St. Patrick's Day

It is here once again the day we celebrate with green and gold! Of course, talking about Saint Patrick’s Day which is celebrated on March 17th every year. If you are like me you might know a little bit about the history of this holiday but it is probably overshadowed by what the secular world has made of it. When I think of Saint Patrick’s day, I think of the color green, leprechauns with their pots of gold, green beer, parades, and parties in celebration of Irish culture. Like many other holidays, I think our culture overlooks the reason for this holiday just in order to have another reason to drink and party. When we look at the original meaning and history we will find a much different story than what the secular world celebrates. Honoring and celebrating Irish culture and any culture is not a bad thing when we are doing it just for the party side of it we have lost the real meaning of the celebration and are dishonoring the culture itself.

This St. Patrick’s Day I was interested in getting down to the real story behind the holiday and the man after which it is named. I wanted to better understand the meaning behind the holiday and it’s important to not only those of Irish descent but all people. So who was Saint Patrick anyway and what can we learn from his life? Well, Partick was born around 385 years after the death of Christ in Roman Britain, not Ireland like many think. At the age of 16, he was captured and enslaved by a group of Irish pirates who took him to Northern Ireland where he served as a shepherd for 6 years before he escaped to France. In his years of slavery, Patrick grew strong in his faith and fell in love with God. This love for God led him to become a priest and later a bishop in the church. When he was the age of 60 he felt led to go back to Ireland to spread the love of God to the same people who had once enslaved him. During his ministry, he used the shamrock to illustrate the Trinity, each leaf on the clover represented either the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit. Saint Patrick is thought to have led 130,000 people to Christ and established 300 churches, because of this he is honored as the patron saint of Ireland but only in name as the catholic church has never officially canonized him as he lived prior to current laws on this matter. We celebrate him and his work for the Lord every year on March 17th as that was the day on which he died in 461AD.

When reading and learning about Saint Patrick I found his strength so amazing! In a time in which you would think a young man would turn away from God, he leaned in. Then many years after being freed from a bad situation, he returned to the same country that enslaved him to share the best news of all that God send His son to save all people. The strength and forgiveness it took to do these things can only be found in a deeper relationship with the Prince of Peace. We have a lot we can learn from this man! So if you plan to celebrate Saint Patrick’s day today or this weekend I urge you to not lose sight of the importance of what Saint Patrick stood for and I challenge you to be a little bit more like him.

Want to learn more about Saint Patrick? Check out this article posted by K-Love Radio! What’s So Important About St. Patrick’s Day? | Positive Encouraging K-LOVE (klove.com)