Llandanwg, Wales

Llandanwg -Church on the sands

This church is hidden right by the sea behind high sand dunes. It is very ancient and part of a pilgrimage route used by the Celtic Christians. As you approach the church in the churchyard, to the left there is a beautiful prayer cairn made up of stones by people who have written their prayers. Following the path round you enter the church which feels sunken into the ground. The pews are flanking  each side leaving the stone flagstones visible and the altar ahead of you. It is a fabulous old church and immediately there is a beautiful presence of God.

I settle to pray and go into a very deep place in the spirit.

Praying I see a monk in habit. He prays standing in sea submerged to his waist. Perhaps I’m glimpsing a moment in history.

I see prayers shooting out of this place like coloured rocket fireworks full of power-gold, red, blue, green silver, white. There is joy attached and power. They all seem to head towards Ireland.

I hear the words said to me in the spirit ‘open wide your mouth and I will fill it. Drink of the living water daughter of God’. Simultaneously, I see a figure pouring a stream of water into my mouth as I lean back mouth open.

I try to rest and be still but I am running fast on the inside, restless.

Whirring thoughts distract, zooming by like fast bumble bees pulling my thoughts back to the goings on of the world. I’m aware I’m still at the very beginning of this pilgrimage and that my normal life is still intruding. It may take a while to really settle into the presence of God over the coming days and become still inside.

 Heart prayer

I want to look heavenward

To see your face

To feel your love

To enter your rest

Let me be enveloped by your peace oh God

Hide me in the cleft of the rock

Let me enter into your hidden place

Where you and I commune unseen unheard safe and secret

Where love is exchanged heart to heart

Waves of gentle peace flow over me

In a vision,I see am carrying heavy rocks all over my body. I move to let them go to Jesus

As I go to leave I read the history of this church and am overwhelmed with crying. Not even sure why except it feels like immense gratitude that these Christians came to Wales from Ireland and then to Cornwall.

I am just so grateful to these forgotten ones for their faithfulness.

I also think there is a mix of grief. I have lost the beauty of the mystery. The first love, the inexorable pull of my heart to his heart. The intimacy and I yearn for it once more. How can I return to you in fullness of heart?

Where can I flee from your presence o God. If I go to the mountains you are there. If I delve to the depths of the sea you are there. Nothing can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. The truth is I am not separated at all. He has never left or withdrawn. He is here. He is near. And I am his.

This is one of the most impacting encounters I have had for a while. This place is special.