Here's this week's video chapel message, with transcript below for those of you without speakers on your computer.
Opening Prayer:
God of the still, small voice, quiet us within.
Help us to understand your guidance.
Let the words of the scripture inform us:
“Be still and know that I am God.”
In weakness, help us know our strength.
In depression, help us know our joy.
In apathy, help us know our love.
We pray all his with grateful hearts and in your name, Amen.
Saint Patrick: Diversity in Unity
It is Saint Patrick’s Day this week! We all know this to be a holiday celebrating Irish culture, largely because Saint Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland. But who was this guy and what did he do?
Interestingly enough, he was not Irish! The man who would eventually become St. Patrick was born in Britain (part of the Roman Empire at the time) as Maewyn Succat in the late 4th century. His family was Christian, but it’s said that Maewyn himself was an atheist throughout his childhood.
That would change at age 16 (around A.D. 400), when Maewyn was kidnapped from his home on the west coast of Britain by Irish pirates, who proceeded to carry him off to Ireland and force him to work as a shepherd herding sheep. After six years, he escaped his captors, walking nearly 200 miles through the Irish landscape and convincing a ship to carry him with them back to Britain. This harrowing experience certainly had an effect on Maewyn, who was convinced it was the Lord who protected him and delivered him safely home.
Upon returning home, Maewyn received his call (in a dream) to preach the Gospel—in Ireland, of all places! He spent the next 15 or so years in a monastery in Britain, preparing for his missionary work. When he became a priest, his name was changed to Patricius, and he returned to the land of his captors to begin his teachings.
Although some Christians already lived in Ireland at the time, the country was largely not Christian, so spreading a foreign religion was not an easy task. Patricius traveled from village to village to share the teachings of the Lord and was successful enough to eventually found many churches there.
Saint Patrick was a real historical figure, but there are many legends about him that mix with the truth. Did he play a large role in spreading Christianity to Ireland? Yes, absolutely. Did he really drive all the snakes out of Ireland? Probably not, since snakes were not native to Ireland to begin with!
Most famously, he used Ireland’s beloved shamrock, a plant each of whose leaves is divided into three leaflets, to explain the Holy Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity was first formulated among the early Christians and fathers of the Church as early Christians attempted to understand the relationship between Jesus and God in their scriptural documents and prior traditions.
Many Christians have the belief that God eternally exists as Father, Son (meaning Jesus), and Holy Spirit. This is a kind of confusing statement. Do Christians worship three gods?
No. To make that point clear, Saint Patrick explained the concept of the three being One by using the Shamrock. It is one plant with three leaves, one representing the Father, one representing the Son, and the other as the Holy Spirit. This demonstrates the diversity that can be found in unity.
In the human experience when we are at our best we are unified in purpose. How can we be as one when we appear so different from each other? We are one human race as the shamrock can represent, the three leaves representing diversity within that unity.
So, enjoy Saint Patrick’s Day, knowing we are wonderfully diverse and at our best when we celebrate how we are different, and also how we are alike. It is tough to wrap our minds around. I think if we are working on wrapping our minds around that concept, (we may never be done, but it is a worthy endeavor,) it is a natural impulse to seek out and work toward fairness, equality, and inclusivity for ourselves, our community, and the world community.
I thank you for listening. May the God of your understanding bless you today and always.
Just because we are not meeting in person does not mean we cannot make prayer requests. You can do so in the chapel on the first floor of the hospital, or by email to jshawker@connallymmc.org Your requests are kept confidential and prayed over for a total of sixty days.
Here is a nifty song to keep in mind during our times of contemplating the idea of diversity within unity.
We might never be done, but it is a most worthy endeavor.
The Prayer for Protection (Rev. James Dillet Freemen)
The light of God surrounds us.
The love of God enfolds us.
The power of God protects us.
The presence of God watches over us.
Wherever we are, God is.
Amen.
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