蜜芽传媒

Good morning.

For those of us so glad and relieved to reunite in church at last,

the most inhibiting constraint remains the ban on congregational singing.

On this side of the Irish Sea

places of worship closed the week of St Patrick鈥檚 Day,

so one hymn that鈥檚 been echoing ever since for me

is The Breastplate of St Patrick.

鈥淚 bind unto myself today, the pow鈥檙 of God to hold and lead鈥�

鈥�.

听

The Breastplate鈥檚 Gaelic name, The Lorica,

was actually a kind of spiritual coat

believed to secure its wearers a place in heaven

and to charm away disease or danger.

Maybe it鈥檚 not surprising then,

that the Breastplate鈥檚 most famous verse proved for many

a natural, go-to lockdown prayer:

鈥淐hrist be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me鈥︹��

听

Eventually the word Lorica came to denote a whole category of poems,

those which having invoked the Trinity and the Angels,

named both the particular parts of the body needing heavenly protection

and the particular threats and aggressors

from which divine defence was being sought.

Good to know I鈥檓 not the only one for whom prayer escalates like that.

As threat closes in and fear starts to bite,

perhaps most of us quickly get a whole lot more specific

in what we ask God for.

听

Apparently St Patrick composed his Breastplate

before a showdown with Druids at Tara.

For him as for all of us, sensing the chinks in our armour

seems like a necessary prelude

to being covered by the impregnability of God鈥檚.

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Lord in our weakness, reveal to us your strength,

that what seems daunting, insurmountable, even overwhelming

might throw us back once more

on the power that鈥檚 death-destroying, grave-conquering and sin-forgiving. Amen

听