During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them. (Acts 16:9-10)

Did you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today?

Sulojana and I did, even though we are not Irish (not even close…lol!) or have any fondness for corned beef, cabbage or green beer!

No, we did not go to church dressed as shamrocks either! Sulojana did wear an outfit that had shades of green. I wore black pants and a red shirt with no hint of green whatsoever.

Soooo, how then did we celebrate?

Actually, we took some time to study the life of St. Patrick and how he came to be the patron saint of Ireland.

Here is what we discovered.

Patrick was born in Britain to a relatively wealthy family. He was not religious as a youth and, in fact, claims to have practically renounced the faith of his family.

While in his teens, Patrick was kidnapped in a raid and transported to Ireland, where he was enslaved to a local warlord and worked as a shepherd.

It was while he was a slave that he started praying to God and received a revelation of God as He truly is—Father, Son & Holy Spirit. According to some sources, he would later teach this revelation of the Trinity using the three leaves of the shamrock.

After six years of slavery in Ireland, Patrick had a dream in which he heard a mysterious voice: “Your hungers are rewarded: You are going home. Look, your ship is ready.” He escaped, but had to walk for 200 miles to eventually get on board!

A few years after he’d returned home, he had another dream. Victoricus, a man Patrick knew in Ireland, appeared to him in this dream, holding countless letters, one of which he handed to Patrick.

The letter was entitled “The Voice of the Irish.” Upon reading just the title, he heard a multitude of voices crying out to him: “Holy boy, we beg you to come and walk among us once more.”

He was so moved by this that he was unable to read further and woke up. He tried to ignore the dream, but it kept on recurring over and over again.

Eventually Patrick told his dismayed family of his plans to return to evangelize Ireland and soon began his preparations for the priesthood.

When he finally returned to Ireland, he went about preaching the Gospel, baptizing converts, confirming them and appointing clergy to disciple them.

He personally baptized over 120,000 people and planted 300 churches during the 29 years he spent in Ireland.

Wow! No wonder he is considered the patron saint of Ireland.

Were you aware of his story?

When we discovered how Patrick was obedient to God’s promptings in dreams, we couldn’t help but think of how the apostle Paul responded to the vision featuring “a man of Macedonia.”

Like St. Paul, St. Patrick chose to obey the call of God…and the rest is history.

Now you know why celebrated St. Patrick’s Day today by discovering his story, sharing it with others in church and giving thanks to God for his life and witness.

Whether you are Irish or not, whether you celebrated St. Patrick’s Day the traditional way or not, you too can still praise God for St. Patrick, amen?