Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top O’ The Morning to all you Irish lads and lasses, and Irish wannabes!  Today we don green duds, eat platefuls of corned beef and cabbage, and  remember the life and times of St. Patrick. Old Paddy didn’t start off with saintly status, in fact he wasn’t even Irish!  Gosh and begorah, say it isn’t true!  Fact is, he was kidnapped from his home in England, by Irish marauders, and forced to work, for six years, tending his cruel master’s flocks.  During this time he wrote, what is now known as, his “Confessio”.  He relates, in this writing, that he prayed many times in the day: "the love of God", he added, and His fear increased in me more and more, and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that whilst in the woods and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer and felt no hurt from it, whether there was snow or ice or rain; nor was there any slothfulness in me, such as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent within me.”

 Isn’t it strange, and glorious, that faith can grow so much deeper, during times of difficult trials. Patrick escaped, but God called him back to bring the Irish people out of paganism into the light of Christ.  Along the way he kicked out the snakes, used the shamrock to explain the Trinity, and his walking stick/staff sprouted leaves!  Patrick, like so many men and women of faith, turned what could have been a spiritual defeat into a victory for the kingdom of God!!   Look up his life, it is an amazing testimony.

 I leave you today with encouragement, found in the much longer St. Patrick’s Prayer.  “I bind to myself today God's Power to guide me, God's Might to uphold me, God's Wisdom to teach me, God's Eye to watch over me, God's Ear to hear me, God's Word to give me speech, God's Hand to guide me, God's Way to lie before me, God's Shield to shelter me, God's Host to secure me, Against the snares of demons, Against the seductions of vices, Against the lusts of nature, Against everyone who meditates injury to me, Whether far or near, Whether few or with many. “  God’s Blessings to One and All!!