{"id":842,"date":"2014-03-16T19:38:18","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T02:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/?p=842"},"modified":"2021-03-17T09:21:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-17T14:21:53","slug":"st-patricks-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/?p=842","title":{"rendered":"St. Patrick’s Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: This is from a brief talk I gave at Palm Village Retirement Community<\/a> this morning, March 16, 2014. \u00c2\u00a0Most of the source information comes from How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (The Hinges of History)<\/a>\"\". I’m a big fan of Thomas Cahill’s<\/a>\"\" writing. Some of the interpretation is mine, and some is his. Give him credit for any brilliance you find, and me credit for any faults.<\/em><\/p>\n

St. Patrick didn’t start his life as an Irishman or as a Saint, or even as a Christian, per se. \u00c2\u00a0He was a Briton, of Roman cultural origins. \u00c2\u00a0His first language was not Gaelic, but Latin.<\/p>\n

Though Patricius grew up in a Christian family, he ignored the faith of his fathers. \u00c2\u00a0God used some pretty awful circumstances to get ahold of him: he was kidnapped at age 16 by Irish pirates, taken to pagan Ireland, and sold into slavery. He spent the next 6 years as a shepherd and as a slave. \u00c2\u00a0Much of the time he was naked, and his body ached from hunger and exposure to the elements.<\/p>\n

But God used those six years that Patricius spent (mostly alone) in a powerful way in his life. \u00c2\u00a0In those lonely years, when he was far from home and wandering naked on the wind-swept hills of Ireland, he later said that God had mercy on his youth and ignorance, and he was given the chance to be forgiven of his sins and convert to Christianity.<\/p>\n

He began praying, and later claimed to have prayed more than a hundred times per day during those years. \u00c2\u00a0After six years of captivity, God told him in a dream that a ship awaited him 200 miles away at the coast. \u00c2\u00a0He rose, obeyed this message from God, and was taken back to Britain.<\/p>\n

The story of Patricius’s conversion rings with echoes from Acts 4:13. \u00c2\u00a0As Peter and John were before the Sanhedrin, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”\u00c2\u00a0 Though St. Patrick later went through ecclesiastical training, his writing suffered from the 6-year gap in his education. \u00c2\u00a0He remained, functionally, an unschooled man who walked with God.<\/p>\n

God called Patricius, again using a dream, back to Ireland. \u00c2\u00a0God called him to the people who had enslaved him. \u00c2\u00a0If we were to see Patrick in our day, we would say he had a checkered past. \u00c2\u00a0We would call him damaged goods. \u00c2\u00a0We’d excuse him if he never recovered from the harm. \u00c2\u00a0We might even call him a little crazy. \u00c2\u00a0“Six years alone would do that to a man,” we’d say. \u00c2\u00a0But he let himself be wrecked by God, and it turned out for God’s glory.<\/p>\n

Some people have called St. Patrick the first cross-cultural missionary. \u00c2\u00a0The apostles, with the possible exception of the apostle Thomas, never made it past the borders of the Greco-Roman world. \u00c2\u00a0St. Patrick, some 300 years later, went to a people not his own.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 He carried the gospel boldly across a cultural boundary.<\/p>\n

Jesus said, in Matthew 11, verse 12, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of God has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.” \u00c2\u00a0He may as well have said that about St. Patrick. \u00c2\u00a0He demonstrated the gospel to the people of Ireland with power. \u00c2\u00a0We don’t know how many of the stories about him are true, and what has grown from legend into fancy. \u00c2\u00a0But we know that he demonstrated God’s power to warlord, kings and anyone else who would listen. \u00c2\u00a0As the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 4, “And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”<\/p>\n

Year later, St. Patrick had the opportunity to fight back against slavery. \u00c2\u00a0He was the first person in human history to speak unequivocally against slavery. \u00c2\u00a0This time, a British king sent raiders to the coasts of Ireland to seize thousands of slaves. \u00c2\u00a0Patrick worked both by direct appeal to these kings and politically, through the church in Britain, to try to obtain their release. \u00c2\u00a0Only a former slave could write so forcefully about the evils of slavery, and only one redeemed by Christ would argue for the release of the people who had held him in captivity. \u00c2\u00a0God takes our wounds, and if we give them to him, they CAN result in His glory. \u00c2\u00a0But usually not in time for our suffering to make sense.<\/p>\n

So as we remember the day of St. Patrick’s death tomorrow, don’t think about Leprechauns and pots of gold. \u00c2\u00a0Remember a man whose pain was used by God, who was willing to forgive those who enslaved him, and whose life mission was to demonstrate the power of God in obedience. \u00c2\u00a0He was a man who saw no clear dividing line between this life and the next, who left open the possibility to see the finger of God at work anywhere in his world. \u00c2\u00a0Even in the pain.<\/p>\n

Among other writings, this prayer of St. Patrick survives. If it’s okay, I’d like to pray it as our closing:<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
\nThrough belief in the threeness,
\nThrough confession of the oneness
\nOf the Creator of Creation.<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism,
\nThrough the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
\nThrough the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
\nThrough the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough the strength of the love of Cherubim,
\nIn obedience of angels,
\nIn the service of archangels,
\nIn hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
\nIn prayers of patriarchs,
\nIn predictions of prophets,
\nIn preaching of apostles,
\nIn faith of confessors,
\nIn innocence of holy virgins,
\nIn deeds of righteous men.<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough the strength of heaven:
\nLight of sun,
\nRadiance of moon,
\nSplendor of fire,
\nSpeed of lightning,
\nSwiftness of wind,
\nDepth of sea,
\nStability of earth,
\nFirmness of rock.<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough God’s strength to pilot me:
\nGod’s might to uphold me,
\nGod’s wisdom to guide me,
\nGod’s eye to look before me,
\nGod’s ear to hear me,
\nGod’s word to speak for me,
\nGod’s hand to guard me,
\nGod’s way to lie before me,
\nGod’s shield to protect me,
\nGod’s host to save me
\nFrom snares of devils,
\nFrom temptations of vices,
\nFrom everyone who shall wish me ill,
\nAfar and anear,
\nAlone and in multitude.<\/p>\n

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
\nAgainst every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul
\nAgainst incantations of false prophets,
\nAgainst black laws of pagandom,
\nAgainst false laws of heretics,
\nAgainst craft of idolatry,
\nAgainst spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
\nAgainst every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.<\/p>\n

Christ to shield me today
\nAgainst poison, against burning,
\nAgainst drowning, against wounding,
\nSo that there may come to me abundance of reward.
\nChrist with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
\nChrist in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
\nChrist on my right, Christ on my left,
\nChrist when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
\nChrist in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
\nChrist in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
\nChrist in every eye that sees me,
\nChrist in every ear that hears me.<\/p>\n

I arise today
\nThrough a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
\nThrough belief in the threeness,
\nThrough confession of the oneness,
\nOf the Creator of Creation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: This is from a brief talk I gave at Palm Village Retirement Community this morning, March 16, 2014. \u00c2\u00a0Most of the source information comes from How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe (The Hinges of History). I’m a … Continue reading St. Patrick’s Faith<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1157,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"St. Patrick's Faith","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-misc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdZlL-dA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/d54e87d157291284de63615eb8e49559.jpg?fit=%2C&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=842"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1159,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842\/revisions\/1159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andrewandlisa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}