Today, people of all backgrounds celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, especially throughout the
United States, Canada and Australia. Although North America is home to the largest
productions, This day is celebrated in locations far from Ireland, including Japan,
Singapore and Russia. Popular St. Patrick’s Day recipes include Irish soda bread, corned
beef and cabbage and champ. In the United States, people often wear green on St.
Patrick’s Day.
In modern-day Ireland, St. Patrick’s Day has traditionally been a religious occasion. In
fact, up until the 1970s, Irish laws mandated that pubs be closed on March 17. Beginning
in 1995, however, the Irish government began a national campaign to use interest in St.
Patrick’s Day to drive tourism and showcase Ireland and Irish culture to the rest of the
world.
The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years. On St.
Patrick’s Day, which falls during the Christian season of Lent, Irish families would
traditionally attend church in the morning and celebrate in the afternoon. Lenten
prohibitions against the consumption of meat were waived and people would dance,
drink and feast–on the traditional meal of Irish bacon and cabbage.
Saint Patrick who lived during the fifth century, is the patron saint of Ireland and its
national apostle. Born in Roman Britain, he was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a
slave at the age of 16. He later escaped, but returned to Ireland and was credited with
bringing Christianity to its people.
In the centuries following Patrick’s death (believed to have been on March 17, 461), the
mythology surrounding his life became ever more ingrained in the Irish culture: Perhaps
the most well-known legend of Saint Patrick is that he explained the Holy Trinity
(Father, Son and Holy Spirit) using the three leaves of a native Irish clover, the
shamrock.
When Was the First St. Patrick’s Day Celebrated?
Since around the ninth or 10th century, people in Ireland have been observing the Roman
Catholic feast day of St. Patrick on March 17. The first St. Patrick’s Day parade took
place not in Ireland but in America. Records show that a St. Patrick’s Day parade was
held on March 17, 1601 in a Spanish colony in what is now St. Augustine, Florida.
More than a century later, homesick Irish soldiers serving in the English military
marched in New York City on March 17, 1772 to honor the Irish patron saint.
Enthusiasm for the St. Patrick’s Day parades in New York City, Boston and other early
American cities only grew from there.
Isaiah 49.8 – 15
Psalm 145
John 5. 16 – 30
The Israelites because of their uncomfortable, painful experiences did abandon their God and may
even have reached at the point of doubting whether God really takes care of them. Often when we
come to the point of encountering our sufferings boldly, God comes to our rescue. At a time when
we feel helpless or arrive at a too deeply distressing situation, that God reaches out to us with His
magnanimity, generosity, gentleness, an makes us experience, after our options are exhausted, after
we have prayed much and indicated the need of our dependence on Him, we realize that He has not
abandoned us but actually He was watching over us.
Even when we experience moments of abandonment by God or think that He has forgotten us, He
comes to us with the consoling words such as, “Even though a mother may forget her sucking
child, I will never forget you, I have carved your name on my palm and you are mine, you are
more precious to me”. This is the nature of our loving and compassionate God. No matter what
situation we are in, these words can be very reassuring, encouraging to us as they do instill us a
certainty of hope when we are down outright, dejected or experience moments of meaningless of
our life.
Jesus’ conviction came from within and without. His Father, the one in heaven, surrounded him
like the air he breathed. His Father’s will, seen in sending him for the salvation of the world, was
the priority of his life. It is hard to understand the relations of divinity and humanity; but we can
enter in prayer into the willingness and hope to do and fulfil the will of God for his people. Prayer
is giving time to the big wish – ‘thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’. Our time, silent or
verbal, in prayer is our wish that his will be done, and the love of his reign be made visible on
earth.
Jesus relationship to God was threatening to those who saw God differently. He spoke of God as a
loving father with whom he related closely and confidently. I think of the human relationships that
have helped me to understand what Jesus meant. I relax in the presence of God who loves me
deeply.
Such was the unity of the Father and Jesus that the work of one is the work of the other. Jesus
trusts me enough to call me into the same closeness. He reminds me that whatever I do I do with
him and that what I do to others, I do to him.
God bless. Happy Feast of Saint Patrick.