St. Patrick’s Day
One
Today is St. Patrick’s Day.
I hate to break it to you, but St. Patrick wasn’t Irish, he was British. Britain had been a Roman province since 43 AD, and Catholicism was introduced there by the mid-1st century, becoming well established by the early 300s. However, by the time Patrick was born, around 385, Britain had grown complacent and had begun to drift away from Christ.
Although St. Patrick’s father was a deacon and his grandfather a married priest, he admitted, “I did not then believe in the living God, not even when I was a child.” He was not alone in this. Like thousands of other Britons, he was captured by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. Reflecting on this later, he wrote, “We deserved this, because we had gone away from God, and did not keep his commandments. We would not listen to our priests, who advised us about how we could be saved.”
Two
Complacency
Before his capture and enslavement, Patrick, like many others, lived a life of comfort but spiritual emptiness.
The danger of a comfortable life is that when we believe we have everything we need, we convince ourselves that we don’t need Jesus so we stop praying. And when we stop praying, God cannot fill our souls, leaving us empty. Yet, unaware of what we’re missing, we redouble our efforts to find fulfillment in more success, more entertainment, more travel, more experiences… but it never satisfies. It’s a race where the more we chase, the less it fulfills, and the ultimate prize is loss. It mirrors the paradox of addiction, where increased consumption yields diminishing returns and greater consequences. In the end, spiritual slavery inevitably leads to physical slavery. We become enslaved to a way of life that never satisfies, but we can’t break the addiction, and we become more and more restless.
As Augustine famously wrote in the Confessions, “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.”
Three
Conversion
In his autobiography, Patrick wrote, “I remained in death and unbelief until I was reproved strongly, and actually brought low by hunger and nakedness daily… It was there that the Lord opened my awareness of my lack of faith. Even though it came about late, I recognized my failings. So, I turned with all my heart to the Lord my God, and he looked down on my lowliness and had mercy on my youthful ignorance.”
Pride fosters self-reliance, convincing us that we have everything under control. We may profess belief in God yet live as though we don’t truly need Him. This is why we devote so little time to prayer and so much to work and entertainment.
In His mercy, God allows trials, sometimes very painful ones, to shake us from this illusion, permitting a dark night that strips away everything we have depended on. Patrick experienced this firsthand when he was enslaved in Ireland for six years. Stripped of everything, his only option was to turn to God. His enslavement was his saving grace.
Our dark nights are our saving grace because they expose the futility of self-reliance. But it is ultimately an act of God’s mercy, awakening us from pride, stirring a hunger for prayer, and leading to a deeper faith and purification.
Again, Patrick writes, “After I arrived in Ireland, I tended sheep every day, and I prayed frequently during the day. More and more the love of God increased, and my sense of awe before God. Faith grew, and my spirit was moved, so that in one day I would pray up to one hundred times, and at night perhaps the same. I even remained in the woods and on the mountain, and I would rise to pray before dawn in snow and ice and rain.”
Suffering stripped Patrick of self-reliance and moved him to Prayer. And prayer brought him from a dead faith to a living faith. That is the process for everyone.
Mother Teresa said, “In the silence of the heart God speaks. The fruit of silence is prayer. And the fruit of prayer is faith.”
Four
Missionary
Once Patrick was freed from his spiritual slavery to pride and self-reliance, God also delivered him from physical slavery. He escaped from Ireland and made it safely back home to Britain.
You might think the story would end there. After all, Patrick had learned his lesson. He had faith, he had a deep prayer life. He could have simply settled down and lived a good, quiet life. But that’s not what he did.
Instead, he returned to pagan Ireland, fully aware that he could be captured and enslaved again, or even martyred. He risked everything for the love of Christ and the salvation of souls. Yet, in a remarkably short time, through the power of God, Patrick converted all of Ireland to Christ. Patrick was willing to take a risk, and through him, countless souls were saved.
What prevents you from taking the risk to invite family or friends to encounter Jesus in prayer? Have you been rejected by them, or do you fear rejection and the loss of the relationship? Maybe you just don’t know what the next right step is?
Five
St. Patrick’s Day is a day to take a risk for the love of God.
What can we do to help our family and friends have faith? Remember the process from Patrick: prayer leads to conversion and faith. If you want them to have faith, then we need to invite them to pray. I know it seems that they need conversion and faith before they will want to pray – but actually it is the other way around - prayer results in conversion and faith. So invite them to pray.
How do we do this?
Step One: You commit to be a person of prayer. Commit to daily meditation and a resolution.
Step Two: Take the initiative to spend time with your inner circle regularly, habitually, so you can tell them they are going to hell for their unbelief. No! So that you can show them their infinite worth by your genuine delight in them. Put all your effort into getting to know them better and delighting in them more.
Step Three: When the time is right, invite them to prayer. How will you know when the time is right? By step one and two. If you are dedicated to prayer, the Spirit will lead you. If you spend time with your people, you will know them well enough to know when the time is right.
But one of the best ways is to invite them to your home, give them hospitality, a meal, good conversation, and then say, “I pray the Rosary every day around this time, would you like to pray the Rosary with me?” and then leave them totally free, no pressure.
Prayer moves us from a dead faith to a living faith. The key for Patrick and for everyone is prayer. So don’t hide your prayer and invite someone to pray the Rosary with you. Our Lady is asking us to gather our family and friends around her in prayer.
Let’s risk something for God and for souls like Patrick!
Suggested Resolutions:
Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you.
Praying in a community is powerful, so this week, take the initiative to invite someone to pray with you.
St. Patrick found God in the silence of his heart. Set-aside at least fifteen minutes of your day and just sit in silence, with your phone off and all of your responsibilities set aside to focus on God.