…and the spirit of place.
I have spent this week in that gorgeous corner of Wales which is Ceredigion. It has been wonderful to walk beneath the big skies, hear the crashing waves and breath the wincingly chilly air on the tops of the mountains where the snow still lies. It has been good, too, to visit some old old places, where the spirituality of those who have gone before has almost seeped into the rocks themselves.
In Ysbyty Cynfyn stands an unremarkable chapel, nestling into the folds of the hills as if cradled. A cockle shell motif on the churchyard gate hints at its ancient past on the pilgrimage route to Strata Florida monastery nearby, and to St David’s on the Pembrokeshire coast. In centuries gone by pilgrims who had crossed the steep ravine behind the church by a simple rope bridge could pause here to seek refuge from the Knights Hospitaller, who ran a simple hostel on the site. Even then, some might have noticed that others had been there before them. Embedded in what is now the wall of the churchyard are standing stones – one of them almost 3 metres in length. This, it would seem, was an old place, even then:
An old stone amongst the headstones
On over the mountains and in another valley lie the ruins of the Cistercian monastery of Strata Florida (floral valley). This was once a wealthy place – with crops and sheep on the hills as far as the eye could see belonging to the monastery. Little of this impressive building remains now, although the magnificent West Door still frames the valley from which the monastery took its name:
West Doorway, Strata Florida
In the place where the side chapels once stood, some of the original coloured floor tiles remain – their colours bright even after centuries. There are griffins and fleur-de-lys and geometric patterns, as well as the ‘man with a mirror’ depicted below. As the monks knelt on this cold tiled floor praying for the wealthy patrons who had paid them to pray for their souls, I wonder whether this image of vanity made them smile? Seeing the photo earlier this week, somebody quoted words over 2000 years old from the Book of Ecclesiastes to me : ‘vanity, vanity, all is vanity – says the preacher’. (Ecclesiastes 1 v.1).
Maybe there really is nothing ‘new under the sun’. On a day when I shall preach about dying – which has been the lot of humankind since the beginning of all beginnings that feels like a good thing. God who was there at the beginning will be there at the end – and in the meantime his Word abides.
CLICK to see the man with a mirror
