Dear Friends in Christ,
It has been said that on Saint Patrick’s Day everyone is Irish. I grew up in Saint Patrick Parish in Woodbury learning the song Great and Glorious Saint Patrick. Yes, “great and glorious country, pray for that land, the land of our fathers!” I am always disappointed when Saint Patrick is portrayed as a caricature of a person. He was a missionary of great spirituality and was tough as nails. He died in Downpatrick in Ireland on March 17, circa 493. When Saint Patrick was kidnapped and sold into slavery as the age of sixteen, he prayed, “the love of God and His fear increased in me more and more, and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that whilst in the woods and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer and felt no hurt from it, whether there was snow or ice or rain; nor was there any slothfulness in me, such as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent within me.” While a slave, God brought good out of evil as Patrick learned the Irish langue and learned about the ins and outs of druidism which he would fight as he brought the true faith to the Irish isle. This great saint did incredible things on behalf of the Lord. So many Irish priests and religious women have spread the faith throughout the globe including within the Diocese of Camden. As a young priest, two of my pastors were from Ireland, County Mayo, and County Cork. I enjoyed the faith and great story telling of the Irish priests with whom I have worked with. I still recall having the privilege of climbing Croagh Patrick and visiting the shrine of Our Lady of Knock. It was a rainy day and very rugged, but it was a day where I saw deep prayer. The Catholic Church is suffering from heresy and secularism in Ireland now and we must pray for this great land since the persecuted Catholics of Ireland gave so much to the world. The religious vocations in Ireland, so numerous at one time, have dried up to a trickle. The spirituality of the Irish is often penitential as the Irish suffered for the True Faith. When we say, “It is a great day for Irish” we should realize that it is a great day to celebrate the Catholic faith of the Irish. Rather than a day for inebriation, my first pastor from near Knock told me that on Saint Patrick’s feast day, the family would go to Holy Mass, have a family dinner and the men might go to the local pub for a pint. Debauchery is not worthy of the great Missionary of Eire. May Our Lady of Knock, Queen of Ireland, pray for the homeland of the Irish who are scattered throughout the world. The most famous part of the Breastplate of Saint Patrick continues to inspire:
Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot seat.
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
Happy Saint Patrick Day,
Father Szolack