Lorica

Fr. Patrick Cardine
  • 5.0 (9)
  • CHRISTIANITY
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

A Lorica is a prayer recited for protection in which the petitioner invokes the power of God as a safeguard against evil. lōrīca originally meant “armor” or “breastplate.” The title is taken from St. Patrick’s Breastplate, his much loved prayer written in 433 A.D.

  1. 5D AGO

    Episode 300 - Run So as to Win

    We stand at the edge of Lent and hear a warning carried on both Gospel and Epistle: do not presume. The vineyard stretches from Adam to Christ, from dawn to the eleventh hour, and those who labored longest are not guaranteed the prize. Envy felled angels. Presumption cut down a chosen people. The last may be first — and the first, last. We who have been grafted in must not grow comfortable. Our fathers passed through the sea, ate spiritual food, drank from the Rock — and that Rock was Christ. They had Him, truly. Yet many fell in the wilderness. Baptism is not immunity. Eucharist is not entitlement. The race must be run; the body disciplined; the lamp kept filled. Two thousand years is a long time to live in Babylon. It is long enough to mistake exile for home, to build our stone houses and forget the fire that will test every work. But Christ is not distant. Through anamnesis He is as present now as He was in the cloud and the sea. There is no excuse for cold love. Only one thing will endure the burning: love for God and neighbor, made visible in holiness and good works. All else will pass. Are we still running — or have we begun to settle?

    18 min

  2. JAN 21

    Episode 299 - The Wine of the World to Come

    A wedding in a small Galilean village — a boy, a girl, the turning of water into wine — becomes the first sign of a deeper unveiling. In this sign we glimpse not only divine power, but divine memory: the world as it was meant to be, transparent with God. The miracle points to more than the wine, more than love — it draws us into the luminous chain of signs that reach toward the one thing that is no sign at all. To live in this world rightly is to see through — not to escape creation, but to receive it as a sacrament. Even the ordinary (tea, trees, toil, touch) becomes an enchanted ladder. Anamnesis is the name for this seeing — this remembrance that does not only look back, but forward too, into the feast to come, where all love finds its source. We are not asked to invent this vision, only to recover it. The miracle has already begun.

    18 min

  3. JAN 1

    Episode 298 - Infant Martyr Flowers

    How can we be so bold — to call this massacre a feast? To crown the slain children of Bethlehem with palms and praise? And yet the Church dares. Because the Cross has transfigured all suffering — even this. The swords that fell upon them are now their toys; the blood they shed is their baptism. What Herod meant for evil, God received as an offering. These little ones, the Church’s first blossoms, were matured not by years but by innocence. Their deaths recall Egypt and exile, Rachel’s weeping and Mary’s sorrow — but also the promise: they shall return. They shall come back from the land of the enemy. This is how we dare to rejoice. Because Christ is born. Because death is now the servant of glory. Because no cruelty can touch what is held by Love.

    11 min

  4. 12/25/2025

    Episode 297 - Everything is Contained in Everything

    On this feast of the Nativity, we see the eternal Word become flesh — and with Him, the meaning of all things made visible. The Christ child, born of Mary, is not only the Redeemer, but the very structure and center of all creation. In Him all things hold together; without Him, nothing can be known, or beautiful, or whole. And yet this mystery, so vast and cosmic, is made intimate through His birth. The font becomes a womb, the womb becomes a tomb, and in each — a beginning. In Him, we are born again, not from Adam, but into the new race of the redeemed. The stain is blotted out. Mortality is overcome. Though shadows still linger — the Innocents, the flight, the cross to come — joy remains unshaken. In the light of His coming, every sorrow is recast. Let us be glad. There is no proper place for sadness when we keep the birthday of the Life that has overcome death.

    16 min

  5. 12/15/2025

    Episode 296 - Who Are You?

    The question echoes — from the mouths of priests, from Pilate, from us. Who are you? The answer is not always spoken, and rarely heard by those who will not first repent. John the Baptist stands at the threshold, wild and holy, pointing not to himself but to the One already among us, unrecognized. The light has come, but the darkness does not comprehend. Recognition requires purification. Illumination follows repentance. Not all darkness is sin — some is mystery, some is trial — but sin blinds. The heart must be made clean to see what is already here: the Christ, in the breaking of bread, in the midst of our lives, in every sorrow and grace. He has given himself to us fully. The only question is whether we will turn again, and let him be born in us — again, and again, and now. Repentance is not one of many ways. It is the only door. Let us walk through.

    16 min

  6. 12/08/2025

    Episode 295 - Are You the One

    John is in prison. Christ is healing the blind, the deaf, even the dead. But when John sends to ask, “Are you the one who is to come?” — Jesus does not answer. He says only: “Tell him what you see. Blessed is he who is not offended in me.” This is not doubt. It is Gethsemane. We are meant to see in John not only the forerunner of Christ’s ministry, but the forerunner in His suffering. He walks every step before the Lord — even into death, even into hell. His question is not confusion, but consummation. He is living the answer with his life. So we ask again: do we know what we already know? Can we trust Him, even when the heavens are silent? Even when the cup is not taken away?

    17 min

  7. 12/01/2025

    Episode 294 - The Day Is at Hand

    We stand again at the turning of the circle — where the liturgical year ends, and begins anew. Not with sentiment, not with celebration, but with a summons. The old year closed with a warning: the end will come, and all will be judged. And the new year opens with the same cry. This, we are told, is not redundancy — but mercy. The Church does not shy away from final things. She begins her year not with nativity but with apocalypse, calling us not to despair but to readiness. Repentance is not merely sorrow, but preparation. Wakefulness is not anxiety, but faith. We are not meant to drift. We are meant to walk in the light, clear-eyed, prepared. And yet — beneath the sternness, there is joy. For the judgment of Christ is also our redemption. And to live Advent fully is to become capable of joy — the kind that does not flinch from the truth, but finds in it the way home.

    15 min

  8. 11/17/2025

    Episode 293 - Together, Toward the One

    There is no such thing as a solitary salvation. St. Paul says, “Imitate me,” not in pride, but in witness — for he himself is imitating Christ, and calls us to do the same, not alone, but together. The Church is not a scattered people with private beliefs. It is a body, moving as one, conformed together in love. This means setting aside the constant itch of opinion, trading cleverness for obedience, and joining the life of Christ already at work in our midst. Salvation is not received in isolation — it is revealed in our life together. The more we insist on being our own, the more we estrange ourselves from the joy of being His. We are not drawn upward by ideas alone, but by love made visible in the lives around us — a people made one not by preference, but by peace. Each of us, all of us, turning as one toward the Shepherd’s voice.

    17 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

A Lorica is a prayer recited for protection in which the petitioner invokes the power of God as a safeguard against evil. lōrīca originally meant “armor” or “breastplate.” The title is taken from St. Patrick’s Breastplate, his much loved prayer written in 433 A.D.

Information

  • Creator
    Fr. Patrick Cardine
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    300
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2018
  • Show Website
    Lorica