Next Tuesday, March 17th, Irish people at home and abroad will be honouring the name of Patrick, the apostle of the Irish people, our patron saint. We shall be united in prayer for peace in our land and for all who are suffering. St Patrick's Breastplate is a well known hymn associated with the saint. It begins with the words: "I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity" - a challenging assertion of faith in God, and an invitation to pray that God's spirit will restore and refresh the gift of faith.
Patrick was brought up in a believing family, and yet, like many young people in every generation, he found himself admitting that he had not known the true God. The obvious question is: how did Patrick come out of his agnosticism to have a strong faith that would enable him to say with sincerity: "I bind unto myself the strong name of the Trinity"?
An explanation of the great change in him could be that at only 16 years of age Patrick was carried off to slavery. He was sold to a chief of Antrim named Milchu. In six years of exile and aloneness looking after Milchu's beasts he became a man of prayer and sincere religion. In the years of watchfulness in the stillness of the hillside of Slemish, God was speaking to him, and being heard. He always retained a sense of dependency on God born of his early days as a slave and exile. Like Jesus on the calm hills of Galilee, he had knelt and shared the silence of eternity, interpreted by love.
Following their entirely different types of exile, the prodigal son and the apostle of the Irish people expressed their fresh faith and their lifelong allegiance, to the loving heavenly Father in a remarkably similar way: "Make me as one of thy hired servants"; and "I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity".
On St Patrick's Day we lay aside the usual pictures of Ireland's national saint in stained glass or statue. We set our minds on that young man Patrick, bursting with newly given faith as he faced the adventures of winning Ireland to the faith he delivered to us.
On St Patrick's Day we give thanks, and pray with the same confident dedication of the Breastplate:
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.
Praise to the Lord of my salvation, Salvation is of Christ the Lord.