A Presence of Inclusivity and Integration in our Land
The Boy
With my heart’s eye
I see a lad lonely on a hillside
Learning that he is not alone
Like a leaping flame the lesson
Burns through generations
To lap my life. Patrick I thank you.
Josephine O’ Connell
The little poem led me on a journey with the young boy. Patrick, son of an upper class Roman official – a boy who studied Greek philosophy and Roman law. Sadly, his education and privilege were suddenly swept away – his life changed forever, when he was kidnapped, forced on board ship and made work as a slave in a foreign land – all too familiar in our times. Yes, he became a migrant, an exploited and trafficked person, denied his freedom at the hands of local wealthy chieftains and druids in our land. We can all relate to the teenager in his loneliness and struggle to survive six years of hardship, deprivation, rejection and hostility…
But that is the path that led him to God.
Weary and helpless, he eventually managed to escape by ship. Listen to him:
“Years later…I was in Britain with my relatives…in a vision, I heard the voices of the Irish” they cried, “we ask you boy, come and walk with us once again”…“I was pierced to the heart and woke up”
Disturbed and upset, he responded to the call, continued his education, studied for the priesthood and found himself back in Ireland.
He met with many problems, both secular and ecclesiastical, but his humanity and holiness overcame them all because he knew who he was and Whose he was.
Patrick, gift us all with your deep faith, wisdom, humanity and the ability to create relationships of trust and integration like you did.
St. Patrick
I hear a voice calling me
To deeper waters and deeper lands
I hear a voice gently say
Come follow me I am the way
To deeper waters and deeper lands.
Go raibh spiorad and dochas Phadraig
In ar gcroithe go deo is choice.
B. O’ S