2006 Seminarian Leadership Conference

Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest

Friday, September 15, 2006

Meditation on St. Patrick’s Breastplate I

The Rev. Catherine Tyndall Boyd

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 unto myself today.

• Bind. Binding. Binding contract. In a bind. Bound. Bound together. Bound and determined. Bound and gagged. Bound for glory. The thesaurus gives us these synonyms for bind: attach, connect, join, combine, unite, tie, fasten, truss.

• I bind unto myself today the strong Name of the Trinity. This ancient, evocative prayer calls upon, claims, the protection of the power of the Creator of all worlds. The prayer wraps the power of God around one like a mantle. The prayer flings one’s own spirit out to the Trinity as a drowning person flings out arms to find the life-line. And yet, there is no desperation: the drowning person knows the life-line is there for the taking.

I bind unto myself today the strong Name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same.

• Invocation. The thesaurus gives us these: appeal to, call upon, pray to, summon. The invocation of this power conjures pictures of epic ceremonies from many archetypal stories: I can see the wizard Gandalf on that bridge in the Mines of Moria shouting at the monster of the deep: you shall not pass!

• The invocation of the strong name of God — that strong name which is itself the power of God — the invocation of the Name (with a capital N) looks beyond what can be seen with the eye. The invocation of the strong name of God claims a reality which is more real than this transitory life.

• I am unquestionably subject to other principalities and powers that do not have my best interest at heart. Binding unto oneself the strong name of the Trinity summons the power of God against the principalities.

I bind this day to me for ever, 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.

• Bind: a recipe might use eggs or flour to bind the ingredients. Gravity binds creation to the earth. Magnetic forces bind iron and steel. The incarnation of Jesus Christ is the binding that draws us into the dance that is the Trinity.

• Jesus Christ is the Word of God that flings itself out into creation, to become a human being like you and me. It is this incarnation that makes possible our own participation in the unity of God. As a drowning person is pulled to safety by that life-line, we are drawn by the Holy Spirit into the eternal love-dance of the Trinity.

I bind unto myself today the strong Name of the Trinity,
by invocation of the same,
the Three in One, and One in Three.
Of whom all nature hath creation,
eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Words: attributed to St. Patrick (372-466); trans. Cecil Frances Alexander (1818-1895), 1889. Music: St. Patrick's Breastplate and Gartan (verse 6)