Happy St Patrick’s Day from the Margaret Aylward Centre.
As we celebrate the feast day of our national patron saint, there is value in reflecting on the relevance of Patrick’s story for us in 2022.
Patrick’s journey was one of separation, imprisonment, slavery and fear. We know that these are still realities in our world today, in parts of the world that seem far away and remote, but also in places that are much nearer to home.
After years in captivity, Patrick escaped, but then found himself called back to the land where he was once a slave, and then spent the rest of his days. Sometimes we are very anxious to escape places and situations, to throw off the feeling of being trapped or confined, but Patrick’s story teaches us that this can be the very place where we meet God, where we hear what we are called to do.
Patrick brought a message of hope and salvation to a land where God was at that stage unknown, but by teaching the people about the Trinity and God’s infinite love and mercy in their own context, Christianity was made accessible and the Irish integrated Christianity into their traditions and practices. The modern world can seem like an alien place to people of faith, just as Ireland must have seemed to Patrick. But even today we can follow his example by speaking and living our faith in ways that people can see, hear, and understand in their contexts and circumstances, and in ways that are relevant to the lives they live.
Patrick came from Britain yet found his place in Ireland. At a time when questions of nationality and identity threaten the safety and security of people everywhere, his story can challenge how we see the “other”.
God of the land
Patrick was inspired
To return to a place of exile
In order to share a story, a message,
A practice of hope.
He is a man of one island who is the patron saint of the other.
In the centuries of the pain between these islands,
We can find a deeper story — a story of courage
And generosity.
May we who live in the long echo of his story
Be brought into the generosity of his life.
Amen.
(Pádraig O’Tuama)
For more reading and images about Patrick, you might like to follow these links:
https://blueeyedennis-siempre.blogspot.com/search?q=st+patrick
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