A Prayer for Wales - and for Welsh immigrants to America.

If you are a sports fan, you will be more than familiar with this much-loved Welsh hymn. It is far less likely, however, that you will have come across the English translation of the words. the two million Welsh immigrants who made their home in America, (especially in New England, the Carolinas, Georgia and Alabama but also as representative of the multitude of nations that have combined to make America the nation that it is today. The title of the hymn Calon Lân, (which means a pure heart) makes it a particularly pertinent and poignant thing to pray for America at this time, as a kind of antidote to the prevailing materialism. I don't ask for a luxurious life, the world's gold or its fine pearls, I ask for a happy heart, an honest heart, a pure heart. A pure heart full of goodness Is fairer than the pretty lily, None but a pure heart can sing, Sing in the day and sing in the night. If I wished for worldly wealth, It would swiftly go to seed; The riches of a virtuous, pure heart Will bear eternal profit. Evening and morning, my wish Rising to heaven on the wing of song For God, for the sake of my Saviour, To give me a pure heart.