Why St. Patrick Matters to Me

A number of years ago, I struggled with lots of nervousness and anxiety.  I would feel nervous even when there wasn't any reason to feel that way.  Eventually, I discovered that had what is called an anxiety disorder.  This is where your body send the signals usually designed to be sent when you have a real reason to fear, aka there's a bear over there-run!!!  So here I was experiencing that feeling at random times of my day without any apparent reason.

As you can guess it was a struggle.  At my church, I asked one of the pastors to pray for me.  He did and then encouraged me to pray "the prayer of St. Patrick."  Now, I've never been a fan of reciting prayers.  I prefer instead to just talk to God normally.  But, I was desperate so I looked it up and here is part of it:

Christ shield me today

Against wounding

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 everyone who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in the eye that sees me,

Christ in the ear that hears me.

I learned that supposedly Patrick, when he was traveling through hostile parts of Ireland where his life was often in danger because he was sharing Jesus, would pray this prayer.  

I have found the words of this prayer to be a serious comfort for anxiety in particular as it helps me realize that God is not "out there somewhere" but actually is inside and all around me, all the time.  

Below is a video of a recent worship song that makes use of some of the prayer's words: