Letter to Monty Don 16

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Dear Montague Don,

1st March 2010

It sometimes feels that my destiny is to always miss the boat....oh well so be it.

St David's Day. What does this mean? What do any of the 'Saint's Days' mean in this God forsaken age ? Do we still need stone versions of the Tabernacle with its high priestly altar, its ritual and liturgy ?
Don't get me wrong I love all that, I love candles and the solidity of cathedral worship. The age of the stones add a solidity and the singing and reading an anchor to something ancient. Perhaps that is why so many people visit a cathedral who would not attend a local parish church or chapel.

Why can't we see that faith itself is as ancient and solid as the stones? Why have we lost our faith?

Last summer David (my son) and me went on part of the pilgrimage walk around St. David's head in Pembrokeshire to the well of St. Non. On the way we saw fulmars swooping and circling the cliffs around their nests - we watched for an hour lost in the majesty of it - the sound of the sea, the colour of it - turquoise and clear as crystal with red stones beneath.
The clifftops were rich with wildflowers and buzzing with insects.

'Faith comes by hearing' God says 'I am that I am'. No further explanation needed ?
But we always have endless questions. The torture I have put myself through in order to feel accepted.
Why try to work it out ? The ancient cliffs and the crystal water, the ceremony and the singing - all I know is I know very little....but that the little I know in my soul is enough.


Here we go a rambling.
Paul.

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