Happy St. Patty's Day!

It's St. Patrick's Day. This evokes several different thoughts, emotions, and memories in me, none too strong, but the one that I wish to note here is what I was doing last St. Patrick's Day. Last year I decided to dedicate a whole class to teaching about the western holiday that is St. Patrick's Day. Now when I say a whole class I mean the whole class for every class I taught, thus a total of 11 St. Patty's Day lectures. Slightly painful the 11th time? Yes. As painful as coming up with a new lesson plan? Definitely not that painful. So yeah. It was great though. I am not sure if more than 5 of my 600 students understood what was happening, but, hey, that's ok. And it was really the first time I had really learned in depth the reason why we celebrate this Saint Patrick anyway. Saint Patrick was the real deal when it came to reconciling. A native of Wales he was kidnapped and enslaved for six years, but after escaping and then becoming a follower of Christ he chose to return to Ireland, to the people who had enslaved him, and bring Christ's message of love and reconciliation. Brilliant. I guess that's why they made him a saint. The guy lived a while ago (in the 300s) so some of the other details are disputed, but that act is enough for me. That's a transformative Gospel. And I will drink to that (ok, I won't drink to that because I am at work. Green lattes, maybe?).