St. Patrick's Day: Be Inspired by the Real Story!
“St. Patty’s Day goes beyond the green you wear or the beer you drink, to celebrate a man whose life we can learn much from.”
By Philip K. Hardin, M.A., M. Div., LMFT, LPC
By Philip K. Hardin, M.A., M. Div., LMFT, LPC
I am inspired by St. Patrick’s Day. Every day I awake I want to remember -who I am, who I belong to, and where I am going. I am clear on the life I have is a gift and all I have is received with gratitude and viewed as an entrusted gift from God to be respectfully managed with humility and gratitude.
St. Patrick’s Day heightens my senses to these daily values by remembering the life of Patrick who lived hundreds of years ago.
Who was Patrick? He was born in 385 in Scotland. Patrick opens his autobiographical St. Patrick’s Confession with these opening lines:
“My name is Patrick. I am a sinner, a simple country person, and the least of all believers. My father was Calpornius, He was a deacon; his father was Potitus, a priest, who lived at Bannavem Taburniae. His home was near there, and that is where I was taken prisoner. I was about sixteen at the time.”
Patrick was captured by Irish pirates at the age of sixteen. When the pirates landed on the Irish coast, they took Patrick about 200 miles inland where he was a shepherd and farm laborer. Six years passed and Patrick had either a vivid dream or a vision in which he was shown an escape route. Emboldened, Patrick made his break from his captors, traveling back over the 200 miles to the shoreline. As he approached the docks, a British ship stood waiting. The sails unfurled and Patrick was home. But he didn’t stay long.
Before he was a prisoner, Patrick’s Christian faith meant little to him. That changed during his captivity. His previously ambivalent faith galvanized and served to buoy him through those long, dark days. Now that he was back in his homeland he committed to his faith in earnest. He became a priest and soon felt a tremendous burden for the people that had kidnapped him. So, he returned to Ireland with a mission.
Patrick led Ireland out of pagan ways and a cultural and civil barbarianism by bringing not only Christianity to Ireland, but by bringing a whole new ethic. It was not too long ago that a New York Times’ bestselling book—"How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe” by Thomas Cahill argued that St. Patrick and his Ireland saved civilization. I highly recommend the book!
Perhaps we remember him best by reflecting on the “St. Patrick’s Breastplate,” which has traditionally been attributed to him. The word breastplate is a translation of the Latin word lorica, a prayer, especially for protection.
These prayers would be written out and at times placed on shields of soldiers and knights as they went out to battle. St. Patrick’s Lorica points beyond himself and his adventurous life. It points to Christ, the one he proclaimed to the people who had taken him captive:
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Remembering Patrick is inspirational. It moves me to ask,
“How did Patrick handle the six years of captivity as a slave that resulted in him becoming so passionate about becoming a Kingdom Builder?”
“How does God take a slave and transform him into a “man after God’s heart?”
“How does the man not become bitter, resentful, angry, or despairing?”
As I use my imagination to consider Patrick’s six years of captivity, I imagine Patrick engaging in four spiritual disciplines: the practice of solitude, silence, contemplative reading of Scripture and contemplative prayer to facilitate an awakening to what is most real.
These disciplines set the soul on the path where it can come to know God and live present with others in love. I believe they could have been an important part of Patrick’s transformation and, therefore, a good consideration for us on St. Patrick’s Day.
A closer look at the four disciplines:
Solitude:
Solitude is a simple discipline. This is where I open my journal and begin to LISTEN and write (see my Blog on Journaling). I believe Patrick had great opportunity to be alone, to engage his whole heart with God, and to write his desires, fears, and process his circumstances.
Most of us can find a place to be alone and quiet. But the aloneness and stillness can prove difficult. When we try to practice solitude, we discover how addicted we are to our compulsive busyness. Solitude leads us into a space where we are alone, a space without clutter, congestion, and demands. We are still and quiet. We LISTEN!
Silence:
Silence leads us into the deeper terrain of our soul. I imagine Patrick had long days of hard work experienced in silence. He LISTENED!
In silence, we tune into levels of anxiety, guilt, shame and pain. We meet our limits and losses in profound ways. We encounter our brokenness and our weakness where we can acknowledge our need for God. Silence evokes a cry for God to meet us.
Undoubtedly, God met Patrick in the silence.
Contemplative Reading of Scripture:
The goal is NOT the amassing of knowledge but the reinterpretation of our story so that it is congruent with the truth of God’s story. It is doubtful that Patrick had a Bible but having a father who was a deacon and a Priest as a grandfather, he most likely knew the Scriptures.
The Four Rs to practicing contemplative reading of Scripture:
1. Read
We start with a brief prayer asking God to help us to present to the Spirit and the Scripture. Then we read the short selection of Scripture slowly, repeatedly and out loud. As we read it a second, third and fourth time we allow our imagination to locate us in what we are reading.
2. Reflect
We meditate on what lies beneath the surface of our lives that is responding to the Scripture. We pay attention to what is rising in our souls. It may be sorrow, satisfaction, emptiness, fullness, anger, resentment, joy or hope. Whatever it is, we don’t try to resolve it -we sit in it.
3. Respond
We pray for clarity, for illumination of what has stirred in us. This is where I rewrite the Scripture in my own words in my journal, using first person pronouns (“I” and “me”) to personally engage with God’s word.
4. Rest
We become willing to embrace God’s invitation in light of how God’s story affects our story. We move to a kind of communion where no words are needed. Here, our false self, with its autonomy, self-sufficiency and compulsive habits of exercising control, begins to give way to the presence of the love of God for and in us. We experience the presence of God.
Contemplative Prayer:
What distinguishes contemplative prayer from other forms of prayer is a listening posture. Contemplative prayer seeks to listen than to speak. Listen to the voice of God. I imagine Patrick grew in his attunement to the voice of God like a wonderfully tuned musical instrument. What might God be saying to you?
LISTEN! May you hear the voice of God as you pray!
Curiously, St. Patrick is not even truly a saint. He has never been canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Patrick himself told us he was a sinner, not a saint. Patrick was transformed from a kidnapped slave to a “Jesus Follower & Kingdom Builder.”
May St. Patrick’s Day cause you to not only remember a man who gave His life to building the Kingdom of God, but also inspire you to engage in remembering who you are in Christ – a sinner—saved by grace, forgiven and promised eternal life by faith in Jesus!
To God be the glory – Jesus is King!
Phil Hardin works as a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with Hardin Life Resources practicing in both Jackson, MS and Fairhope, AL.
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