Soul Food for St. Patrick’s Day / Fifth Sunday of Lent
Sunday 17th March 2024
John 12:20-33
There’s a little piece of Cork in “St Patrick’s Church”, a parish in the central city of Taichong, Taiwan. 5 years ago, the parish priest asked me if I could get a statue of Ireland’s national saint for our church’s side altar; my parents donated a statue which is now a permanent feature of the church. Like many Irish missionaries, it travelled a long way before finding a new home in a far-off land.
Today we celebrate Ireland’s patron saint, a great missionary whose life and spirituality continue to inspire and encourage Irish missionaries and Irish Christians to be faithful to our Christian identity through striving to live out a Gospel life of love and compassion.
Most Irish people know the history/stories and legends associated with St. Patrick. On this St. Patrick’s Day, coinciding as it does with the fifth Sunday of Lent, I want to focus on his foundational experience ofresponding to the call of God and his subsequent dedication to this calling.
Patrick, while still a young man, heard the voice of the Irish people in a dream – a voice which was born out of suffering and distress, and which enticed him to return to the land of his captivity…
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The Seven Last Words – Holy Week 2022, By Sean Goan.
Advent 2020 ~ YEAR OF COVID – By Sean Goan, Coordinator of Spiritan Mission Ireland