Lent Meditations: Thursday 17 March
Psalm: am: 88; pm: 91, 92
OT: Sirach 39: 6-10
Epistle: 2 Tim 4:1-8
Gospel: Mt: 13:24-32
THE FIFTH THURSDAY OF LENT: St. Patrick Bishop & Missionary of Ireland, 461
LITURGICAL THEME OF THE DAY: Saint Patrick, the Apostle of the Irish, was seized from his native Britain by Irish marauders when he was sixteen years old. Though the son of a deacon and grandson of a priest, it was not until his captivity that he sought out the Lord with his whole heart.
In his Confession, the testament he wrote towards the end of his life, he says, ‘After I came to Ireland — every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed — the love of God and His fear came to me more and mo re, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was so moved that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many at night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain; and I would rise for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm.”
After six years of slavery in Ireland, he was guided by God to make his escape, and afterwards struggled in the monastic life in Aesir in Gaul [now France], under the guidance of the holy Bishop Germanus. Many years later he was ordained bishop and sent to Ireland once again, about the year 432, to convert the Irish to Christ. His arduous labors bore so much fruit that within seven years, three bishops were sent from Gaul to help him shepherd his flock. His apostolic work was not accomplished without much ‘weariness and painfulness,’ long journeys through difficult country, and many perils; he says his very life was in danger twelve times.
When he came to Ireland, it was a pagan country; when he ended his earthly life some thirty years later, about 461, the Faith of Christ was established in every corner. The work of St Patrick and his brethren has been called the most successful single missionary venture in the history of the Church.
MEDITATION OF THE DAY: The wisdom of Sirach, which is appointed as today’s first reading, says of the man who devotes his life to the Lord’s Law that his memory will not disappear and that his name will live through all generations. It is testament to the wisdom of the church that this is one of the readings for the Feast of Blessed Patrick. Sadly, this day is too often associated with the singing of “Danny Boy”, green fountains and beer, the Wearin’ of the Green and tales of snakes and shamrocks. It should begin with deep appreciations by all Christians of the unyielding commitment to Jesus Christ held by this servant of servants. The totality of who and what Patrick was committed to was evident, such should be the case who claim him as their spiritual ancestor.
He was aware of his weaknesses and conscious of his failings. He didn’t pretend to be what he was not. And through his simplicity and total dedication to the God whose saving power he experienced and trusted so powerfully as can be attested to in the hymn attributed to him as it offers a powerful series of images that deal with the power and grace of God in relation to us through nature and scripture, through spirituality and theology. It all begins and ends with the invocation of the doctrine, the teaching about God as Trinity. The doctrine is itself at the heart of our devotion and worship of God as Christians …. I bind unto myself today… The strong name of the Trinity; By invocation of the same, The Three in One, and One in Three.
What Blessed Patrick does in this great proclamation is bear the light of Christ to Ireland in a time of darkness, lighting the paschal fire on the Hill of Tara and banishing the pagan darkness from Ramah to Wexford. This is in inherited call of not just the Irish Christians but of the people of God to let it be known that Christ is with me, Christ is before me, Christ is behind me, Christ is in me, Christ is beneath me, Christ is above me, Christ is on my right, Christ is on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.
ANCIENT WISDOM/PRESENT GRACE: “”The best theology is rather a divine life than a divine knowledge”—Bishop Jeremy Taylor
PRAYER OF THE DAY: Almighty God, who in your providence chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light, that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever. Amen
LENTEN DISCIPLINE –Spend some time to making a lengthy walk or hike to a place that you find spiritually renewing or refreshing as many in Ireland do at Croagh Patrick or Glendalough. Read the Lorica of St. Patrick and consider how you are called to bring good news to people who perhaps have enslaved and caused you pain but now you seek to being them a grace they do not know.
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