The whole wide world is a cathedral

As Smithers and I are sadly unable to join our church congregation in person these days, we decided to celebrate Easter Sunday by making our first ever visit to River Lee Country Park. Despite the fact that it’s only a twenty minute drive from home, we’ve never explored it before, to our shame.

The 1,000 acre site is a mosaic of lakes, wet meadows and reedbeds, with hedge-lined paths criss-crossing the site and wooded areas where the sound of birdsong is phenomenal. We walked around the perimeter of Seventy Acres Lake and started to make our way back to the car, feeling refreshed and happy for having been out in the natural world.

Suddenly I heard the familiar sound of wrens calling, and was delighted to see this little jenny wren singing her heart out on a bush beside our path. It felt as though we were in nature’s own cathedral, worshipping the risen Lord with all creation, and this second sighting of a wren within the space of ten days felt to me like another, very welcome, gentle hug from God.


The lake is like a giant saucer;
Beyond – a gathering of clouds;
Like stern and dazzling mountain-ranges
Their massif the horizon crowds.

And with the light that swiftly changes,
The landscape never stays the same.
One moment clad in sooty shadows,
The next – the woods are all aflame.

When, after days of rainy weather,
The heavy curtain is withdrawn,
How festive is the sky, burst open!
How full of triumph is the lawn!

The wind dies down, the distance lightens,
And sunshine spreads upon the grass;
The steaming foliage is translucent
Like figures in stained-window glass.

Thus from the church's narrow windows
In glimmering crowns, on spreading wings
Gaze into time in sleepless vigil
Saints, hermits, prophets, angels, kings.

The whole wide world is a cathedral;
I stand inside, the air is calm,
And from afar at times there reaches
My ear the echo of a psalm.

World, Nature, Universe's Essence,
With secret trembling, to the end,
I will thy long and moving service
In tears of happiness attend. 


Boris Pasternak

"When It Clears Up"