10 Saint Patrick’s Day Things That Caught My Eye Today (March 17, 2016)

1. One of the most beautiful prayers, via St. Patrick.

Statue of Saint Patrick in the Dominican church of St Vincent Ferrer, NYChttps://t.co/IdSDrJ5E5B

— Fr Lawrence Lew OP (@LawrenceOP) March 17, 2016

3. From Fr. Roger Landry:

Today we renew our Covenant with God by a similar commitment of faith. And the way we do so best is the way St. Patrick that St. Patrick was strengthened, allowing Christ to be with us through Holy Communion, in which we enter into a communion of body and soul with the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus. He gives us his body and blood as the “new and eternal Covenant” and instructs us to “do this” in his memory, not only celebrating this Covenant but living the Covenant in communion with him, faithfully adhering to his promises and to the commandments of love that constitute our own end of that sacred alliance. Abraham “rejoiced to see my day,” Jesus said. We know St. Patrick now rejoices to see his eternal way. And if we remain in his word as Abraham and Patrick did, we will never see death but instead gaze forever on Him who is the Resurrection and the Life!

St. Patrick’s experience of the Cross prepared him to be a dynamic missionary disciple.

— Bishop Barres (@BishopBarres) March 17, 2016

5. How he transformed his slavery, from America.

Each new generation of disciples is called by Christ to do what St. Patrick did- evangelize in word and in deed.

— FrSteveGrunow (@FrSteveGrunow) March 17, 2016

7. More from Fr. Steve Grunow:

Today is also the day that the Church recalls the mighty deeds of Saint Patrick, the great evangelist of Ireland. Though for many, Saint Patrick has been reduced to a vague cultural symbol and civic celebrations in his honor have little to do specifically with who Saint Patrick is and what he accomplished. However, the real Saint Patrick was a man who gave his life in service to Jesus Christ, and was willing to suffer and make whatever sacrifices were necessary so that he could share his own relationship with Jesus Christ with others. His efforts were what Christ used to establish the Church in Ireland, and from that Church, create a civilization. What St. Patrick accomplished is testimony to what the Church means by evangelization and the Church celebrates St. Patrick, and holds him up as a model for us, not simply because of his associations with Ireland, but because he a heroic example of what it means to be a Christian. The mission of evangelization, a mission for which St. Patrick dedicated his whole life, is not over or accomplished. Each generation is called by Christ to do what St. Patrick did in our own time and circumstances. On this day when the Church remembers St. Patrick, let us remind ourselves that it is not enough for us Christians to simply remember the saints, but it is our mission to become like the saints we remember.

May the road rise up to meet you… Traditional Gaelic Blessing #StPatricksDay pic.twitter.com/FZ0ZjWO0qy

— Arlington Diocese (@arlingtonchurch) March 17, 2016

9. From the Office of Readings in the Liturgy of the Hours today, from the Confession of St. Patrick:

I give unceasing thanks to my God, who kept me faithful in the day of my testing. Today I can offer him sacrifice with confidence, giving myself as a living victim to Christ, my Lord, who kept me safe through all my trials. I can say now: Who am I, Lord, and what is my calling, that you worked through me with such divine power? You did all this so that today among the Gentiles I might constantly rejoice and glorify your name wherever I may be, both in prosperity and in adversity. You did it so that, whatever happened to me, I might accept good and evil equally, always giving thanks to God. God showed me how to have faith in him for ever, as one who is never to be doubted. He answered my prayer in such a way that in the last days, ignorant though I am, I might be bold enough to take up so holy and so wonderful a task, and imitate in some degree those whom the Lord had so long ago foretold as heralds of his Gospel, bearing witness to all nations.

How did I get this wisdom, that was not mine before? I did not know the number of my days, or have knowledge of God. How did so great and salutary a gift come to me, the gift of knowing and loving God, though at the cost of homeland and family? I came to the Irish peoples to preach the Gospel and endure the taunts of unbelievers, putting up with reproaches about my earthly pilgrimage, suffering many persecutions, even bondage, and losing my birthright of freedom for the benefit of others.

If I am worthy, I am ready also to give up my life, without hesitation and most willingly, for his name. I want to spend myself in that country, even in death, if the Lord should grant me this favor. I am deeply in his debt, for he gave me the great grace that through me many peoples should be reborn in God, and then made perfect by confirmation and everywhere among them clergy ordained for a people so recently coming to believe, one people gathered by the Lord from the ends of the earth. As God had prophesied of old through the prophets: The nations shall come to you from the ends of the earth, and say: “How false are the idols made by our fathers: they are useless.” In another prophecy he said: I have set you as a light among the nations, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.

It is among that people that I want to wait for the promise made by him, who assuredly never tells a lie. He makes this promise in the Gospel: They shall come from the east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This is our faith: believers are to come from the whole world.