Photo - CanvaToday we celebrate the feast of St Patrick, patron saint of Ireland. Today is a special day for Columbans as our missionary society was founded in Ireland in 1918 and the first Columbans were Irish as have been a large majority of our members.
St Patrick was born in Roman Britain and was 16 years old when he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland. He worked there as a shepherd for 6 years. He escaped and returned home where he was eventually ordained a priest. He returned to Ireland and with great missionary spirit he converted thousands to Christianity.
To be a missionary like Patrick, it is necessary to have a deep experience of God and tradition tells us that he found God as he worked as a shepherd. Did this lead him to have compassion of the Irish people as Jesus did when considered the Jewish people to be sheep without a shepherd? His appreciation of God's love for him inspired Patrick to share his faith with the Irish people.
The second reading from Acts 13:46-49 sums up perfectly what Patrick must have felt as he returned to his adopted country. Paul and Barnabas said, ''We must turn to the pagans for this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said, ' I have made you a light for the nations, so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.''
Let us pray part of St Patrick's prayer;
''Christ be with me everywhere I go.
Christ be my friend for ever and ever".
Amen.
Fr Tom Rouse lives and works in Aotearoa/New Zealand
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