I Bind Unto Myself Today

St. Patrick (389-461) brought the Christian faith to Ireland.  Born into a Christian family along the western coast of England, at the age of 16 he was kidnapped by coastal raiders and taken to Ireland as a forced worker.  After six years he escaped to a ship that was bound for France.  There he studied in a French monastery and eventually returned to England.  In 432, now a middle-aged man, Patrick returned to the place of his captivity as a Christian missionary, not a safe thing to do in light of the Irish chieftains and Druid priests. Fully away of the dangers, he wrote in his diary, "Daily I expect either a violent death or a return to slavery or some other calamity...I have cast myself into the hands of the Almighty God, for He rules everything."  Patrick had a long and productive career as a Christian missionary in Ireland.  His famous hymn, "I Bind Unto Myself Today" reminds Christians of the importance of remembering their baptism, that blessed day when they were baptized into the "strong name of the Trinity."  Each day we can recall and reclaim the blessings of our baptism.

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 pow’r of God to hold and lead,

His eye to watch, His might to stay,

    His ear to hearken to my need,

The wisdom of my God to teach,

    His hand to guide, His shield to ward,

The Word of God to give me speech,

    His heav’nly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,

    The vice that gives temptation force,

The natural lusts that war within,

    The hostile foes that mar my course;

Or few or many, far or nigh,

    In ev’ry place and in all hours,

Against their fierce hostility

    I bind to me those holy powers.

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!