The fifth Sunday of Lent and St Patrick's Day

I have never been fond of snakes no matter how tightly they are caged.  Thus I feel a kinship to St. Patrick.  Imagine a whole country without snakes until someone comes home from Florida with what no one needs.  It is legend that besides spreading the Gospel through Ireland, and allowing the Gospel to be sensitive to the Celtic culture, St. Patrick drove out the snakes.  Besides being Scot-Irish by genealogy and thus having a natural affinity to Patrick, the ridding of anywhere of snakes, would demand my loyalty.

Was that because of the first biblical snake and the woman blamed by the man and the curse? Or did it have to do with some news story read as a child about a child crawling under a house into a den of coral snakes?  I am forever unclear. But the mischief blamed on either of these snakes is enough to make me snake phobic.

The Morning Prayer Gospel for today is Mark 8:31-9:1 and speaks of the cure for the first above mentioned snake.  It is the cross. Jesus has just spoken of his coming end and his rising.  Peter could not conceive his dying by the verdict of religious authority. No one grasped his meaning of “in three days rise.”  Peter just earlier called the Rock, is now called Satan.  Then Jesus speaks.

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?  Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? (V 34-37)

During the second half of Lent the daily hymn for the St. Helena Breviary is the one below.  It is a meditation on the cross more profound than I can write so let it work on the mystery of you and Christ.  During most days one sings verses 2-3, but certainly by Holy Week one sings it all.  Google search here for the tune: Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle - Hymn Books

Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle,
Sing the winning of the fray;
Now above the cross, the trophy,
Sound the high triumphal lay:
Tell how Jesus, our Redeemer,
through surrender won the day.

Thirty years among us dwelling,
His appointed time fulfilled;
Born for this, he met his passion,
which he saw and freely willed;
On the cross he was lifted,
Where his lifeblood then was spilled.

He endured the nails, the spitting,
Vinegar, and spear, and reed;
From his holy body broken
Blood and water forth proceed:
Earth, and stars, and sky, and ocean,
By that flood from stain are freed.

Faithful cross, above all other,
One and only noble tree!
None in foliage, none in blossom,
None in fruit your peer may be:
Sweetest wood, and nails together!
bearing sweetest majesty.

Bend your boughs, O tree of glory!
your relaxing sinews bend;
For awhile the ancient rigor
That your birth bestowed, suspend;
And the body of our Savior
On your bosom gently tend!

You alone were counted worthy

This world’s ransom to sustain,

With the sacred blood anointed                      

Of the Lamb for sinners slain

That a shipwrecked race forever

Might a port of refuge gain.

Now that you have enjoyed this meditation, here is my favorite for St. Patrick.  It will wind the novice but it is also so wondrously whole in its hope and theology. It is known fondly as St Patrick’s Breast Plate.  A Breast plate in Celtic culture was wore to protect from illness or to help one enter the life to come. It was also a recited prayer.

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of cherubim;
The sweet ‘Well done’ in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,
The Patriarchs’ prayers, the prophets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit 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.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry,
Against the wizard’s evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

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.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.