St. Patrick

In the Archdiocese of Boston, St. Patrick's Day is celebrated as a Solemnity complete with white vestments and the Gloria at Mass. "Happy St. Patrick's Day" or Happy St. Patty's Day" is the common greeting; corned beef and cabbage, parties, parades and Irish mirth and laughter are in distinct contrast to the "rigors" Lenten season. Legends, stories, and some truth, proliferate conversation. The successful missionary efforts of St. Patrick in Ireland are certainly worthy of praise, but above all, his humility, and his recognition of his own sinfulness and weakness which God turned toward the good, are often overlooked. He begins his Confessions with the frank statement, "I am Patrick, a sinner, most unlearned, the least of all the faithful and utterly despised by many." He describes his ignorance of the faith, his desertion of God and observance of the commandments, and God's intervention that "opened the sense of my unbelief that I might at last remember my sins and be converted with all my heart to the Lord my God, who had regard for my abjection, and mercy on my youth and ignorance, and watched over me before I knew Him, and before I was able to distinguish between good and evil, and guarded me, and comfoted me as would a father his son." A profound experience of God changed this young sinner into one of the most dynamic missionaries in the history of the Church. God's grace, and Patrick's honest, humble assessment of himself moved him to channel all his energy, all his being toward loving and serving God as He directed him. "Thy will be done." In the "wearin' of the green" today, may we look deeper into our own sinfulness, the need for conversion and God's will for us. We'll be right on track with St. Patrick and with the purpose of Lent.
Bro. Rene