroughfare,

Finds worshippers with different flair,

As to the high street they now run

Intent, the bargain must be won.

With nodding glance across the grass,

They view, but do they ever ask

Why such an edifice stands tall,

Its fabric ‘grained with praise and awe.

But if today, the passing crowds

Bemused, unsure, see but a shroud

Of life wrung out, and can’t believe,

How can the church renew, retrieve.

Your pathway’s truth, ever the same,

The offered life you share remains.

You call us too to walk that way,

Reflecting Love’s distinctive ray.

Help me to shine for you dear Lord

In ways that capture and accord

With hearts and minds of this our age,

Carved as in stone love’s clear message.

I think everybody has their own way of looking at their lives as some kind of pilgrimage. Some people will see their role as a pilgrim in terms of setting up a fine family, or establishing a business inheritance. Everyone's got their own definition. Mine, I suppose, is to know myself. Eric Clapton