St. Patrick's Day

Before drinking your green beer and pinching those not wearing green ask yourself one quick question:

Who was St Patrick and why do we celebrate a day for him?

St. Patrick was not Irish, but British, and was captured in Ireland sometime in his childhood. After a reported 6 years in captivity he escaped back to England intent on returning bringing the word of God to the heathens in Ireland.

St. Patrick received extensive religious training and was sent back to Ireland with a dual mission to testify to the Christians already in Ireland as well as convert the remainder of the country to Christianity.

St. Patrick is given credit for using pagan rituals to introduce Christian concepts and teach his religion to others. This may explain why most Christian rituals are Pagan rituals with different words. Lighting candles in ceremony, wearing hooded robes and burning incense all started in the church around the time of St. Patrick and are all Pagan elements of ritual.

So when you lift your glass of Guinness and endure corned beef and cabbage you are celebrating the conversion of the Irish people to Christianity from their native religion.

Imagine if we today celebrated St. Nero Day to celebrate the oppression of early Christianity in Rome. There would be riots.

Thank goodness we live in a place where we are free to practice the beliefs of our choice. Freedom of religion means ANY religion.