St. Patrick, a Morning Prayer, and Saving Civilization
Since my middle name is Patrick and my last name is Cassidy (or “O’Cassidy” as it once was styled) - a name from the misty peatlands, drumlins, streams, and forests of Co. Fermanagh - I hope you’ll forgive me this St. Patrick’s Day for commending to you a book with the title “How the Irish Saved Civilization”, by Thomas Cahill… and a morning prayer to accompany your green fashions today.
Now Cahill is a fine historian, and I’ve no problem commending any of his works, but “The Irish” has to be top of the list for you. Not only does it offer one of the finest accounts of St Patrick’s life and mission, but it goes on to tell the story of the downstream sons of the great man and their work in Ireland and far beyond its shores. They ventured into the barbarian-decimated continent of Europe (a truly post-Christian West if there ever was one) and brought gospel renewal through word and sacrament, learning and medicine, service and creativity. With music and poetry, preaching and prayer, in beer and life-affirming joy, the Irish restored a land’s fading heartbeat to health. They painstakingly copied, carried, and taught the ancient texts, becoming the spiritual “Johnny Appleseeds” of a continent’s new birth.
That whole-life-affirming missionary impulse came from Patrick. As you likely know (and can easily read about elsewhere), he was kidnapped from his British (Welsh) coastal home as a young boy by Irish raiders and made a slave in Ireland, there giving his life to Christ due to the faith and prayers he’d seen (and ignored) in his home. After a great suffering of six years, he escaped and was reunited with his family in Britain.
But after a few years there, a vision led him back to Ireland, to the people who’d stolen and enslaved him. It was very much a “Come over and help us” type of calling, and he obeyed it. He brought those ancient, terrifying, and violent tribal people the good news of “The God of Three Faces”, the Faith taking root in their hearts and in the soil, growing into a beautiful and decentralized, slightly off-center, and mystical kind of Christianity that was nonetheless intellectual, sacramental, and hopeful. It was, unsurprisingly, vigorously anti-slavery. Indeed, Patrick, it is said, was the first human to be stridently anti-slvaery, building the Christian case for the freedom of all people.
This Christian Faith is a culture of life. Such a culture has roots in beliefs that give rise to habits which form souls and families and communities… and nations… and churches. For a Church to be a missionary society that ‘saves the world’, it must be a Church with a clear culture, grounded in unchanging truth, moved by love for one another and the world, and embodied in a network of traditions and shared wisdom that can be passed across generations, and then over mountains and seas. Are we such a church? Or are we a mere meeting?
If you’d like to know more about Patrick, you can do a decent AI search. Or, better yet, read Cahill.
St. Patrick left us not only a missionary faith embodied in love and habits of hope, but, thank God, a prayer in the form of a hymn. Maybe today you’d join me in offering it up to the God of Three Faces, the Lord who loves and saves us.
St Patrick’s Breastplate
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,
Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.
I arise today
Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In the prayers of patriarchs,
In the predictions of prophets,
In the preaching of apostles,
In the faith of confessors,
In the innocence of holy virgins,
In the deeds of righteous men.
I arise today, through
The strength of heaven,
The light of the sun,
The radiance of the moon,
The splendor of fire,
The speed of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of the sea,
The stability of the earth,
The firmness of rock.
I arise today, through
God's strength to pilot me,
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptation of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
afar and near.
I summon today
All these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel and merciless power
that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul;
Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me an abundance of reward.
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
of the Creator of creation.