Salisbury Cathedral

We had an interesting tour guide for this cathedral. He is obviously a believer, although we didn’t talk directly about religion. He likes the modern window beyond the high alter, dedicated to prisoners of conscience. He showed us the figure of Christ in the window.

I think religion is about 80% help and 20% hindrance to developing a God-centered, spiritual, and good life. Depending on the church and the point in its history, the proportions may change. Some people can be charitable, good, and spiritual without religion, but for me it’s necessary (if only to give a structure to rebel or react against). Prayer is the way to God—the direct call, cry, or search—and without an idea of God or of prayer, how can the act be performed at all? Maybe it can, but less likely. Also in my experience there is a difference between the type of prayer that comes from the heart as a desperate call, and the type of prayer that is a small and comfortable gratitude for blessings and request for protection. Both are excellent for different reasons, but the second increases mindfulness and awareness, while the first seems to me to be the only way to directly communicate.

And then Jesus makes his extravagant promise of everlasting life, and you just have to decide whether or how much to believe of that. I sometimes believe in the very wavery and watered-down “well I’ll act like I believe because whatever is, is, and whatever I believe doesn’t change that, I might as well get along with my believing family and culture.” Sometimes, I believe like this: “I choose to believe because it’s good, Jesus is the best there is, I need a leader, and true or not, I want to believe.” [2003]

Even with the modern city surrounding it, the first sight of that tower is surreal, unearthly. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like in medieval times to see it as you come over the brow of the land. The Chapter House is bright, airy, communal, irrepressible, with its medieval faces and Bible stories around the ring. [2005]