St Patrick's Prayer

I came across St. Patrick's prayer this week in some material I was going over for work. A minister I am working with had used it in one of her messages. It is a long prayer, but this is the most popular portion of it and the excerpt she used:

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 when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

It's a cool prayer, though not one that I was familiar with, but that isn't why it stood out to me. It stood out to me because a friend of mine read the exact same section of the prayer during worship last week when I happened to be visiting Xenia Friends Church. When normally I wouldn't have given this prayer a second thought (because prayers to me are like poetry - most of the time I just don't get it), these kinds of "coincidences" always alert me to stop and pay attention.

It is presumed that St. Patrick wrote this prayer to ask God's protection over him as he was trying to convert the people of Ireland to Christianity. Patrick had been taken into slavery by the Irish as a teenager, escaped, but later felt God lead him back to Ireland to bring the message of God's salvation. During his enslavement, Patrick had no one but God to talk to, so they became pretty tight.

So what is this prayer saying and why did God want me to read it?

To me it says that Jesus is with us wherever we go. He's bushwhacked the path in front of us. And he's got our back. He doesn't sleep on the job, even when we're sleeping. And whether what is going on in our lives feels like the absolute worst of times or the absolute best of times, he's still there with us.

This prayer tells me that when I spend time with God, and fill myself up with his words and his desires and his promises, then I will be a reflection of Christ. Others will see Christ in me, and hear Christ in me when I speak (or write!). Which in turn places the responsibility on me to treat people as Jesus would, to love people as Jesus would, to speak to people as Jesus would, to look at people as Jesus would. To actually reflect Jesus. That is a lot of responsibility. But I think it's what my word of the year -- SERVE -- is all about.