 Hard stars and horseshoes don't forget the pink balloons always after military arms. Listen We have some things we need to talk about before we start to show number one If you want to interact with us after the show stay till the very end because we will be pulsing your comments on the screen It's true So if we do at the end of the shows now your comment you type it in we posted on the screen secondly The Christian meaning of suffering according to St. John Paul II by the great and powerful Professor Simone riskala, I remembered I don't pronounce her last name I wonder how she feel if she knew you were announcing her name like that the great powerful because she's great and powerful This course will expound the profound meaning of suffering as presented in st. John Paul II's encyclical Can't pronounce that Salvi chid Dolores. I actually can I always stumble on it though And as embraced by him throughout his extraordinary life We will also cover some principles of moral theology that can act as our guide and the face of great suffering What does it mean to be human? Can the ends ever justify the means? What are the sources of morality in this course? You will discover the answers to these questions and more that are becoming increasingly relevant in our day I feel like anything about JP2 is gonna be awesome. What a powerful y'all should go take that class I don't know who type that up, but they knows that's that's good stuff The second class marrying apparitions in the modern world By the great and powerful dr. Peter Howard This class you like Batman now this class will examine the significance of marrying apparitions in the modern world with their historical Context we will also discuss the proper way to view marrying apparitions that they have been that have been confirmed approved or even Condemned by church authorities. Oh, which one which one do you want to know? I want to know which one Anyway, if you want to sign up for either of those fantastic courses, you know where you need to go avala-institute.org Org avala-institute.org please apply soon Because we'd like to save you a seat, but these classes go so fast especially now with these rock star professors that You just got to get in while you can because once it's gone. It's gone I don't know about y'all, but now I'm just wanting to take a course After Jordan's an amazing announcement So and again if you'd like to have your comments put on the screen and interact with us after the show And that's something we do for a short period of time if you're wondering why I'm talking in a very poor Irish accent You'll find out shortly and without being said are you ready to go only if I don't have to do in an Irish accent Are you ready to go? Hey, I'm Jordan Burke and I'm Kristen Prelin. This is Saints and Sages. No Are you serious? I'm dead serious where we talk about the wisdom of the Saints and I was relevant for you And today we have quite a special show We're talking about the great and powerful st. Patrick You're gonna be talking about the great and powerful st. Patrick with that accent I you know I have a good friend who's from Ireland and I've listened to his voice a couple of times And I've taken some notes and so hopefully this isn't too offensive to the Irish out there But I will not do it for the rest of the show. Thank you Jordan is actually an actor on the side just saying I if you want to hire me for your birthday party, you know I don't do anything fun or funny Just stand on the back of the room and I shout things in different accents. So st. Patrick. This is cool Yeah, he's a good one You know why cuz he's gonna blow your mind and the facts that you just had no idea about st. Patrick There are a lot of different things that I think people were not aware of interestingly enough because he's one of the most popular saints in the entirety of The st. World in the entirety of the world. It's one of those one of those names that is known whether or not you're Catholic It's st. Patrick's Day. Everyone celebrate st. Patrick's Day a holiday national holiday as you guys know st. Patty's Day So most people know him thinking that he is an Irish leprechaun, right? Not the case. It's just not the case Fun fact wasn't even Irish. She wasn't even Irish Can you what is actually a side note what must he feel like up in heaven every time it's it's it's st. Patrick's Day and Everybody thinks he's Irish. He's like you do know the Irish kidnapped me, right? Like this is not something I mean, he had a heart for the Irish and everything the people they were right there with him and I'm skipping that so We start off the story where he is he is about well actually Can you say his parents names because I cannot well? I just thought they were so wonderful. So he was born in the United Kingdom around 480 and his parents were named. Okay, here we go. I gotta get closer Calphernias and conchessa the confurnious and conchessa and I read that conchessa was actually Related to another well-known saint. Did you know that? I did not know that I'm Saint Martin Saint Martin of Tours. Oh, I found that out. I thought it was just a fact But um, so this thing is actually the patron saint. I just want to say this Well, it's be safe more 17th as you know, but he's a saint of Ireland, of course, and then engineers Okay, that's interesting. But yeah, so those those those are his parents He was actually born in nobilities pretty wealthy, but his parents weren't He was educated, but he didn't really he wasn't taught much religion, right? Right. It wasn't a big thing for his we were talking about his dad who may or may not have been a deacon We can really narrow down the exact thing that role that his dad had in the church But his dad was involved in the church Which is only important to know later on because there's a conversion of sorts. So yeah But basically he we find we find young Patrick out in the field one day walking around And out of nowhere a group of Irishmen come and they kidnap him It's Irish pirates, which is a very strange if you think about a bunch of red-headed pirates raiders raiders Yeah He was only 16 and he was kidnapped and and taken away to become a slave a slave boy a Shepherd slave boy right for six years, right? So for six years, he's taken from his homeland taken to Ireland by these marauders by these raiders by these pirates and He's treated really really poorly and it's important to note at that time Contextually that Ireland was overrun with Pagans of all different sorts of all different types and tales and whatever it was completely overrun And so he's taken from not just his home But he's brought into this place that is really anti everything that he's used to and even though he didn't necessarily Take his faith seriously as at least from what I read as a child You know, he had cursory knowledge of it This was still very contrary to everything he had it actually reminds me of the second sorrow of our lady of sorrows Her the flight to Egypt and her struggle because Egypt that was full of you know Idolatry and paganism all that kind of stuff. So there's a let's just kind of popped up in my head There's somewhat of a correlation of the struggle there Maybe not a correlation, but you know similarity So in this, you know interestingly enough He just turned to God and one of the things that he wrote was the love of God and his fear grew in me more and more As did the faith and my soul was rose so that in a single day I have said as many as a hundred prayers and in the night nearly the same I prayed in the woods and on the mountain even before dawn I felt no hurt from the snow ice or rain and That one is interesting to me because it kind of gives some context into what he was dealing with Yeah, this was his confession which he wrote and under these terrible conditions He was crying out to God because he recognized he was in need and had nothing and so he turned to the Lord and pleaded with him begging for his freedom and Miraculously at the age of 20 he did escape right and he had a dream from God, right Jordan Yeah, so the dream basically said God prepared him said hey You know go look towards the coast, but you also he said something about I wish I had this I didn't have this written down because I was trying to find an exact a more exact rendering of it, but Fast and look towards the coast and when he did so he found a ship who was also pay ins But he went to them and basically said hey Can you any he was 20 at this time so as you had said before six years for six years He's doing this 20 years old by these pagans on the shore and there were some sale They were sailors right and he says hey, can you take me with you and the story goes some of the resources? I found the story goes They said no do you have any money? He says no and they said well no go away And so he turns around and starts praying and they go huh Tell you what you you're like bow to my pig and God and then maybe you can come on the ship This was two years right in the waiting so he's now 22 and and St. Patrick goes no, bro. That's okay. I'd rather like that Yeah, yeah, bro I'd rather stay and suffer and do these sorts of things and pray I guess they admired that in him I think so I think they just admire it and they're like, you know what whatever man Come on. You can come with us and he was able to finally go back home This is when he is United with his family one of the things I read that I couldn't confirm Was that there around the same period? He was near starvation I'm guessing probably because he had escaped. I don't really know the dynamics of how that worked I'm just kind of mentioning it just for the sake of the story. Well, he was homeless So I would imagine it was difficult to find food. It's kind of what I'm thinking and He suffered a second brief captivity before uniting with his family and it may have been with those who were on the ship We don't really know This one is interesting. You know, we just recorded in Francis before this for the listeners and There's an expansive amount of information for her. This is another one. So for st. Patrick This is another one where it's like, okay, we have to really look at multiple sources We have to really and which we do for all of them, but we really are older, right, right, right so anyway, he's reunited with this family and Then he has a dream. So yeah, so he's free at this point. He is no longer a slave in Ireland He's out of there. Goodbye Ireland But then Patrick saw a vision and it actually prompted his studies to become a priest which this Started his journey back to Ireland. So in the vision He saw all the children of Ireland from their mother's wombs And they were stretching out their hands to him and so this vision really inspired him to Take himself back to Ireland after becoming a priest And so he actually studied Christianity in the Lear and Monastery in France Um, and he went to so that's an Auxir. I think Auxir France And then he was actually ordained a bishop at 43 at the age of 43 in the year 432 ad And he just wanted to share the gospel with the Irish because they were so pagan so messed up And that just blows my mind that someone would want to go back to the people that tortured him And that's just the heart of jesus right right what else would cause you to want to go back to the people that hurt you most It took everything from you stripped you of of of your humanity and dignity And then preach and share the good news with that convert them and something else that happened in that vision as well was he saw a man called Victoria like victor Victor Coose something like that. I've heard one guy just say victor So i'm just going to go with victor and it's kind of the easier way to say it Um, but delivered him a letter and which was headed with the voice of the irish All right, and that was really this kind of like okay. I'm being called He heard these voices of people he knew didn't quite understand what they're saying as well as the vision that you kind of relayed And it's worth mentioning too that he didn't feel He knew that he didn't have a great education And he didn't feel Kind of worthy in a sense to fulfill this mission that has been put in front of him and I I noted in my show notes, you know As soon as I read about this it reminded me of this quote God doesn't call the equip to equips the called right? He said I don't care if you don't have Education I want you to study to be a priest and now a bishop and now I want you to come and And serve my people who were in desperate need of it. I mean as we said Ireland at that time was in really really bad shape That reminds me of st. Joseph of Cupertino Who was considered a dumb ox right and then the Quinas was dumb ox. Oh that was a quinas. Oh, but he was also dumb. Okay wrong phrase But yeah, he was considered dumb and then he ended up by the end of everything being able to levitate Right, right. So if the lord has you somewhere he will take you there It doesn't matter of your qualifications or you know your skill set the lord will provide a way if he wants you to Do something right which is really encouraging and this is what the case was for our friend Patrick here And it's it's interesting I wanted to touch on one of the other things that you said to you was His heart for these people going back and like you said they captured him I mean he was under this entire time He's under constant threat of or danger of martyrdom like this wasn't just like Well, I'm here. It's time to convert some souls come to the river. We're gonna baptize you You know come know Jesus Christ the true king god of your souls It was that plus hey, please don't murder me, you know at the same time and uh, but it but it seems as if nothing kind of Suede his passion and his intensity for the conversion of souls And so this is another thing that I found really interesting was that He had written his own confessions And he has also so st. Patrick has also been compared to Augustine in a way because obviously Augustine wrote his own confessions and in both of these they had had bared their souls Patrick's confessions are a little bit more interesting and be cut in the sense that He had written that he had raised like 33 people from the dead upwards of 33 people from the dead I am I'm having trouble tracking down The legitimacy of that claim. I haven't actually read it in the confession. I just want to make that clear But these are the things that we're taking from all these different resources and kind of trying to weave the story together But that's the kind of things you can expect if you actually read st. Patrick's confession supposedly Well, he was pretty busy when he was in ireland because there were tons of churches built by him And the people that he converted and apparently thousands of people converted to christianity through his ministry And he was on fire about it all and preaching and teaching and baptizing and just healing all of these things He was just looking for anyone and everyone who would listen to the gospel message And they were they were converting right and that's the fascinating thing Is that they wanted to listen to him? Yeah, and he so the zeal never ended He went and went and went and went until he couldn't go anymore and keep you know keep converting and baptizing And I I wish I had it written down There was somewhere where he basically had said he had converted like thousands of souls and by the way this So this is what I want to segue this into, you know, so there's a lot of legends about St. Patrick primarily the one of the snakes We were actually listening to a A video prior to this that talked about well, there was probably never snakes on that island just because of the you know the cold water and all that kind of stuff, but it seems as if the snakes were a Symbolism for the pagans that he drove away from the island, which I actually thought was really cool I like that a whole lot more than the you know the idea of like physical snakes I think it has more depth to it The other thing is to the shamrock and he used the shamrock supposedly to teach the trinity. It's these three and one But and then that interestingly enough became a I don't know like a social norm. Is that what they said where it was every on the anniversary of his death People started wearing shamrocks because they remember like this is a sign It's almost like how we wear a cross But that was their cross sort of a thing and then it morphed into green and then it morphed into A whole day made it. Yeah, and it was an american made holiday Interestingly enough, right? It's kind of embarrassing. I don't know. It's still his feast day, but it's been completely changed But I mean, that's not the first time that's happened. I mean we have that with Christmas we have that with st. Nicholas. We have that with all these different things One of the things that I love this is kind of a tangential and in a way But one of the things I love about our faith is that it's so intertwined and interweaved Are interwoven into our our culture that When we start to strip back and go into history We find that so many things that we celebrate in a cultural context today are from Like st valentine's day st valentine's St. Nicholas, you know, you know the holiday. Yeah, everything is really not the fourth of july. I don't know Maybe Everything maybe that could be my if I ever become a saint, maybe that could be my feast day That would be patron saint. Honestly. I love the fourth of july right right up there with so but anyway point being I mean Everything we have comes from the church and people may not know that but that's the reality of the situation Like even the bible I love I love the now. I'm totally going off on a tangent But I love, you know when when you're talking to protestants and they're like, well, we're we're, you know We'll remove these books and blah blah blah. I'm like, do you know who are you aware who? Compiled the bible to begin with are you aware? We're not hating. We're just saying the bible that you were reading. Yeah No, no, that's a good qualif that's a good clarification like the bible you're reading was compiled by catholics You wouldn't have it if it wasn't for the catholics. Anyway moving on anyways So st patrick although mostly known as an irish leprechaun is truly a phenomenal saint Who gave his heart his life his whole entire being to jesus to serve him He was on a roll so, um You have a quote or I quote you have a breastplate breastplate Oh, yeah power power move go for it. Okay. So I saw this and I was like, wow, this is actually really famous So it's christ be within me christ behind me christ before me christ beside me Christ to win me christ to comfort and restore me christ beneath me christ above me christ inquired Christ in danger christ in hearts of all that love me christ in mouth a friend and stranger That's kind of a mouthful, but that's such a beautiful prayer. I love that it really encapsulates just like jesus being everywhere with us And he doesn't ever leave us and that he's always going to um be with us. So So so modern context, right and you hit you hit on it really well It's a really good segue is as we mentioned before god doesn't call the equip to equips the cold You may not feel like you were called to something you may not feel like you are prepared you may not feel like you have what it takes but That prayer I think is a perfect example of what is necessary To do what you are afraid to do right filling yourself every part of your being Christ within me christ above me christ behind me christ on my side like all encompassing In order that You can move forward and do what he is calling you to do Recognizing that without christ it will not be done recognizing that it is not in my own Strength in my own power my intellect or wisdom or lack thereof. It's all in christ And I don't know that's like a short really summed up easy summary of it But it's a great representation and then I think the other aspect maybe and i'm not sure what you were thinking But what struck me when you said he returned to those who had enslaved him and that's also very powerful forgiveness of Of hey you took me away from my family for six years and made me suffer But i'm here to love you and i'm here to serve you And i'm here because there's something bigger than me and my pain and my struggle and my hardships or whatever it may have been And those are just really powerful truths to take away from this Saint and his story Yeah, and I just really see him as being the hands and feet of jesus in that moment because he looked pain in the face He was able to go back to where he was tortured where he was humiliated It's stripped of everything and say i love you anyways And i'm going to share this truth with you because you need it just as much as I do and i'm not better than you I just have this beautiful truth and you need it um I just that's tough stuff like if someone harms you hurts you or puts you in a place that you're like really It is so difficult to go back and um be compassionate towards them and charitable Like I just imagine myself in moments when people have hurt me Just that true forgiveness. That's just like i'm gonna love you anyways. I'm gonna love you so hard I'm gonna love you harder Um, those are the moments when christ can shine so brightly in us and that's the love that we're called to Um, it's it's more than just a feel-good moment. It's it's true Sacrificial I'm gonna love you even though you hurt me kind of love and you said something really important and reminded me of the reading Yesterday matthew 18 21 through 35 the story of the wicked unforgiving servant. Oh, right, right? And this guy who has been given so much forgiveness and in turn Did not give that forgiveness back. Yeah, you all know the story this man has massive debt and then the master was like You know, you you need to pay me back all your debt Everything you owe me and then he's like, please. I beg you and the master was like, you know what? It's okay. I will forgive all of your debt right and let's him go free But then he turns around and his slave had a little bit of debt and he would not forgive him of that little debt Yeah, and so that's terrible And so well people may be thinking well, how the heck does this tie in while I wrote a reflection as I was reading this And it reminded me also of Matthew 7 2 for as you judge you will be judged The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you And I have this thought that The measure with which we measure Has already been shown to us on the cross. It has already been shown to us in the example of The master to the wicked servant who said i'm forgiving you So in that same measure We are called to give to others and that's exactly what st. Patrick did he knew I've been forgiven This is the freedom that I've I've had can I go and a debt was incurred right? That's why this is so powerful He a debt was incurred from his the people who stole him from His land and stole six years of his life gone six years That is a true debt that was incurred and he said no I forgive you And i'm here to love you and it's such a powerful kind of reflection even on god's forgiveness Um, so i'm glad you said that because it was really uh, it was really kind of a Good good moment for me to remember this Yeah, and and that also just reminds me of the prayer we pray all the time every day that our father Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us right you guys hear that That's as we forgive those who trespass against us If we are not forgiving our others then that is the measure of which we forgive We will be forgiven and that makes me pause when I pray that prayer Someone's a priest said that ones are really stuck with me because it made me stop to think about Am I truly forgiving? As I want to be forgiven too. I mean it's a Intense prayer when you pray with sincerity like that. Yeah, and it's in a particular order It is right forgive us as we are forgives, you know, anyway, I don't need to go down that route, but it's beautiful You also reflect meditate on these things But st. Patrick gives us a beautiful model an example of this forgiveness and not only forgiveness, but true um faith amidst A lot of pain And so he gave us all he gave he was all in that man was all in his whole life to the end Like you said till he died, right? He was serving. Oh speaking of which I I want to know really quickly he He wanted to die Somewhere specifically but basically he had an angel appear to him in a dream And said that hey you need to die at sol which was the site of his first church, which is kind of interesting So anyway, that's a that's an interesting side. You gotta it ends where it began so He started from dust and from dust you shall return. So on march 17th this year. I hope that when you dress up with green I don't usually dress up. I have green eyes. So I used to get away with that. It's fine Um that you think about st. Patrick a little bit more than an irish Celtic man because he wasn't Yeah, and if someone tries to pinch you because you're not wearing green You just say back away from me pagan because that has nothing to do with the story at all Get behind me satan. Get behind me satan in the name of Jesus. Yeah Yeah, in the name of Jesus get behind me satan. Okay Anyways jokes aside st. Patrick Pray for us and if you have enjoyed listening to this episode If you like sainsa sages if you don't like sainsa sages if you could rate us five stars, that'd be great Yeah, if you don't like us, so let's be clear don't rate us because it's just that's the why the line Yeah, if you don't enjoy the show just it's okay. Just turn it off But if you if you're one of those people who's like, I won't get one star that doesn't help anybody Yeah, and then also if you want to email us you can email us at saints pod at my avala.com Um, if you want to call us you can call maggie Maggie, what's your cell phone? Just kidding. Anyway, thank you guys for listening. We're really grateful for you and I know that we're praying for you every day Okay, for those who are staying online afterwards. We have some comments We don't have as many comments as we did before Louise says that's a pretty good irish oxen. Hey, I don't need you inflating my eagle. This is a please. Don't everybody We don't need the compliments. Okay I'm working on my australian one just because we are gonna have matt fratt on the show one day We're gonna have to have ashling our friend and firelight tell us how this episode was good. Yes. She's from mireland So speaking of firelight for the folks who are on this end of the show Um firelight 18 ages 18 to 35 young adults young professionals. We get together this wednesday We're doing a bible study. Um in the gospel john specifically And we have people from literally all over the world as you just mentioned from ireland and she's awesome So anyway, it's a lot of fun. You guys should stop in and check it out. If you want to go aposolivie.org I don't know if they understood that with that Grogly allergy filled voice aposolivie.org That's where you sound that was actually pretty good. All right next comment from St patrick Yes, pray for us. Absolutely. Absolutely with a um, uh, three-leaf clover A great emoji choice. Yeah, good one. What's the next one? Thank you. Thank you for the emojis. Okay Anybody else Jordan must have had a full bowl of lucky charm cereal this morning his irish dubbed a voice I uh, I'll have you know, there's no dubbing here. This is just pure I just want you to know that he ate bacon Not lucky charms Anybody who was wondering everyone came into the office this morning. I I was smelling a bacon. Right. We still smell like bacon. It's a good. It's a good smell. I bet you you guys want bacon now Uh, so grateful from Kathy so grateful for both of you Kristen. You're on fire with god's love and it's awesome with wow Praise jesus explanation points. That's what I'm talking about glory to god. Thank you so much for listening for really grateful Thank you guys for listening. If you enjoyed this kind of comment chat stuff Our podcast Well, this is kind of oh the end credits here. So if you enjoy this we I enjoy it I think it's great to interact with you guys in this way One of the ways that you can make sure that you can see our show every time and involve with and get involved with the comments Is um, if you're if you're doing this on youtube, I know wands on youtube And kathy and louisa on facebook Make sure to click the notification turn on your notifications and then share Right share it but turn on your notifications and and make sure you work like all posts And I don't know if facebook does this I don't know if you can alert to say like hey, let me know when they're going live But I know on youtube you can so make sure to go into settings subscribe Turn on your notifications and every time uh after show if we can we'll we'll keep doing these interactions Yeah, and then you could get a friendly shout out. You can get a friendly shot I'm just gonna go on our website. You know a couple hundred thousand people from all over the world World if not more we'll see your name shot it out on our you know, if uh, hopefully that doesn't make you nervous So no typos, right? Jordan has practiced his irish accent in the mirror for about 10 days now. So he's feeling really confident in that Thanks again, everybody. So anyway, yeah, I gotta get the australian one down. That's next So our australian friends invite me out. Let me stay at your house Please Okay, that being said st. Patrick pray for us. Bye