Christ, shield me today…(St. Patrick’s Lorica)
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Since I have had my DNA analyzed through Ancestry.com I now know that I am 7% Irish! Not much, but I’ll take it.
St. Patrick’s Day has a special place in my heart. As a clueless college student I wandered into a Pizza place/ Pub in Kansas City to have a green beer. At the time I had no interest in what St. Patrick’s Day was really about. I ran into my old friend Bob Fulton who was working for Young Life at the time. I had no clue what that was all about either. Over a pitcher of green beer, Bob talked to me about Jesus. When I finally gave in to God, I fondly looked back on that encounter as the first time anyone told me you could have a real relationship with Christ. Thanks Bob!
Originally, St. Patrick’s Day was a Holy Day. After my own conversion I began to read about St. Patrick and adopted him as my “patron saint”. (A practice frowned upon by most Protestants). Patrick was not Irish by descent. Not even 7%. He was British. And since I’m 65% British, I am really connected to the Saint. As a young man he was captured by Irish pirates and taken to Ireland as a slave. He eventually escaped and returned to Britain. He also had come to a deep commitment to Jesus during his time in Ireland and went on to gain a theological education and become a priest. (If you want a great resource on Patrick, read Thomas Cahill’s “How the Irish Saved Civilization”. It is excellent.)
Then an amazing thing happened. God called him to go back to Ireland! And he did. He went as an evangelist and led multitudes of pagan Irishmen and women to Jesus. He also established monasteries across Ireland to teach believers how to follow Christ. He was fearless and powerful. One of my favorite writings of Patrick’s is called his “lorica” or “shield”. Here is a little piece of it:
I bind to myself today
God’s Power to guide me,
God’s Might to uphold me,
God’s Wisdom to teach me,
God’s Eye to watch over me,
God’s Ear to hear me,
God’s Word to give me speech,
God’s Hand to guide me,
God’s Way to lie before me,
God’s Shield to shelter me,
God’s Host to secure me,
Against the snares of demons,
Against the seductions of vices,
Against the lusts of nature,
Against everyone who meditates injury to me,
He goes on in the prayer to give us a great truth to cling to in times of trouble and times of blessing:
Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
So however you decide to celebrate today, don’t forget what the day is really all about!