Confession Of Saint Patrick : Letter To Coroticus - 98 edition

Prologue History is an amazing presence--it is the place where vanished time gathers.While we are in the flow of time, it is difficult to glean its significance, and it is only in looking back that we can recognize the hidden dimensions at work within a particular era or epoch.St.Patrick has always been acknowledged as a pivotal figure in early Irish history and spirituality.Yet despite this importance, his significance has often become rather caricatured in legend and in the retrospective intentionality that nostalgia often confers.And yet we need not be limited by what legend has given us, since we are fortunate in having documents from Patrick's own hand. The Confession of St.Patrick provides a window into a remarkable life.Patrick is a figure who inhabits a crucial threshold in the evolution and definition of Irish spirituality.To serve this threshold demanded a singular commitment that engaged every resource and depth of character he possessed.His story revolves around an initial irony which qualifies his centrality in the Irish tradition. It was Irish pirates who kidnapped him from his British home and sold him into slavery here.They could never have suspected the spiritual tradition that would be born out of their brutal action. Indeed, the structure of this initial moment sets the rhythm of Patrick's subsequent life, namely, the praxis of a spirituality of transfiguration.His physical slavery releases him into a life of inner liberation.His captors only controlled his tasks and location but they never got near the eternal spring that was awakening in his young mind. Patrick understands his slavery as the door into divine recognition and friendship.In this awful experience of alienation and exile, he discovers God as his anam-cara.Anam is the Irish word for soul and cara is the word for friend.The Anam-cara is the Friend of the soul.This is one of the most beautiful concepts in the Celtic tradition.An ancient affinity and belonging awakened between two people in the Anam-cara relationship.This relationship cut across all other connections.In your Anam-cara you discovered the Other in whom your heart could be at home.The depth and shelter of this Anam-cara belonging enables Patrick to endure the most awful conditions.Prayer is conversation with his Anam-cara: But after I had come to Ireland, it was then that I was made to shepherd the flocks day after day, so, as I did so, I would pray all the time, right through the day.More and more the love of God and fear of him grew strong within me. and as my faith grew, so the Spirit became more and more active, so that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and at night only slightly less. Although I might be staying in a forest or out on a mountainside, it would be the same; even before dawn broke, I would be aroused to pray. In snow, in frost, in rain, I would hardly notice any discomfort, and I was never slack but always full of energy. It is clear to me now, that this was due to the fervor of the Spirit within me. Pascal said that in difficult times you should always keep something beautiful in your heart.Patrick is able to survive these harsh and lonely territories of exile precisely because he keeps the beauty of God alive in his heart.The inner beauty of the divine intimacy transfigures outer bleakness. This inner intimacy brings h