Growing up, one of my favorite books was A Swiftly Tilting Planet, by Madeline L’Engle. I read it over and over, and I still return to it in times of turmoil. It is a powerful fictional example of spiritual warfare and the triumph of good over evil.

One of the things that it taught me was the power of prayer against demonic forces. In the book, the main character Charles Wallace is given a rune to battle the evil forces that try to stop him from saving the world.

In this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And fire with all the strength it hath,
And lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness:
All these I place,
By God’s almighty help and grace,
Between myself and the powers of darkness.

St Patrick’s Rune

L’Engle borrowed this rune from Saint Patrick. I memorized it because I was a nerdy middle school student, and it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. This rune and Saint Patrick’s Breastplate continue to be prayers I cling to when overwhelmed by darkness or chaos or grief.

This past Thursday we buried my uncle. It was one of the hardest days of my life, with the funeral, burial, reception, and the different difficulties that came with all of them. Grief and suffering do ugly things to us, if we let them. They are so easily twisted into despair, tools for the demons, and barbs against those around us instead of steps towards our sanctification.

On Friday, Jake and I carved out a beautiful day in the middle of all the pain and heaviness of grief. We went to our tiny local zoo — Michael’s first time at a zoo. Watching his delight at the animals and wandering around the quiet exhibits brought such a sense of peace to us.

When Michael fell asleep in his stroller, Jake and I were able to walk under the old oak trees and breathe in the beauty of the park. The trees reached their leaves to heaven, and the squirrels argued in their branches, and ladybugs danced at their roots. There I was struck by the rune from my childhood: the rocks with their steepness and the earth with its starkness.

So in the face of the ugliness of grief and this brokenness of the world, I held to this rune and Saint Patrick’s Breastplate. I continue to hold both of them, and the beauty all around us, as a shield against despair and against the snares of the Enemy.

Our world is quick to scoff at the idea of immaterial forces beyond our ability to see or fully understand, but as Christians we know that there is more to our world than mere materialism. Spiritual warfare is real, and manifests in many ways. And there is nothing the demons want more than to drag us down with them.

So if you have experienced spiritual warfare in the form of grief, or suffering, or heaviness of heart, know that you are not alone. I hope you too can use beauty as a shield, and that an old rune from a simple children’s book can give you as much courage as it has given me.