"Where's the (corned) beef?"

 

Dear Friends

I am all in for corned beef and cabbage and look forward to my annual fill of it tonight. But there is more to consider on this St. Patrick’s Day, things to fill mind and soul. And so I share a part of a brief commentary by James Kiefer and one verse of a more literal translation by Kuno Meyer of the familiar hymn “St. Patrick’s Breastplate”.

Patrick was born about 390, in southwest Britain, somewhere between the Severn and the Clyde rivers, son of a deacon and grandson of a priest. When about sixteen years old, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland. Until this time, he had, by his own account, cared nothing for God, but now he turned to God for help. After six years, he either escaped or was freed, made his way to a port 200 miles away, and there persuaded some sailors to take him onto their ship. He returned to his family much changed, and began to prepare for the priesthood, and to study the Bible.

Around 435, Patrick was commissioned, perhaps by bishops in Gaul and perhaps by the Pope, to go to Ireland as a bishop and missionary. Patrick made his headquarters at Armagh in the North, where he built a school, and had the protection of the local monarch. From this base he made extensive missionary journeys, with considerable success. To say that he single-handedly turned Ireland from a pagan to a Christian country is an exaggeration but is not far from the truth.

An aspect of Patrick's thought that shows very clearly through his writings, is his awareness of himself as an unlearned exile, a former slave and a fugitive, who has learned the hard way to put his sole trust in God. 

   

    I arise today

    God's strength to pilot me:

    God's might to uphold me,

    God's wisdom to guide me,

    God's eye to look before me,

    God's ear to hear me,

    God's word to speak to me,

    God's hand to guard me,

    God's way to lie before me,

    God's shield to protect me,

    God's host to save me.

My mind and heart now filled with some knowledge and inspiration, what else is there to say but “Bring on the corned beef and cabbage!”.

John