Saint Patrick

Prayer-warrior Apostle to Eire

I regard Patrick, the first missionary to Ireland, with similar wonder as the Apostle Paul, who planted churches in ancient Turkey, Greece and Italy after being thrown off his horse¹. Patricus was born in southwestern England 300 years or so after Paul’s death in Rome, and unlike the Pharisee, Patricus was captured by Irish pirates, and enslaved. As a shepherd in his young life, Patrick learned of God, not from Gamaliel, but from long isolation under the stars. His gradual conversion from atheism to faith through prayer formed within his spirit a deep communion with the Holy Spirit, the Father and the resurrected Christ.

I would pray all the time, right through the day. More and more the love of God and fear of him grew strong within me, and as my faith grew, so the Spirit became more and more active, so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and at night only slightly less. Although I might be staying in a forest or out on a mountainside, it would be the same; even before dawn broke, I would be aroused to pray. In snow, in frost, in rain, I would hardly notice any discomfort, and I was never slack but always full of energy. It is clear to me now, that this was due to the fervor of the Spirit within me. ²

It was the Holy Spirit who delivered him from slavery, and the same Holy Spirit who called him back to the people that had captured him, having infused him with the cultures of Ireland and its dialects during his training as a shepherd.

We know the source of Saint Paul’s power through his Epistles in the New Testament: “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live; yet not I but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh is given by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” — Galatians 2:20

In the same way, Patrick practiced a continual abiding in Christ through a similar consecration, where he fully bound himself to Christ’s resurrection power. His most famous prayer, oft called “St. Patrick’s Breastplate”, is a heart’s cry for the love and power of God.

I first discovered the Christ passage of his Lorica in Madeline L’Engle’s An Acceptable Time (the fifth book in her Wrinkle in Time series.) That came in handy as I crisis-prayed over my own Patrick’s short-term missionary journey to India shortly after Graham Staines and his two sons were brutally martyred in early 1999³. Years later I found a more complete version quoted in The Celtic Way of Prayer by Esther De Waal⁴.

And, to help me memorize it, I researched it further, and asked the Lord for a tune I could sing it to. I condensed another internet version to verse and would take long morning walks, swinging my legs to the lilting melody ⁵ while singing aloud. It was a battle cry for my home and neighborhood during my “sandwich generation” years.

And, I began to illustrate it in my handbook journal:

I bind myself this day to the strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same: the Three-in-One and One-in-Three
I bind myself forever, by power of faith in Christ made flesh;
Baptized in the Jordan e’er to die for my salvation.

Even the bubbles of color have meaning. I am transfixed by the color theory of light, which unlike pigments, mix together to form all the colors we see. Our digital images are made up of white light passing through just red, green and blue pixels which add up to white light or are called “additive colors” Our print images are composed of magenta (an even mix of red and blue) cyan (an even mix of blue and green) and yellow (incredibly, an even mix of red and green) which all mix together to make a muddy black. Printers add black ink to make blacks and shadow areas more dark.

Three colors are the foundation of all color, which along with a Venn diagram, is one of my favorite ways to symbolize the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as fully God but not fully each other.

He burst the spiced tomb. He rode upon the heavenly way.
He’ll come again on Judgement Day to restore all His creation.

Christ me with me — Christ within me
Christ behind me — Christ before me
Christ beside me — Christ to win me
Christ to comfort and restore me

I bind myself this day to the wonders of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life-giving rays, the brightness of the moon at even’.
The flashing lightning free, the whirling wind, the frozen shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea upon the old eternal rocks.

I bind myself this day to 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 His hand to guide me with His shield to ward
The Word of God to give me speech, His heavenly host to be my guard
Against the demon snares, the vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within, the hostile men that mar my course.

And then I stopped illustrating. I had hoped to turn it all into a larger project, 16 years ago, but we soon placed Patrick’s mother, who had lived with us for seven years, into a 24/7 care facility due to the painful fact that she needed more help than we could give her … and soon after, we commenced realizing Patrick’s longed for dream of a homestead after finding our third and final fixer-upper (which we are still fixing!).

There’s still time: “retirement” time now, to illustrate the whole. In the light of recent and future events, I am experiencing an increased felt need to better shield myself with this prayer as well.

Whether few or many far or near in every place and every hour
Against their fierce hostility, I bind me to Your Holy power
Against all Satan’s spells, against false words of heresy
Against the knowledge that defiles, against the hearts idolatry
Against all evil craft, against the fatal wound and torch
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft, protect me, Christ, ‘till Thy return!

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 who love me.
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind me to the Name, the strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same: the Three-in-One and One-in-Three.
Creator of all things, Eternal Father, Spiritual, Word —
Praise to the Savior of my soul, salvation is of Christ the Lord!

1. “As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’” — Acts of the Apostles 9:3-4

2. The Confession of Saint Patrick and Letter to Coroticus. John Skinner, trans., Bantam Coubleday Dell, ©1998, p. 16

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Staines

4. De Waal, Ester The Celtic Way of Prayer, Image Books, Doubleday, ©1997, pp. 18-22

5. Handbook journal, St. Patrick’s Day while gallery sitting in 2009: