Today is the feast day of St Patrick,
a day to enjoy a break from Lent
and a day on which my mind usually fills
with thoughts of treats –
coffee and chocolate,
cake and ice cream.
But not today –
today my mind fills
with thoughts of something
completely different –
St Patrick!

As a teenager,
Patrick was captured in England,
carried over to Ireland as a slave,
and sent up bleak hills in Ireland
to mind sheep.
There, instead of boiling over
with hatred and resentment
towards his captors,
young Patrick immersed himself in God
and on the damp slopes of Slemish
Patrick found peace.

Years later
Patrick gained his freedom
and actually chose to return
to the land of his oppressors
and share with his captors
the precious gift
of his Christian faith.

On this feast day
I have a sense of Patrick
as a young man of deep faith
and tremendous generosity of spirit
with an unsual capacity
to embrace a negative situation
and transform it
into something incredibly positive.
And today I feel blessed
to have such a humble and forgiving man
as our national saint.

© Claire Murray, 17th March 2018