March 17, 2021
by Mary Clifford Morrell
With snow in the forecast for St. Patrick’s Day in New Jersey, I recall fond memories of St. Patrick’s Day a few years ago when we had a veritable blizzard.
We had been expecting an email from the conductor of the consort with whom I sing, telling us the St. Patrick’s Day concert had to be canceled, but to our surprise, his email was, “The concert is on!!”
A forecast later in the day indicated the potential storm would be no more than a few inches of the wintery mix, certainly something we could all manage to get through.
So we happily donned our boots and concert blacks and headed out. Unfortunately, the snow and ice hadn’t heard the latest forecast because by the time we got on the roads it was unrelenting. The only way to travel safely was by creeping, inch by inch.
As we arrived at the historic church where the choir and orchestra would be performing, we sat around large wooden tables hoping to dry off before curtain call. “We are all crazy, you know,” laughed one musician. We all laughed; no one argued the point.
But as more and more of our assembly slid in to join us, it seemed to me that crazy was not the way to describe it. Passionate seemed more appropriate, and certainly so for an evening celebrating a saintly, holy man who made an extraordinary difference in the world.
St. Patrick was passionate, and his passion enabled him to undertake difficult missionary work which changed the face of Ireland. But it wasn’t always so.
Patrick had no plans to go to Ireland but he was kidnapped by Irish raiders at 16 years of age from his home in Britain and taken to Ireland where he served as a laborer and shepherd, badly treated and often close to starvation. He spent six years there until he finally escaped and returned home.
His difficult and painful experience began to solidify his faith and he began to study for the priesthood. In a dream about the Irish people, Patrick believed God was calling him to return to Ireland and teach the people, who were largely pagan, about Jesus and the Gospel.
In his Confessio, St. Patrick writes, “I am first of all a simple country person, a refugee, and unlearned. I do not know how to provide for the future. But this I know for certain, that before I was brought low, I was like a stone lying deep in the mud. Then he who is powerful came and in his mercy pulled me out, and lifted me up and placed me on the very top of the wall. That is why I must shout aloud in return to the Lord for such great good deeds of his, here and now and forever, which the human mind cannot measure.”
While St. Patrick was never officially canonized by the Catholic Church, he said yes to God and embarked on a mission that would be dangerous and difficult. He was able to accomplish what he set out to do because of his passion for God. With humility and trust, he walked in the footsteps of Jesus who was the example of life imbued with a passion for doing the will of his Father.
St. Patrick, known and loved as the “Apostle to Ireland,” was an ordinary man who did extraordinary things because of his faith—surely something worth celebrating on March 17.
Mary Regina Morrell is a Catholic journalist, author, and syndicated columnist who has served the dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton, New Jersey, and RENEW International in the areas of catechesis and communication.