Continuity

 At last I have finished the book Mary bought for me at Christmas-'Going to church in medieval England'. Not that it was hard going- at just over 400 pages I should have finished it long ago, but the shear wealth of detail made it necessary to put it aside about three quarters of the way through, in order to digest it.   

Thousands of years ago, when I took 'O' level history, the view prevailed that medieval religion was effete and exhausted, ripe for the renewal offered by the Reformation. That view was overturned thirty years ago and more by the likes of Eamon Duffy, whose' The Stripping of the Altars' painted a quite different picture of a vibrant religion in the centre of national and local life before the Reformation. The present book continues that narrative. 

Though much has been lost, I am struck by how much remains which is familiar. Much of the liturgy of the Church of England would be recognisable to a time travelling 15th century merchant or peasant. And that sense of  continuity gives some sense of stability among the tides of history. 

But liturgy has to be more than words on the page- it has to leap into our hearts, be expressed in our voices. It has to become the worship of the heart. Might all that is written and read by us today in hymns, prayers, responses, scripture, become real in our hearts. Otherwise it is lost.