In Fide Fiducia

Many years ago, I had the great good fortune (as has been mentioned elsewhere) to spend some time at a great school, at which I learnt many things. The school is a Methodist institution founded at the end of the 19th century. Like many schools of its kind, it is forward-looking and right next to one of the greatest universities in the world. On the school's crest is a wyvern statant (i.e. firmly planted and facing the right of the shield, which is the viewer's left). I left the school with many fond memories and a healthy respect for its motto. To this day, the school keeps in touch by sending me newsletters, and also provides the means by which I can update my CV for the school alumni yearbook.

That school is of course The Leys School, founded in 1875 and found on Trumpington Street in Cambridge, England. I have mentioned it before. Its motto, which is the title of this post, is In Fide Fiducia, which means "In Faith, (there is) Trust", or colloquially perhaps, "In Faith, Believing".

That motto has had a profound influence on me. It reminds me that the establishment of faith is the most important thing in chronological sequence; only if there is faith in something can there be hope in anything, and only if there is hope does the heart begin to believe in love. Of course, I Corinthians 13 says these three abide, but the greatest of them is love. This is true, but it does not change the sequence of human experience.