I love Irish blessings (I mean, who doesn't?), and while looking for a new one I found this prayer of St. Patrick. I really liked the cadence, but these two verses in particular got my attention:
I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun's life-giving ray,
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.
Has anyone read the A Wrinkle in Time series? I had read the first one when I was little, and just decided to read the rest out of the blue. [And by "out of the blue," I mean that I'm always reading children's books because they're my favorite.] In the third book Madeline L'Engle mentions the "rune of St. Patrick" many times, and changes the words in the rune to suit each situation, so I just assumed that the original rune she cited was also created by her. But the similarity to the prayer above (especially the nature images) made me look it up again:
At Tara today in this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And fire with all the strength it hath,
And lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness
All these I place,
By God's almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.
Pretty cool, right? Invoking the power of all of nature suddenly makes casting out snakes seem like no big deal. Happy St. Patrick's Day, all!
Love the green sails!
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