St. Patrick's Day
ST. PATRICK’S DAY
1. St. Patrick (originally Maewyn Succat) was born in the late 4th century in Roman Britain. His grandfather was a priest, but like many people in Britain at that time, the young Patrick didn’t take his faith very seriously.
2. At 16, Patrick was kidnapped by Irish raiders and spent the next 6 years serving as a herdsman for his master. During this time the seeds planted in him as a child emerged and he developed a deep relationship with God.
3. One night, while in prayer, Patrick heard a voice calling him to flee and that a means of deliverance had been prepared for him. Patrick found a ship and eventually was reunited with his family.
4. But after returning home, Patrick received a vision in which his former captors were calling for him to return to Ireland and shepherd them! Patrick obediently cashed in his inheritance and began training for ministry in Ireland.
5. Patrick played a pivotal role in establishing the Church in Ireland. He taught everything from literacy to leadership. Within 200 years of his arrival, Ireland was thoroughly Christianized.
Patrick in his own words...
'My confession…'
But I entreat those who believe in and fear God, whoever deigns to examine or receive this document composed by the obviously unlearned sinner Patrick in Ireland, that nobody shall ever ascribe to my ignorance any trivial thing that I achieved or may have expounded that was pleasing to God, but accept and truly believe that it would have been the gift of God. And this is my confession before I die.
I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about 16 years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.
On finding God while herding…
But after I reached Ireland I used to pasture the flock each day and I used to pray many times a day. More and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day (I said) from one up to 100 prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.
Guided by a voice, he escapes….
And it was there of course that one night in my sleep I heard a voice saying to me: 'You do well to fast: soon you will depart for your home country.' And again, a very short time later, there was a voice prophesying: 'Behold, your ship is ready.' And it was not close by, but, as it happened, 200 miles away, where I had never been nor knew any person. And shortly thereafter I turned about and fled from the man with whom I had been for six years, and I came, by the power of God who directed my route to advantage (and I was afraid of nothing), until I reached that ship.
Called back to Ireland by a dream…
And after a few years I was again in Britain with my kinsfolk, and they welcomed me as a son, and asked me, in faith, that after the great tribulations I had endured I should not go anywhere else away from them. And, of course, there, in a vision of the night, I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming as if from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: 'The Voice of the Irish', and as I was reading the beginning of the letter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and the were crying as if with one voice: 'We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us.' And I was stung intensely in my heart so that I could read no more, and thus I awoke. Thanks be to God, because after so many years the Lord bestowed on them according to their cry.
1. St. Patrick (originally Maewyn Succat) was born in the late 4th century in Roman Britain. His grandfather was a priest, but like many people in Britain at that time, the young Patrick didn’t take his faith very seriously.
2. At 16, Patrick was kidnapped by Irish raiders and spent the next 6 years serving as a herdsman for his master. During this time the seeds planted in him as a child emerged and he developed a deep relationship with God.
3. One night, while in prayer, Patrick heard a voice calling him to flee and that a means of deliverance had been prepared for him. Patrick found a ship and eventually was reunited with his family.
4. But after returning home, Patrick received a vision in which his former captors were calling for him to return to Ireland and shepherd them! Patrick obediently cashed in his inheritance and began training for ministry in Ireland.
5. Patrick played a pivotal role in establishing the Church in Ireland. He taught everything from literacy to leadership. Within 200 years of his arrival, Ireland was thoroughly Christianized.
Patrick in his own words...
'My confession…'
But I entreat those who believe in and fear God, whoever deigns to examine or receive this document composed by the obviously unlearned sinner Patrick in Ireland, that nobody shall ever ascribe to my ignorance any trivial thing that I achieved or may have expounded that was pleasing to God, but accept and truly believe that it would have been the gift of God. And this is my confession before I die.
I, Patrick, a sinner, a most simple countryman, the least of all the faithful and most contemptible to many, had for father the deacon Calpurnius, son of the late Potitus, a priest, of the settlement of Bannavem Taburniae; he had a small villa nearby where I was taken captive. I was at that time about 16 years of age. I did not, indeed, know the true God; and I was taken into captivity in Ireland with many thousands of people, according to our deserts, for quite drawn away from God, we did not keep his precepts, nor were we obedient to our priests who used to remind us of our salvation. And the Lord brought down on us the fury of his being and scattered us among many nations, even to the ends of the earth, where I, in my smallness, am now to be found among foreigners.
On finding God while herding…
But after I reached Ireland I used to pasture the flock each day and I used to pray many times a day. More and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day (I said) from one up to 100 prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time.
Guided by a voice, he escapes….
And it was there of course that one night in my sleep I heard a voice saying to me: 'You do well to fast: soon you will depart for your home country.' And again, a very short time later, there was a voice prophesying: 'Behold, your ship is ready.' And it was not close by, but, as it happened, 200 miles away, where I had never been nor knew any person. And shortly thereafter I turned about and fled from the man with whom I had been for six years, and I came, by the power of God who directed my route to advantage (and I was afraid of nothing), until I reached that ship.
Called back to Ireland by a dream…
And after a few years I was again in Britain with my kinsfolk, and they welcomed me as a son, and asked me, in faith, that after the great tribulations I had endured I should not go anywhere else away from them. And, of course, there, in a vision of the night, I saw a man whose name was Victoricus coming as if from Ireland with innumerable letters, and he gave me one of them, and I read the beginning of the letter: 'The Voice of the Irish', and as I was reading the beginning of the letter I seemed at that moment to hear the voice of those who were beside the forest of Foclut which is near the western sea, and the were crying as if with one voice: 'We beg you, holy youth, that you shall come and shall walk again among us.' And I was stung intensely in my heart so that I could read no more, and thus I awoke. Thanks be to God, because after so many years the Lord bestowed on them according to their cry.
posted by matthew at 10:57 AM
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