The History of St. Patrick’s Day
The History of St. Patrick’s Day
St Patrick sock check, Wool Cap from Donegal check, Riverdance soundtrack check let’s do this hi I’m Prashant from tonightnewsusa.com presents and today I want to talk to you about the life of St Patrick and some lessons we can learn from him many of us know about St Patrick or kind of know a caricature of him but I want to talk to you about the real St Patrick on Whose Feast Day we celebrate on March 17th so he grew up in the colony of like Roman Great Britain and this was about 387 or 389 when he was born when he was 16 he was kidnapped by Irish Pirates and brought to Ireland.
There in slavery had to work as a sheep herder where he spent a lot of time just amongst the people kind of learning the language but also trying to escape he also had a radical conversion of Faith there in that trial and that hardship he was praying daily hundreds of times he writes in his confessions and eventually he escapes he travels he’s to get back to Great Britain and he pursues a vocation he feels God calling him to hold the orders and the priesthood.
Eventually becomes a bishop and actually he asks to be sent back to Ireland back to the land of his captors so with the discernment of the church they decide this is so and so they send him back to Ireland and there he travels all around creating missions evangelizing the people and converting the country more or less to Christianity and I’m going to tell you a little bit more about some of those miracles in a moment here but he died about the age of 75 and died on March 17th which from that point on was honored as St Patrick’s Day.
Not till the late 1800s did that feast day kind of travel Beyond Ireland to where we celebrate today he was a witness for Christ he felt Christ convicting him to go back to the place that offered him nothing but hardship and he brought the joy of the Gospel there and so a couple of quick lessons I’d like us to just look at from his life is one perseverance the perseverance and grit it had to take to endure.
Those Years of Slavery to continue trusting in the goodness of God and then wanting to return to that land um he embraced the penitential practices of our faith fasting embracing discomfort he would wear a hair shirt sleep on rocks offering up those tenances for the conversions of all those he was encountering and evangelizing to where can we grow in grit where do we tend to fall to discomfort where can we fall to laziness you know St Patrick’s Feast Day happens during the season of Lent and so it’s a great time also okay to look at.
Where am I getting too comfortable where can I challenge myself and embrace difficult things where can I speak up courageously when I’m tempted to just kind of keep to myself I got to do a study abroad program when I was in college and I went to Ireland it had nothing to do with my major I just wanted to go and amongst many of the awesome things I got to do I climbed this mountain Crow Patrick it’s called Crow Patrick because Patrick would go up and he would pray and he would pray like for 40 days and 40 nights in the imitation of Jesus himself of Moses he spent 40 days 40 nights up on this mountain.
Being spiritually attacked and being hit by the elements the wind like just the cold temperature and the harshness of the rocks I climbed it Barefoot because I read online that that’s what the thing to do was if you were a real Pilgrim and I was young and in college and you’re not hardcore unless you live hardcore and um yeah I was bloodied up like a hobbit going up and down that mountain and some tourists were coming down who saw me Barefoot climbing this mountain and they muttered oh he must be Catholic.
There was this like funny humorous moment but also a badge of honor of like yeah I’m embracing the hard thing even though this doesn’t make sense I have perfectly good shoes but if I can Embrace a little more discomfort in life wouldn’t feel that discomfort offer it up remind myself of the God who loves me these are the things we can do to grow in perseverance embracing little difficulties for the sake of the kingdom and others another lesson from the life of Patrick is the courage he had in evangelizing like I said he went back to the land that held him captive most of us would not do that but he felt called by the Lord.
He had dreams about the Irish people even beckoning him to come back and spread the good news and that’s what he did even when he faced persecution even when Chieftains were trying to kill him he had a Chieftain coming at him with a sword and his arm was suddenly paralyzed just as he was about to get to Patrick so the Lord was working his Graces and miracles through Patrick all around the island of Ireland and between his preaching his love for the people enduring that hardship the courage to speak up again and say like you’re not worshiping the true God you’re worshiping idols.
Come to know the Lord the god of Israel who desires us to go to the ends of the Earth which is what Patrick felt called to do like from his knowledge Ireland was practically the end of the Earth and he’s like that’s where I need to go to spread the gospel so Patrick had to contend with Druids and tribal leaders and Chieftains who wanted nothing of the message he had to deal with just people’s inertia and like I don’t want to learn something new he had to put up with that like any of us are called to do who would evangelize to help people just kind of wake up and and come to know like the deeper reality of of this life.
Patrick had his detractors from this height of the church who thought he wasn’t intelligent enough he wasn’t educated enough to go out on a Mission he was more or less betrayed by a brother Bishop who had vouched for him early on but then retracted and said No Patrick isn’t fit to do this later in life so Patrick had to endure betrayal he had to endure hardship um from with within and from without and yet he persevered he had the courage that even in scary situations even in times where he was imprisoned again in Ireland where he was locked up by Chieftains.
The lord always provided a means to continue to keep going and to convert so many people to the Lord in the process Patrick used what he had so many of us know the story of the Shamrock and how Patrick uses this as an analogy of the Trinity and to help the people understand God as Father Son and Holy Spirit three but one giant mystery we’re never gonna comprehend it here on Earth but he used what he had and so for us today we have the internet we have podcasts and books and media and so are we using all the tools at our disposal to help people know the love of Christ.
The other lesson of Patrick I’d like to share is his perseverance in prayer he never stopped praying all throughout his captivity when he was freed when he returned on Mission he was devoted to prayer he was devoted to being in constant communication with God because he knew that’s where the strength of any of this activity on Earth is going to come from in his confessions Patrick wrote that it is not I but Christ the lord who ordered me to come to these people and to stay with them for the rest of my life I have not lived as perfect a life as other believers.
But I still trust in the Lord Patrick was not out on this task to inflate his ego he wasn’t out to get achievements he wasn’t out for his glory he was out to serve and to be set wherever God wanted him and he was given a heart that was broken open for the people of Ireland and so he was committed to serving them until his dying breath so where can we grow in unwavering prayer it doesn’t mean we’re dropping to our knees every 30 seconds of the day because then we would never get anything done.
But it is recognizing how can I pause and offer small moments throughout the day to God to the Lord like in conversations with co-workers in moments with my children in just times where again maybe I feel like I should speak up should present the gospel I should just offer something encouraging and yet I out of fear I hold it in I hold it to myself that prayer of God is what is going to ground us and root us and so we have the conviction like I can’t speak up right now I can’t share the love of God just like Patrick did allow me to end this video today with the ending of the Prayer of St Patrick’s breastplate a prayer written by the saint himself.
Christ to Shield me today against poisoning against burning against drowning against wounding so there come to be abundance of reward Christ with me Christ before me Christ behind me Christ in me Christ beneath me Christ above me Christ on my right Christ on my left Christ when I lie down Christ when I sit down Christ when I arise Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me Christ and every eye that sees me Christ in every ear that hears me I arise today through a mighty strength the invocation of the trinity through belief in the threeness through confession of the Oneness of the creator of creation.
