17 March 2009

Glory to You, O Lord, for Your Servant Patrick!

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The Word of God to give me speech
His heavenly host to be my guard.

...

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the name,
The strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

--from St. Patrick's Breastplate (Treasury, p. 1284,1285 - the whole is worth reading and rereading - a powerful and joyous prayer)

Here's an interview yesterday from Issues:

St. Patrick

3 comments:

Elephantschild said...

I can hear the tune in my head. Now I'll have to go down to the piano and sing it!

William Weedon said...

Me too!

Cha said...

How fortunate to read this post and to see the image posted along with it!

My son just finished painting his first icon last night - an icon of St. Patrick. It looks a bit unlike many Orthodox icons of St. Patrick, but it looks much like this image (It made his day!)