“I cannot praise it enough…my experience with Christ has deepened in fact I can honestly say that Jesus has truly stolen my heart.”
Laura Ray McKinlay (Community Worker – Cork, Republic of Ireland)

AC – Parish Priest (Victoria, Australia)

I love this book and have gone through it twice already. Wonderful daily meditation – easily connected with our lives today. I have purchased copies as gifts for 4 friends who are graduating from a lay spiritual formation program. I will continue to share this wonderful resource.
(Meg F – Amazon reviewer)

A STORY ABOUT THE BOOK

Dating from the early years of the Church in Britain the “Breastplate Prayer” (or Lorica) was  a uniquely Celtic way of praying.  The book’s title is taken from the hymn Be Thou My Vision – a reworking of the most famous lorica, the “Breastplate of St Patrick.” Be Thou My Breastplate draws upon the inspirational lorica   of Fursa. Fursa was a radical pioneer of monastic and church communities at a time before many of our familiar conventions of church, worship and spirituality had taken shape. This is what makes Fursa an intriguing and inspiring voice.

At a time when I was a regular voice on BBC National Radio 2’s “Pause for Thought” I shared one morning the words of Fursa’s breastplate.  The response in the BBC’s mailroom was astonishing. So much that the BBC mailroom phoned me on morning – just to let me know they had been hit by a wave of written and phone response, marking the amazing impact of Fursa’s words – one and half millennia after he first spoke them. Nothing I had broadcast before had ever created a response like that. Words from another time, from the lips of this unfamiliar Celtic pioneer cut through the airwaves in a way I couldn’t replicate. This was a seam I knew was worth tapping for fresh insight and perspective. And that call from the BBC’s basement in Langham Place in London W1A was the moment that began to call this little book into being.

Be Thou My Breastplate is a devotional book for daily use, each day circling and unpacking the words of Fursa’s prayer. It is suitable for anyone of any age or stage in the journey of faith. Ideal as a daily devotional or as a tool for a weekend retreat, 40 day-study for a small group, or for a Lent Group.