ST PATRICK'S BREASTPLATE

THE LORICA, OR, ST PATRICK'S BREASTPLATE


I bind unto myself today
the strong Name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever,
by power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;
his baptism in the Jordan river;
his death on cross for my salvation;
his bursting from the spiced tomb;
his riding up he heavenly way;
his coming at the day of doom:
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
of the great love of cherubim;
the sweet "Well done" in judgement hour;
the service of the seraphim;
confessors' faith, apostles' word,
the patriarchs' prayers, the prophets' scrolls;
all good deeds done unto the Lord,
and purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
the virtues of the starlit heaven,
the glorious sun's life-giving ray,
the whiteness of the moon at even,
the flashing of the lightning free,
the whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth, the deep salt sea,
around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
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 my God to teach,
his hand to guide, his shield to ward;
the word of God to give me speech,
his heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
the vice that gives temptation force,
the natural lusts that war within,
the hostile men that mar my course;
of few or many, far or nigh,
in every place, and in all hours
against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
against false words of heresy,
against the knowledge that defiles
against the heart's idolatry,
against the wizard's evil craft,
against the death-wound and the burning
the choking wave and poisoned shaft,
protect me, Christ, till thy returning.]

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 that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
the strong Name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three.
Of whom all nature hath creation,
eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.

The Lorica is a truly magnificent hymn, found today in many hymnals.... The translation into English as given here is by Cecil Frances Alexander, whose husband was Archbishop of Armagh, and thus the direct successor of Patrick. She published nearly 400 poems and hymns of her own, including the well-known "There is a green hill far away," "Once in royal David's city," "Jesus calls us; o'er the tumult," and "All things bright and beautiful, All creatures great and small."


James Kiefer at The Lectionary.

Listen here.

ST. PAT'S DAY SHORTIES BUT GOODIES

His wife had been killed in an accident and the police were questioning Finnegan.

"Did she say anything before she died?" asked the sergeant.

"She spoke without interruption for about forty years," said the Irishman.
-----

The Doctor was puzzled "I'm very sorry but I can't diagnose your trouble, Mahoney. I think it must be drink. "

"Don't worry about it Dr. Kelley, I'll come back when you're sober."
-----

"Hey Patrick, do I hear you spitting in the vase on the mantelpiece?"

"No, Nora, but I'm getting closer all the time!"
-----

Murphy told Quinn that his wife was driving him to drink.

Quinn thinks he's very lucky because his own wife makes him walk!!
-----

Mike lay dying on his bed when his wife Brigid came in to him and asked if there was anything he wanted.

Mike said "Brigid, what is that delicious smell coming from the kitchen?"

And Brigid replied "Oh Mike that is a ham I am baking."

Mike thought, and said "Brigid, as my dying wish I would love to have some of that ham you're cooking."

Then Brigid said "Oh Mike, I'm saving that for the wake!!"
-----

"Did you hear that Flanagan invented an invisible deodorant?"

"No, what good is it ?"

"Well if you use, you vanish and no one knows where the smell is coming from!"


AS YOU SLIDE DOWN THE BANISTER OF LIFE, MAY THE SPLINTERS NEVER POINT IN THE WRONG DIRECTION.

ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE AMENDMENT DIES IN PENNSYLVANIA

According to Tim Kincaid at Box Turtle Bulletin, an anti-gay marriage amendment to the Pennsylvania constitution submitted by state Senator John H. Eichelberger, Jr. died in the Judiciary Committee.

Tim says:

But there was no debate whatsoever on the bill, so we can only speculate about possible motivations. It may well be that these Senators have come to know and love gay people in their lives. They may have found a new respect for equality.

I hope so.

PROBABLY NOT ONLY IN SOUTH CAROLINA

From the letters to the editor in The State in South Carolina:

Health bill price too high for America
The health care bill is unprecedented in requiring Americans to buy something that should be optional and voluntary.
The bill's proponents claim they want to help uninsured millions who are "denied" care, but I myself am uninsured and recently received excellent care for a back injury at MUSC. The hospital's private charity covered 95 percent of my cost, and my friends, family and church community helped with living expenses until I returned to work.
This kind of private solution is what Americans need, not government interference and control. I am healthy and rarely visit a doctor; I don't want to be forced to buy insurance, wasting a percentage of my income to effectively pay for sick people for whom I am not responsible. It is more efficient for me to pay out of pocket and be helped by my private community. Let the private sector work; more government bureaucracy is the last thing we need. This disastrous bill will only further bankrupt America.
REBEKAH ACKERMAN

Lenix in the comments gets it:

LENIX wrote on 03/16/2010 12:32:58 PM:
So Rebecca, its okay for you to not choose to have your self insured, but then beg for that handout when it is convenient to you??? Hahahahahaha!! And then you have those on here who actually condone your behavior/double standard!!! Hahahahahahaha!!! Only in SC, only in SC.....

Thanks to Lapin for the link.

EYE-ROLL OF THE DAY

Leaders of the Roman Catholic Church in Britain attempted to distance the Pope from the sex abuse scandal engulfing the institution, instead pledging that Benedict XVI will “give guidance on the great moral issues of our day” when he visits Britain in September.
....

Although it has official status, the usual trappings of a state visit will be absent. There will be neither a procession in a gilded carriage up the Mall nor a banquet at Buckingham Palace, as the Queen will be in Scotland. The Pope will stay in Church accommodation as is normal when he visits other heads of state around the world.

A snub by the Queen? Perhaps not. Once in Scotland, the royal lady does not like interrupting her visits to return to England. The Queen will receive the pope at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.

The Archbishop of Canterbury today offered an uncharacteristically terse welcome ahead of the visit.

Dr Rowan Williams, recently surprised by the Catholic announcement of a new Anglican Ordinariate in England to tempt dissatisfied Anglicans over to Rome, said: “The Pope's visit will be an opportunity to cement ties not only between the Holy See and the United Kingdom but also the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian churches in Scotland, England and Wales. I look forward particularly to welcoming Pope Benedict to Lambeth Palace on behalf of the Church of England.”

Hmmm. No comment.

H/T to MadPriest for the link to the article in the Times.

BISHOP KATHARINE'S EASTER MESSAGE

Easter 2010

The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. (Isa 9:2; Matt 4:16)

The Diocese of Haiti has observed Lent in a very different way this year. When Bishop Duracin and I spoke just before Ash Wednesday, we talked about how this year would be different. He noted that the people of Haiti would need to practice saying Alleluia, so that when Easter came they could enter in with joy. In the midst of grief and darkness, it can be exceedingly difficult to believe that resurrection is a possibility.

Nora Gallagher makes a similar point in her book, Practicing Resurrection.

We are not born with the ability to insist on resurrection everywhere we turn. It takes the discipline and repetition that forms an athlete – in this case, a spiritually fit Christian. We practice our faith because we must – it withers and atrophies unless it’s stretched. We must continue to give evidence of the faith that is within us.

Easter prods and provokes us with an immense stretching exercise. God has renewed a life given to the evil of this world on behalf of those with no other helper. That earth-shattering and tomb-shattering rebirth has planted the seeds of hope in each one of us. Yet those seeds do not produce fruit without struggle.

The people of Haiti are finding new life in the midst of death and struggle. As a nation and a people they have repeatedly practiced resurrection through centuries of slavery, oppression, invasion, corruption, and privation. The joy of their art forms – music and painting in particular – gives evidence of the hope that is within them as a people. They know, deep in their cultural DNA, that God is continually bringing new life out of death. Yet each person must discover and nurture that hope. It is made far easier in community.

The shared hope of a community is essential. Most human beings cannot long survive the evil and death of solitary confinement or a concentration camp. It is the shared sense of suffering and the shared nurture of even tiny embers of hope that offers life. The greatest cruelty of places like Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib is the removal and destruction of such hope. The absence or disconnection from other people as sources of hope leads to suicide and even that mysterious ailment in young children called “failure to thrive.”

The Christian community is about shared hope in resurrection. The citation at the top first buoyed hope among a people exiled in a foreign land, without the support of familiar leaders or places of worship. That people developed a community that could practice its faith in a strange land, insisting that God was present among them even in exile. Jesus insists that that light is present even in the midst of Roman oppression, and that he will gather a community to remember that light and practice seeing and discovering it.

The Christian community is meant to be a mutual hope society, with each one offering courage to another whose hope has waned, insisting that even in the darkest of night, new life is being prepared. That work is constant – it will not end until the end of all things. And still the community persists, year in and year out, in time of earthquake and war and flood, in time of joy and new birth and discovery. Together we can shout, “Alleluia, he is risen! Indeed, he is risen, Alleluia!” even when some among us are not quite so confident as others. For indeed, the body of Christ is rising and risen when even a small part of it can rejoice and insist that God is renewing the face of the earth and light has dawned upon us.

Alleluia! Keep practicing that joyful shout. Someone needs to hear its truth. Alleluia!

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal Church


Thanks to Ann Fontaine at The Lead

YOUNGER SIMPLER DAYS

 

The picture above of my six grandchildren was taken a good many years ago at a Loyola University reunion here in Thibodaux for alumni from the area. Since I graduated over 50 years ago, it's the only Loyola reunion that I've ever attended. I didn't know anyone there, since most of the alumni were years younger.

One of my grandons, the eldest, I believe, called out, "Drinks to your mouth!" just before I snapped the picture.

 

When I removed the picture from the frame, I found the inspirational poem and drawing behind the picture.

PAINTING THE CHURCH

There was a Scottish painter named Smokey Macgregor who was very interested in making a penny where he could, so he often thinned down his paint to make it go a wee bit further.

As it happened, he got away with this for some time, but eventually the Baptist Church decided to do a big restoration job on the outside of one of their biggest buildings..

Smokey put in a bid, and, because his price was so low, he got the job.

So he set about erecting the scaffolding and setting up the planks, and buying the paint and, yes, I am sorry to say, thinning it down with turpentine..

Well, Smokey was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly completed, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder, the sky opened, and the rain poured down washing the thinned paint from all over the church and knocking Smokey clear off the scaffold to land on the lawn among the gravestones, surrounded by telltale puddles of the thinned and useless paint.

Smokey was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty,
so he got down on his knees and cried:

"Oh, God, Oh God, forgive me; what should I do?"

And from the thunder, a mighty voice spoke..


(you're going to love this)












"Repaint! Repaint!

And thin no more!"


Thanks to SCG.

IT'S OVER!

Hi all. I recently returned from having a certain medical procedure done to check for colon cancer. Thanks be to God, all is well. I spent an absolutely miserable night "getting ready" for the test, the worst time I've ever had. I'm not due for another colonoscopy for 5 years, at which time I will be 80 years old, if I live that long. When the time comes, I may say to hell with it.

Since I'm still groggy, and I can't type well, I'm heading for a lie-down in hopes of a little sleep, since I didn't sleep much last night.

INTERNATIONAL PI DAY

My husband made a special square strawberry pie to celebrate Pi Day! Nom nom nom - Lara604


Q: What do you get when you cut a jack o'lantern by its diameter?
A: Pumpkin Pi!

Q: What do you get when you take green cheese and divide its circumference by its diameter?
A: Moon Pi.

Q:What do you get when you take the sun and divide its circumference by its diameter?
A: Pi in the sky.

Mathematician: Pi r squared.
Baker: No! Pies are round, cakes are square!


Thanks to Doug.

Image from Lara604 at Flickr.