A Prayer from St Patrick

St. Patrick's prayers for the faithful capture the wonderful spirit that made him Ireland's patron saint and one of the Church’s most beloved missionaries.  He was born in Britain shortly before the 5th century.  He was taken captive to Ireland by raiders at the age of 16. He lived there for six years as a shepherd under harsh conditions and became intensely devoted to God in prayer, as he puts it, “because the spirit was then fervent within me.” Tradition has it that divine dreams inspired both his escape from captivity in Ireland and his return there later in his life as a bishop.

A Variation of St. Patrick's Prayer:

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with His baptism,
Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,
Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,


May the Strength of God pilot us.
May the Power of God preserve us.
May the Wisdom of God instruct us.
May the Hand of God protect us.
May the Way of God direct us.
May the Shield of God defend us.
May the Host of God guard us.
Against the snares of the evil ones.
Against temptations of the world
May Christ be with us!
May Christ be in us,
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 when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Christ be over all!


May Thy Salvation, Lord,
Always be ours,
This day, O Lord, and evermore
AMEN

On the way to Sunday ... By the Numbers



Have you been counting? 

I have ....

6 Days until Spring ... I am done with winter

18 Days until Opening Day ... it's baseball need I say more?

129 Days until my Birthday ... never hurts to drop a hint

287 Days until Christmas ... just in case you needed a reason to go shopping

There is something about numbers that are comforting.  Numbers don't lie.  Numbers just are.  We may not always like the numbers (especially if a bathroom scale is involved), but the numbers are just that - numbers.

We all seemingly have a favorite number.

My favorite number has always been 8.

That's the number of Baseball Hall of Famer Joe Morgan.

Joe has always been my favorite ball player. 


But there is that one number ... 666.  That number is a bit scary, but why?

Revelation 13:15-18: "The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666."
36,500,000 is the number of reponses on bing.com using 666 as a search.  That's a big number.

What does the number mean?  That number is tied to the other commonly asked question, 'When will the world end?"  The disciples of Jesus of Nazareth asked Him that very question and it has intrigued people ever since: "What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?" (Matthew 24:3, King James Version).

Perhaps we can find some answers together. 4 days and counting until Sunday ... See you then ... I'm counting on it!