Daily Prayer, 17 March

I loved it when the ship and crew made a big deal about what is essentially a Christian holiday. Just because they don’t know that this is what it is or why we actually celebrate it, and even if their observances don’t involve religion at all, they have cracked open the door and I am charging straight through it with Jesus. So you have this story and this prayer, which can be justifiably described as just an education about the holiday’s history, but also happens to be unapologetically Christian.

They just weren’t getting it. He’d been talking to his audience about some pretty abstract concepts that were not quite landing in their minds. He needed a concrete example. So the teacher began to reflect. What did he know about these people? What did he know about their land? What was important to them and how did they interact with each other and with ideas?

This wasn’t the first time he’d been to this land. When he was a boy he’d been brought here by pirates who had kidnapped him from his home across the sea. Held as a slave for six years, he eventually managed to escape, but got lost trying to find his way home and spent nearly a month in the wilderness. During all of these trials the skeptical young boy, stolen from his home and thus doubting God existed, grew into a young man who not only believed in God, but credited the Almighty with his safekeeping and bringing him back to his homeland.

Now he was back again in the land of his enslavement to fulfill a promise made in answer to a vision. It was a heavy burden, enlightening this benighted island. How can he connect with them? How could he make them understand what he was trying to say? These simple, sheepherding people. As he pondered, it occurred to him that sheep needed grassland for grazing, and a good shepherd knows good grazing land, and the best ground tends to have lots of clover. And he had it! He knew how to make them understand.

“My friends!” cried the teacher, “consider this clover leaf, how it is one, yet has three separate portions. So it is with God, who is One, but with three Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” United but not mixed; distinct, but not separate. And, finally, they began to understand.

Through his ability to connect deep lessons with practical examples, and on account of his tireless efforts of charity and piety, the teacher would come to be revered throughout the world as Saint Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland. Thanks to St. Patrick, Ireland became a bastion of Christianity from his time in the 5^th century forward, partly because of the shamrock, but mostly because of his faith in God.

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK’s DAY!

For this evening’s prayer, I am reading one known as St. Patrick’s Breastplate. It is so called because St. Patrick sang this prayer as his protection while travelling a dangerous road on which he expected an attack. He arrived at his destination unharmed that day, may his prayer also protect us this evening as we again travel treacherous waters.

LET US PRAY

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,
alone and in a crowd.

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.

Salvation is of the Lord
Salvation is of the Lord
Salvation is of Christ
May thy salvation, Lord, be always with us!

AMEN