{"id":4483,"date":"2025-03-17T08:47:37","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T12:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4483"},"modified":"2025-03-17T08:47:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T12:47:37","slug":"patrick-returns-to-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/17\/patrick-returns-to-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Patrick Returns to Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Each day this Lent we\u2019re looking at major \u201cturning points\u201d in Christian history \u2013 moments or seasons in which the story of God\u2019s people took an important and often unexpected turn. \u00a0<\/em>

March 17 annually arrives on a tidal wave of Irish blessings, green beer, and clothing choices that would make even a leprechaun wince.\u00a0

But who exactly is the figure for whom this day has long been associated?

Legends embellish the life and ministry of Patrick. He is said to have driven the snakes out of Ireland, and to have reached down during a theological bull session with a pagan chieftain to pluck a three-leafed shamrock (a representation of the Trinity) that had miraculously grown at his feet.\u00a0

But Patrick\u2019s real life, or at least what we know of it, is so fascinating that legends are quite unnecessary.\u00a0

As some might put, \u201cYou can\u2019t make this stuff up.\u201d

Patrick was born in Britain around A.D. 390.\u00a0Even though his parents were Christian, he doesn\u2019t seem to have paid much attention to spiritual matters.\u00a0That all changed at age 16 when he was captured by slave traders and sent to work in Ireland as a pig handler on a farm.\u00a0

After a number of years he managed to escape, journeying 200 miles on foot to the coast.\u00a0He arrived just as a ship with a cargo of hounds was departing.\u00a0Patrick talked his way aboard as a dog-tender. His travels took him to France, to the Mediterranean, and finally back home to Britain.

Patrick had a truckload of good reasons never to set foot in Ireland again.\u00a0

But he was haunted by dreams in which Irish children begged him, \u201cCome and walk among us once more.\u201d\u00a0

After a time of study and preparation he returned to the Emerald Isle, this time to present what he had learned about God and God\u2019s ways through his own struggles.

Previous Christian missionaries had fallen flat in their attempts to engage the pagan tribes that had dominated Ireland for centuries.\u00a0But something about Patrick\u2019s straight-to-the-point style clicked.\u00a0It\u2019s likely that his years in slavery had uniquely formed him to understand his audience.

We have no reason to doubt that Patrick occasionally used shamrocks to illustrate the one-in-three reality of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (although, as we noted earlier in our series, no illustration adequately conveys the mystery of the Trinity).\u00a0But let\u2019s put the legends aside.\u00a0What do we actually know about his ministry over the next 30-plus years?\u00a0

Most of Ireland converted to Christianity.\u00a0It was a remarkably peaceful transition, since historians cannot name a single Irish martyr.\u00a0

Patrick launched approximately 300 churches.\u00a0That would be one about every five weeks.\u00a0He baptized around 120,000 people.\u00a0If you do that math, that would be approximately 12 per day for three decades.\u00a0Most American church leaders would do handsprings just to baptize a dozen adult converts per year.\u00a0<\/em>

But that was just the beginning of how Irish Christianity became a major hinge point for the rest of the global Church.<\/em>

This year marks the 30th<\/sup> anniversary of the publication of Thomas Cahill\u2019s book How the Irish Saved Civilization.\u00a0<\/em>At first glance this title would seem to be about as self-evident as How the Cleveland Browns Saved the NFL.\u00a0<\/em>

But Cahill\u2019s work is a moving account of the medieval monastics who, living in comparative isolation on the Emerald Isle, picked through the cultural ruins of the Roman Empire and managed to save \u2013 for all the world and for all time \u2013 the priceless literary legacy of the Mediterranean world.

Irish monks, as a spiritual exercise, faithfully copied and preserved many of the greatest classics of ancient Greece and Rome, not to mention crucial religious documents.\u00a0Apart from their faithfulness, Cahill asserts, the West as we know it would never have come into existence.

The Irish church also bequeathed a rich legacy of music.\u00a0\u00a0

According to tradition, the lyrics of Be Thou My Vision<\/em> were written by the Irish poet St. Dallan within 100 years of Patrick’s death.\u00a0It was only about 100 years ago, however, that the familiar words were finally set to the Irish folk tune “Slane” – an association that seems likely to endure.

Perhaps more than any other hymn in the English language, this is a musical prayer:\u00a0

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart<\/em>
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art<\/em>
Thou my best thought by day or by night<\/em>
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light<\/em>

Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my true word<\/em>
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord<\/em>
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son<\/em>
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one<\/em>

High King of heaven, my victory one<\/em>
May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s sun<\/em>
Heart of my own heart whatever befall<\/em>
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all<\/em>

This rendition by singer-songwriter Ginny Owens is especially poignant, since she herself does not have physical vision, having lost her eyesight at age three: Be Thou My Vision (Live) – Ginny Owens<\/a>

You may not be into shamrocks and green socks.

But that Irish hymn is a prayer worth singing any day of any year.

Especially if our own lives – like Patrick’s – are taking twists and turns we never saw coming.\u00a0 \u00a0
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Each day this Lent we\u2019re looking at major \u201cturning points\u201d in Christian history \u2013 moments or seasons in which the story of God\u2019s people took an important and often unexpected turn. \u00a0 March 17 annually arrives on a tidal wave of Irish blessings, green beer, and clothing choices that would make… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[499,881,880],"class_list":["post-4483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-evangelism","tag-mission-work","tag-patrick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4483"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4485,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4483\/revisions\/4485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}