06/04/2016

Good morning.

I found myself in Harry’s Bar in Venice, not so long ago… the way you do! A short break to that fabulous city, so unlike anywhere else in the world, to mark a very special birthday – and, of course, a trip to historic Harry’s Bar at the side of the Grand Canal, seemed the thing to do.

Slightly haughty barmen…for they were all men …dispensed Bellinis to tourists like me, who had been drawn by the history of the place… Hemingway, and a host of literary luminaries, had made this their “snug” of choice, and Hemingway had pretty much holed up there for long spells, getting inspiration, one imagines, for his novels. And, ever since, awestruck tourists have made their pilgrimage, hoping to catch a sense of the literary history in which Harry’s Bar is steeped; and who knows, maybe some inspiration themselves, for that unwritten novel that we all have in us, apparently! 

Certainly, it was a pretty international bunch who gathered in that famous watering-hole - and sucked in their breath, and steeled themselves for the bill.

It’s changed but little since Hemingway and Co. graced its four walls… and it was the history it contained gave it value, currency and merit. What it meant, was much more important than how it looked. What it meant…that intangible sense of something more…

Churches can do that too… give you more than you see, taking you beyond the stonework and the shining oak pews… to the something more, the history they contain, the story they tell… The countless prayers offered in that holy place, that make it sacred and precious, mean that it is able to touch us deeper than we ever imagined.

The churches of Venice offer meaning …beyond the frescoes and the candles and the glittering brass lamps and over-blown sculptures …a silence and a stillness that sounds deep in the heart. It was good to go there, too!

Lord, thank you for moments, and places and stillness that can speak to the deepest caverns of our soul and touch us gently with truth. Amen.