St. David and the Little Things

The more I study about St. David of Wales, the more I like him.

Mosaic of St. David in Westminster Abbey

As our study group has now spent numerous weeks noting hallmarks of Celtic Christian spirituality, we went deeper in this meeting by reading excerpts from Esther de Waal's spiritually sensitive The Celtic Way of Prayer: The Recovery of the Religious Imagination regarding some of those aspects as related to the traditions of St. David.

We started with journeying and read some blessings that speak of the ground we walk and the elements that surround us.

We thought of

Moses, the burning bush, and holy ground

Columba's phrase "God of the elements"

and St. David's lighting a fire to claim sacredness over all the territory its smoke would cover.

We remembered the tradition of the shadow of the leaping resurrected Jesus falling across Celtic lands creating so many sacred places.
 

A cross in St. David's on the coast of Wales

Then we spoke of the Cross and its way of keeping us from making "the person, the family, the nation and the society of nations" into gods as David Gwenallt writes in his challenging poem about the Saint as a presence in our own time right where we live.




And that poem lead on to the recognition of David's easy communion with angels and our own presence in the midst of the family of the saints of the Church.  I was reminded of these always moving words about the Church penned by S.J. Stone in his hymn "The Church's One Foundation."

Yet she on earth hath union
  With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
  With those whose rest is won:
O happy ones and holy!
  Lord, give us grace that we,
Like them, the meek and lowly,
  In love may dwell with Thee.

We concluded our time by putting David's last words into action through a few moments of worship. He said, "Be joyful . . .Do the little things you have seen me do . . ."

We made a list of little things, of daily blessings and endeavors - sunrise and dog walks, the forms of flowers, sitting by the water, taking care of one another in simple ways. And we mentioned these things with thanks as we sang Brother Stefan Waligur's "Awaken My Heart."