Celtic Advent Day 2

Celtic Advent Day 2, 39 days until Christmas

St. Afar of Wales.   Frequently with the Celtic Saints, you get a name and not much else.  This is the case of Afar whose feast day is today.  There is a church and geographic area in Wales named after him: Llanafar, which my Welsh friend Denny or my uber linguist son Bryan would tell me is pronounced like it started with "Sh."  At the church is a headstone that says he was a bishop and was buried there, but the stone is from the 13th century by dating, and he was supposedly from the 6th century.  A Victorian hagiographer named Baring-Gould (who would have to be Victorian with that name, right?) states that he was related to St. David,  the patron saint of Wales and was killed by Irish pirates.  For some reason there is an orthodox hymn-like prayer praising him for his piety.  And that is it.
As I look into these Saints more, Afar is not alone in his anonymity.  In some ways it almost seems like many of the Celtic holy men and women would go out of their way to stay out of the limelight and be unknown.  There is such a temptation if you start feeling like people are treating you as a spiritual leader to start believing that you are something special, to have the sin of pride creep into your life.  I certainly see this in Medicine in my own life and have observed it over the years in both official and lay spiritual leaders.  What better way to avoid this as to cultivate anonymity.  As I think about Gospel parallels I wonder sometimes if this was the basis for what is referrred to as the Messianic secret--Christ's insistence after many of His healings to "tell no one."  One could argue that He was immune from the sin of pride, but wasn't that one of his desert temptations?
So...based on this, I think I am going to try to add another advent discipline to my regimen: anonymity.  Are there ways I can avoid a limelight, not out of false humility, but to just be awaire of the temptation to be seen at important, as Somebody? I wonder if we all don't go through that desire expressed so well by the song from the old TV show's opening theme: "Fame! I want to live forever!"  Yet, if we are Christian, we know that nothing we can do, only Grace, that will allow one to 'live forever."

Lord, you exemplified humility in Your earthly life, help me to avoid the temptation of pride, of accepting the praise of others as something I earned by myself, rather than through Your grace. Help me to find ways to help others anonymously, that the credit may point instead to You, who always inspires us to extend compassion to others.  Make me attentive to the Spirit Who grants such gifts. So be it. Amen.