Prayers of Protection

While the encircling prayer of protection within the Celtic tradition may be a new way of praying for many of us, the idea of praying for protection is as old as dirt.  When we stop to think about our own prayer life, we realize we pray prayers of protection at many different times.  Many of us might pray such prayers before a long driving trip, or as we watch a powerful thunderstorm build out there on the edge of the sky.  In these days we might even pray such a prayer as we put on a face mask and venture forth in some public place. 

Of course, one of the prayers of protection that we know the best is prayed on most Sunday mornings when the church gathers.  Within the Lord's Prayer there are those words, "lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil."   And while it is not a prayer, there is that reminder from the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians that our struggle requires the "whole armor of God" which includes "the breastplate of righteousness,"   (Ephesians 6:10-17) an image which brings to mind the breastplate prayer for protection attributed to St. Patrick.   It is a world full of all manners of divine revelation, but it is also a dangerous world.

 

However, we pray the prayers of our heart, there are going to be those moments when prayers of protection will pour forth from deep within us.  They will inevitably come from within because we know that we cannot handle the things which confront us and which can do us and those we love harm.  We pray these prayers because we know that our life is finally dependent on the grace and mercy of God.  And even though we may not always know exactly how to pray such prayers, we do know that Jesus taught His disciples and those who followed them to pray such prayers.  For the moment such knowledge is enough.