Saint Patrick's Breastplate [or the Faed Fiada “Deer’s Cry”]

http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_4847396 for "I Will Go"

Saint Patrick's Breastplate [or the Faed Fiada “Deer’s Cry”]

The prayer used by St. Patrick to protect his followers from the Druids-He prayed and the whole group appeared to the assassins as deer and ran past the them to the hall of the king where he successfully did a battle of words with the Druids, like Elijah of old . “They can bring darkness, but they cannot bring Light,” he  remarked.  {I really like this translation because Dr. Siegerson perfectly matched the number of syllables to the original Gaelic of St. Patrick!  Can you hear the lilt?  It is a 'Lorica' or prayer of protection and is the very first Christian prayer or song composed in Gaelic.}

 

I bind me to-day

            Gods might to direct me

            Gods Power to protect me

            Gods wisdom for learning

            Gods eye for discerning

            Gods ear for my hearing

            Gods Word for my clearing

            Gods hand for my cover

            Gods path to pass over

            Gods buckler to guard me

            Gods army to ward me

                        Against snares of the devil

                        Against vices temptation

                        Against wrong inclination

                        Against men who plot evil

                        Near or afar with many or few

            Christ near

            Christ here

            Christ be with me

            Christ beneath me

            Christ within me

            Christ behind me

            Christ be o er me

            Christ before me

            Christ in the left and the right

            Christ hither and thither

            Christ in the sight

                        Of each eye that shall seek me

                        In each ear that shall hear

                        In each mouth that shall speak me

            Christ not the less

            In each heart I address

I bind me to-day on the Triune  - I call

With faith in the Trinity - unity  - God over all.

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

Celebrating St. Valentine's Day!

Link to "We're Gonna Stay"  http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/4768267

 

This coming week, seven or eight couples in Living Waters will be going for a St. Valentine's get-away!  This is a decades long tradition. The group has produced a bevy of wonderful marriages and families, quite inter-related by blood, marriage and Sacrament ties. In the past, we've been given 'homework' at these gatherings:  to write a poem, a song, or even haikus!  I think we just want to REST this time. I'm sure we will have great fun - we always do.

It got me to thinking about the original martyr story.  Valentinus had such enthusiasm for life & learning that his love more than triumphed over his seeming tragedy, just as Christ did on the Cross.  The jailor took his blind daughter Julia to be educated by him.  With the power of the charity that is chastity, he was free enough to open her mind and heart to a whole world and to the power of God's love.  In the end, she miraculously received her physical eyesight, too, but that was just a 'sign' of the true eyesight given to hearts which love with God's sacrificial agape love.  Valentinus was martyred on February 14, 270.  There were actually several martyrs of this name, but I would look up this most popular story.

My wife's name is Julia.  I often tell her what a coincidence it is that the Julia in the story is ALso so very pretty, intelligent and wise.  (I try not to tell her she's blind!  We do try to be blind to each other's weaknesses!)  Paul in Ephesians said marriage is like a great 'musterion' ( in Latin, 'sacramentum') which exactly mirrors the union of Christ and the Church.  The Risen Christ inhabits such love with all the power of His Spirit.  Our song "We're Gonna Stay" is about that Resurrecting Power in the face of seemingly impossible odds.  May you all experience this great love within whatever vocation you are called....

11/11/11: The Lajoie Boys Meet Alive!

my uncle, O'Neil Lajoie who died recently; a picture of the whole family inc. my father, Raymond

The Lajoie Boys Meet Alive!

Living Waters – Fight For Me - Multi-Track

We are re-printing this for Independence Day 2019!

I am writing this on Veterans Day, November 11, 2011: 11/11/11.  At school, they asked if there were any veterans in our family that we would like remembered, listed and prayed for in honor of Veterans Day.  There are very many veterans in my extended family, but I knew who I wanted them to mention.  I thought of two men and one amazing incident in particular.

My uncle O'Neil was a remarkable man, filled with JOY, fun, humor, industriousness and faith.  His large family and the wonderful company he started speak of his powerful influence to bring good into the world.  He and my father, Raymond, were young men when Pearl Harbor happened.  They, like so many French-Canadians in Augusta were soon off to the Pacific theatre of the war.

O'Neil was in the elite forces of the Marines, those who went ashore first.  My father was an Army Sergeant who was admired and depended upon by his men.  They both ended up in the hell that was the Battle of Guadalcanal.  (My father did NOT like to talk about those days on the islands.  He let slip some things, like the trench foot, the close-up fighting, the hunger, the smell of the enemy, the prayer.)  At any rate, the months of that battle were finally over and each brother had heard devastating news:  each had heard the other had been killed.    But then both of their units did roll call near each other.  As the roll was being called they heard each other's names and...RESPONSES!  They rushed to hug each other, someone took a picture and it ended up in the the hometown paper, the Kennebec Journal, or, so I am told.  We, their children, stand in benefit of their miraculous survival, will and faith.  All who have been touched or blessed in any way by us, or by Living Waters music, for instance, are entirely beholden to these brave veterans.

May we always remember and treasure the gift of our country, and the veterans in our lives who have insured its survival to a new generation, till we meet alive again in Heaven.