I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity.

St. Patrick

Today, I pause a moment to give thanks for St. Patrick, bishop and missionary to Ireland. Here is how St. Patrick is described in my denomination’s worship planning material:

At sixteen, Patrick was kidnapped by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. He himself admitted that up to this point he cared little for God. He escaped after six years, returned to his family in southwest Britain, and began to prepare for ordained ministry. He later returned to Ireland, this time to serve as a bishop and missionary. He made his base in the north of Ireland and from there made many missionary journeys with much success. In his autobiography he denounced the slave trade, perhaps from his own experience as a slave. Patrick’s famous baptismal hymn to the Trinity, “I bind unto myself today” (ELW 450), can be used as a meditation on Lent’s call to return to our baptism.

REPRINTED FROM WORDS FOR WORSHIP, COPYRIGHT 2020 AUGSBURG FORTRESS

The hymn mentioned above, and that is universally attributed to St. Patrick, is certainly a wonderful hymn to use as a meditation this Lenten season, or anytime. Here it is, in the version found in our Evangelical Lutheran Worship hymnal:

I Bind Unto Myself Today

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 this day to me forever, 
by pow'r of faith, Christ’s incarnation, 
his baptism in the Jordan River, 
his cross of death for my salvation, 
his bursting from the spiced tomb, 
his riding up the heav'nly way, 
his coming at the day of doom, 
I bind unto myself today. 

I bind unto myself today 
the virtues of the starlit heaven, 
the glorious sun’s life-giving ray, 
the whiteness of the moon at even, 
the flashing of the lightning free, 
the whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks, 
the stable earth, the deep salt sea 
around the old eternal rocks. 

Christ be with me, Christ within me, 
Christ behind me, Christ before me, 
Christ beside me, Christ to win me, 
Christ to comfort and restore me. 
Christ beneath me, Christ above me, 
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, 
Christ in hearts of all that love me, 
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. 

I bind unto myself the name, 
the strong name of the Trinity 
by invocation of the same, 
the Three in One and One in Three, 
of whom all nature has creation, 
eternal Father, Spirit, Word. 
Praise to the Lord of my salvation; 
salvation is of Christ the Lord!