17/03/2018

Good morning.
The early birds will soon be setting off for Saul Co Down
and the Church and round tower
which bear the name by which this day is known across the world.
St Patrick is said by several sources
to have landed as a missionary bishop near Saul,
on his return to the Ireland where he’d been taken captive as a boy.

As it’s a non-school day this year,
our Church of Ireland diocese has planned a Family Celebration.
For the children and young people who come
Patrick’s boyhood experiences of exile and emigration
may seem far removed.
But if they have no sense just yet
of how big the world is and how soon it will be calling them to explore it,
it won’t be very long.
Because whether out of necessity or opportunity,
the history of Ireland north and south has so often been a story
of children leaving home.

Aside from grieving their loss,
in every generation it’s been the lot of the faithful parents of those children
to pray for them.
Before God and across the miles,
tears have been shed and candles have been lit
by mothers and fathers who raised their family to go
but broke their hearts when they did.
And yet those same mothers and fathers know
that sometimes it takes uncertainty, loneliness and the comfort of strangers
for faith to become personal and find wings.
That’s how it was for Patrick
and sixteen hundred years later his name is found on every shore
the people he first preached to have washed up on.

Father God,
in every land and every age
it’s in the comings and goings of your people that you build your Church.
Show us our role in our day, whether it’s in the sending, the receiving
or in the obeying of Christ’s call to go out into all the world. Amen