A Prayer of St. Patrick

Source: FaithND.edu

On St. Patrick’s Day I wanted to share an ancient Celtic prayer that is attributed to St. Patrick by tradition. Its author is unknown, but it is thought to originate from around the time of St. Patrick. The whole text of the prayer can be found here.

Sometimes called the "breastplate" of St. Patrick, this is a really fascinating prayer, focusing as it does on the power of God for the protection of the one praying. One excerpt that struck me in particular is this section that I had heard elsewhere about the presence of Christ with the one praying:

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 where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I arise
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

The rhetorical force of this kind of language is very impressive. The series of prepositions “with,” “before,” “behind,” “in,” “beneath,” “above,” and “on” creates an impression of the all-encompassing presence of Christ. In this regard it echoes one of the early christological hymns found in the New Testament in Colossians 1:15-20. Verses 16-17 of that passage read:

For in him all things in heaven and on earth were created…
all things have been created through him and for him.
He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (NRSV)

There we see the focus on “all things” which created “in him,” “through him,” and “for him.” Verses 19-20a read:

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things. (NRSV)

This emphasis on totality is continued in these verses with “all the fullness” dwelling “in him” and “all things” being reconciled “through him.” The rhetorical force of a series of prepositions, taken as a whole, communicate something in addition to what each individual phrase suggests. It creates an impression of the all-encompassing presence of God through Christ both in God's work of creation and in God's work of redemption.

Interestingly, just as the prayer of St. Patrick shows the influence of the Colossian hymn, in a similar way the Colossian hymn shows the influence of the Greco-Roman age in which it was composed. Popular Greek philosophers around the first century known as Middle Platonists made much of the significance of prepositions. Prepositions like those used in the Colossian hymn were central to their philosophical debates about divine agency in the creating and sustaining of the world, and they debated the significance of actions done “by” someone as opposed to “through” someone or “in” someone. The Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria used these prepositions to discuss the work of the Logos (divine reason) as an agent of God in ways that echoed the Greek philosophical debates.These observations do not mean to suggest that the writer of the Colossian hymn was a Middle Platonic philosopher or that the hymnist simply copied Greek ideas. However, it does seem clear that the prepositions used about Christ in that hymn had cultural currency, and the author used them to invoke a quasi-philosophical feel in the hymn. Christ is clearly portrayed as the unique and supreme agent of God in both the creation of all things and the redemption of all things. Interestingly, this same idea is picked up in the hymn that opens John's Gospel where Jesus is explicitly identified as the Logos through whom God created the world.

The prayer of St. Patrick and the Colossian hymn both demonstrate the fascinating ways in which the language of prayer and praise draws on earlier tradition to meet the need of the present day. May it be that our own prayer and praise draws on these rich traditions, connecting them deeply and meaningfully with the needs of our own time. 

At the present moment in our culture, the excerpt above from the prayer of St. Patrick feels very timely. Certainly the recognition of the presence of Christ in all whom we encounter is a reminder to me to strive to honor the dignity of each person created in the image of God, regardless of what differences may otherwise separate us. May we all see Christ in every eye that sees us.