Happy St. Patrick's

My dear Irish-American husband has a lot to say about the celebration of St. Patrick's Day, especially in America. While the day traditionally includes a good of drinking and merry-making, it is still a religious holiday clearly meant to commemorate a great spiritual leader and a man of the Irish people that has been turned into an excuse to get wasted and act like an idiot.
Since I won't be there to share the day with Kyle this year, I left this silly little gift for him. The card greeting translates roughly from the Irish Gaelic as "God bless you."

I thought today would be a good day to share a portion of Saint Patrick's Declaration, translated from the Latin. His words never fail to humble me and his love for Ireland is so clear here.

So, therefore be astonished all you, both great and little, who fear God...Who was it that lifted up me – stupid me - from the middle of those who seemed to be wise and skilled in the law and powerful and all matters? And who was it that inspired me –me! – above others to be such a person (if only I were!) as could do good faithfully – in fear and without complaint to that people to whom Christ’s love transported me and gave me; if I should prove worthy in short to be of service to and truth?...And I was not a worthy or a fit person for what the Lord granted me, his minor servant: that after such calamities and such great burdens, after captivity, after many years, he should bestow on me, so great a grace in behalf of the nation – a thing which once, in my youth, I never expected nor thought of...But I implore those God fearing believers who agree to read or accept this document which unlettered sinner I, Patrick composed in Ireland, that none of them will attribute to an ignorant person like me any little thing I may have done, or any guidance I may have given according to God’s will. Consider, and let it be truly believed, that it may have been rather the gift of God. And that is what I have to say before I die.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope your celebrations are celebrations of love, story-telling, family, heritage, some wearin' o' the green, and responsible pints of Guinness.

love, elizabeth