Recently, I had an opportunity to hear a very good speaker, Rev. John James of St. Andrew’s United Church, Niagara Falls as he shared a reflection.

During his talk, he quoted some favorite lines from a prayer likely to have been written in the 3rd century, and which is attributed to St. Patrick:

"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 in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.”

The poetry and power of the lines are wonderful, I think. I've reflected upon them many times since hearing James speak. I am very thankful to have been introduced to such an absolutely beautiful meditative passage.

Now, I must admit that I looked up the prayer and found that there were many other lines in it which were not nearly as relevant or powerful today (…well…not for me anyway). I think some of the lines would even be considered to be quite irksome or offensive to many people.:-) That's o.k. though. Those weren't even quoted by James after all – quite rightly.

It's all about bringing forward the precious treasures, and being o.k. about letting go of some of the stuff that would otherwise be ... well ... cumbersome. (It’s separating the wheat from the chaff, I suppose).

By the way, those other lines included:

"I summon today all these powers
between me and evil ...
against black laws of pagandom,
against false laws of heretics ...
against spells of women and smiths and wizards".

(Personally, I'm kind of into some of the earth focused pagan stuff, and I certainly enjoy the heretics! Wasn't Jesus a bit of a heretic? As for wizards, I just adore them (- especially J.K. Rowling’s wizards.) The smiths are probably o.k. too, I guess. And the women with their spells ... well … my goodness - hopefully they're not so bad. I kind of like Hermione Granger...)

Oh ... you've got to love St. Patrick though!

On that note, I'll now end this post with a well known Irish Blessing for anyone reading.

"May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you."

Top O' the Mornin' ...

Stained Glass Window image of St. Patrick
(Ironically, he does look a bit like a Wizard).