Lent Book Club: 10th March 2022
The “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is the one where the bloke has an albatross hung round his neck. All sorts of misfortunes follow because he was the one who shot and killed that special bird. Here, in Part IV, we are shown the end of his troubles, his release from the curse, the albatross falls from his shoulders, and he is free at last to pray once more.
The message of the poem, Bishop Harries explains, is “He prayeth best, who loveth best All things both great and small; For the dear God who loveth us, He made and loveth all.” In other words, the best prayers come when we love the creatures that God has made, because he loves us and them all.
Now, that is not what my first thoughts were concerning this poem. The first verse caught my attention. The narrator, the Mariner, is alone, abandoned and ignored. There is considerable distance between him and dry land. He is out in the middle of nowhere – at least as far as human beings are concerned.
That put me in mind of another Mariner. Namely, Mariner 4. It is one of many space missions which have travelled millions of miles through space. And space is big: it would be very easy to feel alone, isolated and very vulnerable. So that leads me to consider Voyager, the furthest human object ever made. It surveyed parts of the Solar System and is now travelling beyond. At the time of writing it is more than 14 thousand million miles away.
So I am left with two thoughts in conversation with each other: the unimaginable immensity of the ocean of space, revealing our insignificance within it; yet also “Wide, wide as the ocean is my Saviour’s love.”
This year #LentBookClub are reading “Hearing God in Poetry. Fifty poems for Lent and Easter” by Richard Harries published by SPCK. In this book Bishop Harries introduces us to a number of poets and poems. Some may be familiar, some are old and some are new. You may follow the # on Twitter or find us on Facebook.
Sundry Times Too 