Pilgrimage - Saint Asaph of Wales

After leaving Mirfield, I headed southwest into Wales. In part, my original motivation was simply that I really wanted to go to Wales. We never found a chance to get over there when we were at the College, and I had a lot more freedom in this trip. One of the places I really wanted to see was Castle Caernarfon, one of the defensive castles built by Edward I. But this really had nothing to do with the pilgrimage except that it meant that I would be spending most of my time in northern Wales. From there I looked around and few a few important pilgrimage sites.

The first I visited was St. Asaph's Cathedral, originally the site of St. Asaph, the principal saint and evangelist of northern Wales. I had a small personal interest in going to St. Asaph's. In my first job after I left my undergraduate studies, I was working for a firm in Bala Cynwyd, PA. Keeping with the Welsh tradition, the local parish was dedicated to St. Asaph. So I was very glad to visit St. Asaph's Cathedral, the smallest cathedral in Britain, and to learn a little more about it's role in the history of the Church in Wales.

Asking prayers from St. Asaph

Holy Asaph, pray for your fellow servants that God may put the words of the Gospel on our lips and that we might proclaim God's love in the communities we call home.

Collect for St. Asaph

Come Holy Spirit who sets our hearts aflame with the fire of love; help us to see the people in our lives who have lost their faith or who have never known your presence, that our faith may be strengthened when we share it with others. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Recorded at the Travelodge in Canterbury.