The Lorica of St. Patrick

Photo by: D. L. Piscoya

I arise today:

in vast might,

invocation of the Trinity,

belief in a threeness,

confession of oneness,

meeting in the Creator. 

I arise today:

in the might

of Christ’s birth and his baptism,

in the might

of his crucifixion and burial,

in the might

of his resurrection and ascension,

in the might

of his descent to the judgment of doom. 

I arise today:

in the might of cherubim,

in obedience of angels,

in ministrations of archangels,

in hope of resurrection,

in prayers of patriarchs,

in predictions of prophets,

in preachings of apostles,

in faith of confessors,

in innocence of holy virgins. 

I arise today:

in the might of heaven,

splendor of the sun,

whiteness of snow,

irresistibleness of fire,

swiftness of lightning,

speed of wind,

absoluteness of the deep,

rock’s durability. 

I arise today:

in the might of God for my piloting,

power of God for my stability,

wisdom of God for my guidance,

eye of God for my foresight,

ear of God for my hearing,

word of God for my word,

hand of God for my guard,

path of God for my prevention,

shield of God for my protection,

host of God for my salvation,

against any demon’s snare,

against all vice’s lure,

against concupiscence,

against ill-wishes far and near. 

I invoke all these forces:

between me and every savage force

that may come upon me, body or soul.

against incantations of false prophets,

against black lairs of paganism,

against false laws of heresy,

against idolatry, spells of women, and druids;

against all knowledge that should not be known. 

Christ for my guard today:

against poison, against burning,

against drowning, against wounding,

that there may come to me merit.

Christ with me, Christ before me,

Christ behind me, Christ in me,

Christ under me, Christ over me,

Christ to the right, Christ to the left,

Christ in lying down, in sitting, in rising up;

Christ in all who may think of me!

Christ in the mouth of all who may speak to me!

Christ in the eye that may look on me!

Christ in the ear that may hear me! 

I arise today:

in vast might,

invoking the Trinity

believing in a threeness,

confessing a oneness,

meeting in the Creator.

From the Lord is salvation; in the Lord is safety.

Be thy right way, Lord, ever with us!

The Importance of Goodbyes

Photo by: http://godhearsourprayers.files.wordpress.com

Celebration is a powerful thing.
A thing we celebrate is a thing we keep coming back to, a thing we simply cannot bear to stay away from.

When we celebrate a birthday, the celebration consists not in the cake and not in the presents we give to that person who has just gained a year, but rather the celebration consists of the acknowledgement of the year and its importance to that person. When we celebrate a birthday, we come back to that day when that person was born and rejoice anew for the gift of their life, each year of it. It is a wonder to me that with the celebration of so many things in this life, with so much to come back to, why we are never recollected enough to really appreciate (and therefore celebrate) them properly.


G.K. Chesterton once said in his brilliant introduction to his book The Everlasting Man,

"There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there. The other is to walk round the whole world till we come back to the same place."

My friends, we are not home. It is plain as day that we are neither in heaven, nor in the right relationship with God (which amounts to heaven). And when we are home, when we are with God, we tend not to stay. The stain of original sin is this: that we, like the prodigal son, so resent our home that we are all to apt to leave. Our attachment to sin or our unwillingness to give ourselves up so drives us that we leave the home that we have in search of something more pleasurable.

Therein lies the power of celebration. We do not say we continue the Mass. We do not say we persevere in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We Celebrate these precious Sacraments. And why? It is because, in our search for home, we have left it, and have now come back.

The Mass is something that we keep coming back to. God is someone who we keep coming back to through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In these precious things, we have come back to the Home which we have combed the globe for in our desperate thirst.

I have a nagging hunch that Chesterton was thinking of the prodigal son when he wrote that introduction, for in the end, both sons are home, undoubtedly, solidly home, yet one merits the fatted calf where the other never received one. And it is not, I think, very fair. For even though the older one worked for all his life, the younger one is lauded for coming back from a life of sin, a life of squandered inheritance, familial insult, and debauchery.

Yet is this what humanity is. We cannot pretend to think that when God created Man He did not know what depths we were going to fall to, just as we cannot pretend that the Father did not see what the prodigal son was going to do with the inheritance. Rather, we see that God, being omniscient, obviously knew what humanity would descend to in the Fall of Man. And if this is so, we must also see that God did not only know this, but planned for it. He not only has granted us the free will to run away from Home in the first place, but has fattened the calf and stood lookout for our return.

We were made for Celebration. For in saying goodbye, God has left the gate open for our humble return, our coming home. For it is necessary for us humans to circumnavigate the globe in order to realize that our Home was right where we had started. It is necessary for us humans to say goodbye before we receive our true welcome, to be lost before we can be found.

Philomena (A Poem)

Eyes
With a piercing
Gaze, staring straight
Into mine. Arms, folded into
A prayerful embrace, as if holding my…
Soul

Her expression is blank, but I
See in it, more love and devotion than I expect.
I am left breathless by her
Beauty. My heart longs, simply to…
Hear her speak.

It is as if She
Were alive, though she died
Long ago, as a…
A Martyr.

Her face, so full of Peace
Does not betray that she was be
-headed, nor say how much pain she dealt with.
Still, I find myself crying. Peace be with thee,
Philomena.

Photo by: http://www.adorare.ch

Joy is Impenetrable

The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian, it seems, is not whether or not we acknowledge that Christ lived and died, not in whether or not we ever stand at His tomb. The way I see it, our life consists of the moment between when Christ gains life anew, and when the stone is rolled away. We, as humanity, wait at this tomb during our short lives, whether as faithful disciples, or as soldiers who simply got the short straw. Our lives are centered on that quiet moment before the dawn, that lull before the storm, whether we realize it or not.

No, the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is Attitude.

Pope Francis, in his homily on Palm Sunday, stated it thus:

Do not be men and women of sadness: a Christian can never be sad! Never give way to discouragement! Ours is not a joy that comes from having many possessions, but it comes from having encountered a Person, Jesus, who is among us. It comes from knowing that with him we are never alone, even at difficult moments, even when our life’s journey comes up against problems and obstacles that seem insurmountable, and there are so many of them!

As a Christian, our wait at the tomb is characterized by joyful expectation of a new life, by the recognition that it is Christ Jesus that is behind that stone, and furthermore, that he is very much alive! A Christian recognizes Christ alive in the form of bread at Mass. A Christian recognizes Christ alive in the tomb of every heart that receives Him. That is a Christian attitude: that we wait at the tomb, but in the joyful expectation that this tomb will soon be found empty of death, that our deaths will soon be conquered and our lives will be restored by a risen Christ.

A Christian, then, is characterized by joy. The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is Joy. We, as Christians, must always remember what our Pope has said, that "A Christian can never be sad!"

However, this is not to say that a Christian must always be necessarily happy. We Christians tend to be a rather somber bunch sometimes. After all, what is Lent? We fast and pray with a solemness that verges on sadness, but is not. No, a Christian is never necessarily happy. Rather, a Christian is joyful, and that is entirely different. Joy, readers, is simply the knowledge that one is loved. And knowledge is justified, true, belief.

Christians are joyful: We believe that God loves us, and we know this to be true because we have seen Christ's death, and this love has been justified in this death, realized in Christ's death. How many times have we heard, after all, John 3:16?

For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son...

It is not happiness that drives us on, as Christians. Ours is a war of light and dark, of sadness and joy. It is the knowledge that we are loved, the knowledge that God loves us enough that drives us on. The Christian ideal is that joy, this knowledge that we are loved, would drive all our actions, that it would realize Jesus' command:

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

This Joy, readers, is impenetrable. For we have won the war, this we know. We are now simply waiting for the enemy to surrender. This is our joy. And if we were to hold this joy in our hearts and minds every second of every day, we would be Saints.

Let us try.

Photo by: http://blog.sion.hr/assets/images/401_h.jpg

Happy Feast of the Divine Mercy!