“Be joyful and keep your faith and your creed. Do the little things you have seen me do and heard about. As for me, I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us.” – St. David of Wales

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St. David used his power

When his mother was in labor,

And soldiers came to slay her,

But hailstorms drove them back.

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But he would not use his power

To stop the warring Saxons

That poured across the country

To plunder and attack.

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St. David used his power

To make himself a pulpit,

From valley turned to hilltop

That rose up from the sod.

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But he would not use his power

To warm the freezing water

That rushed down from the mountains,

Where he would pray to God.

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St. David used his power

To found both church and abbey

As sacred sanctuaries

For sinners of the land.

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But he would not use his power

To make the work-load lighter

Nor shirk his sole commission:

To toil with heart and hand.

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For his power came from Heaven,

Borne on the wings of angels,

And he could not follow fancies

Nor make the final call.

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So suffering drained his people

And the struggle left him withered,

But he blessed the freezing water

And his comrades when they’d fall.

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It was his lot to sorrow

And see the world in shadows,

Yet trudge on, cold and lonely

In the starless twilight bleak.

~

But the dawn would come to Cymru

Through the learning of his brothers

And Christ’s warriors found their courage

Through the greening of the leek.