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Good morning... Happy St Patrick’s Day. It might have become an excuse for drinking parties, for rivers across the world to be dyed green and for parades to be held through the streets celebrating pretty-much anything that moves – but the memory of the man himself, while sparsely told, is rich. Around the middle of the 5th century when he was about 16, Patrick was captured by Irish pirates from his home in Britain, and taken across the Sea as little more than a slave to look after animals. He lived for six years in captivity, and during this time embraced the Christian faith as his own. He escaped and returning to his family in Britain, and became convinced that God was calling him to return to Ireland to share this good news with the people. He made the journey – and indeed it appears that the Irish listened to what he had to say. He established a church at Saul in County Down and the movement spread north and south and west from there. In later times he served as a bishop, dying it is said on 17th March in the year 461. His grave is said to be at Downpatrick where an impressive stone marks the spot. 
For Ireland Patrick is important because he is neither a Protestant nor a Catholic Saint. In a land terribly divided by its troubled history – no less so after recent Assembly elections – Patrick offers us a story which rises above our differences. He carries the essence of the matter in the twists and turns of his life. God speaks good news to people who need to hear it. The people hear it and accept it. That’s a good thing.
Prayer. Lord God, thank you for the Saints of the past who brought us the gospel, and who by their example show what really matters in life. Amen.