Archbishop Peter A Comensoli gave the following homily at St Patrick’s Cathedral on Monday 17 March 2025, the feast day of St Patrick, patron saint of the Archdiocese of Melbourne.
Atomruig indíu ... ‘I bind unto myself today …’
These are the words that commence the great prayer attributed to St Patrick, often called his Breastplate. ‘I bind unto myself today,’ sometimes rendered, ‘I arise today’, is repeated five times, making it the phrase that frames the whole prayer.
It would be a beautiful way of framing all prayer. Prayer is a kind of binding of oneself to God, a coming face to face with the One who created and redeemed us.
That it is called St Patrick’s Breastplate is a reminder that the prayer is a protection in faith, for body and soul, against the Evil One and evil people. It is said that Patrick prayed this prayer for the protection of himself and his monks against deadly enemies.
St Patrick’s prayer is deeply Trinitarian and Christological in content.
It is through the Blessed Trinity that we come to know who God is. Our address in prayer to the Trinity attaches us to God, who is a Communion of love.
That this prayer is also centred on Christ opens to us a personal knowledge of who God is for us. Christ is for us a Saviour; he is God-with-us.
The breastplate of St Patrick, therefore, binds us to the two great questions of faith: who God is, and who God is for us.
Briton, slave, farmer; priest, bishop, missionary. The life of Patrick was one that was oriented to God, Creator and Redeemer, and to the people he called his own. He founded Christian communities, ordained leadership to those Churches, and preached God’s Word to any who would listen. The seeds of faith he planted have endured.
It is worth quoting some of St Patrick’s Breastplate, and making it our own.
I bind unto myself to-day,
The Power of God to guide me,
The Might of God to uphold me,
The Wisdom of God to teach me,
The Eye of God to watch over me,
The Ear of God to hear me,
The Word of God to give me speech,
The Hand of God to protect me,
The Way of God to prevent me,
The Shield of God to shelter me,
The Host of God to defend me…
On this feast of St Patrick, apostle to Ireland, and patron of our local Church in Melbourne, may this prayer be bound unto us today.
Archbishop Peter A Comensoli
Most Reverend Peter Andrew Comensoli is the Archbishop of Melbourne.
