Ancient Prayers & New Tattoos

I've been reading over this ancient prayer lately and thought I'd share it with you all. The prayer is called St. Patrick's Breastplate and has been traditionally attributed to St. Patrick - the patron saint of Ireland. It's called his breastplate because it is a prayer for protection. I have found this to be a good prayer to read in the morning just as the day is beginning.

Also if you've never read the story of St. Patrick it's a pretty interesting story to read.

The closing two stanzas are two of my favorites so I've pasted them below. You can read the entire thing here:

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 hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
salvation is of Christ the Lord.

You may find yourself asking the question - what does this have to do with new tattoos?? The answer is I'm toying with the idea of incorporating pieces of this prayer into a new tattoo for myself. Maybe I'll have it put right across my chest since it is a breastplate after all... no, I could never pull that off. Plus my chest is hairy and that would be gross.