Japan and St Patrick's Day

I was going to write you a lovely post on St Patrick's Day. I was going to tell you about our impromptu St Paddy's dinner with mashed potatoes and just enough green in it to do St Patrick justice. Isobella picked some clover leaves from the garden and put them on a little plate, and then wrote a sign saying "Happy St Patrick's Day" for the table. This was all while I was quite pre-occupied getting dinner ready, and tired because we had just got back from the bach the day before. (We stayed longer because Abigail got chicken pox) Still she ignored my grumpiness and carried on with her sweet plan regardless, including getting her and Greer dressed in green! So we celebrated St Patrick's Day after all, thanks to my quarter-Irish girls.

Then I watched the news. Japan, Japan, a week later and we are still crying for you. I watched a news story about a husband looking for his wife. He looked through list after list, read hundreds and hundreds of names. She wasn't on the list of the dead, and she wasn't on the list of the living. He told the story of how she had driven away from the Tsunami towards her cousin's house with their two children, and jumped out of the car just in time to hand the children over before the wave swept her away. What a mother. Did she have time to feel even a moment of relief? She did what every mother hopes to God they would be able to do in such an awful moment.

So that St Patrick's Day post was overtaken with tears for a country who needs as many St Patricks as it can get. It's not very postmodern of me to say so, and I know most of you don't want me to get all fundamentalist on you, but I can't help it, it's my heart's cry. St Patrick for Japan.

St Patrick wrote a prayer that he apparently prayed every morning. I love this prayer. If I was only ever going to pray one prayer, this would be it.

The Lorica of St Patrick

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
From snares of the devil,
From temptations of vices,
From every one who desires me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a mulitude.

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 in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

This excerpt is from the Catholic website EWTN.