Notions of the Heavenly

“And I John saw the holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” Can one visualise the heavenly? As a city? As a bride? As a light? People in all ages have tried. The church building itself stands as a conceptualisation of the heavenly.

Insofar as we give Heaven a thought, perhaps we think of it as something remote. But instead it could be like here: we live our lives on our way round the ambulatory, we spend periods at a time in quite murky chapels. But in the middle we have the light, Heaven. People who lived a long time ago may seem alien: their beliefs and their way of life may seem odd for the most part. But there are also points of similarity between them and us. They sought security, they looked for cures when they were ill, they sought help and explanations. And they reached out heavenwards – built the soaring Gothic cathedral, celebrated the saints of Heaven on their feast days, christened their children, buried their dead, reached out towards places and ages and people who mirrored something of the heavenly, eternal, mystical. That which we have around us. That which is in our midst. Heaven, here.

You find it in the retro-choir.