Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex

The post title was the logo on the shirts of some of the students at noon Mass today at St. John’s Chapel.  In fact, Mass was full of students wearing green in honor of the day.  This way of celebrating St. Patrick and his evangelical zeal is in stark contrast to the “unofficial St. Patrick’s day” of a couple of weeks ago here on the U of I campus, which was nothing other than a commode hugging, gut heaving, bar crawl invented to enrich the local bar owners.  The numbers of kids at Mass is also significant because today is the day before spring break begins.  I saw this evidenced by the two classes I had taught just before Mass.  Attendance was sparse as most kids appear to have started the break early.  In contrast, the promising character of so many young Catholics at a secular university is enough to give one hope that the tide is turning.

I have to say that I resonated a bit with the sentiments of the Irish Catholic t-shirt.  I am proud of my Irish heritage, though, I had my corned beef and cabbage yesterday. As an aside, I must admit I do not exactly follow the prudential judgment to waive the abstinence from meat today as so many dioceses are doing.  Any way, these t-shirts got me to thinking about and appreciating St. Patrick. If not for him, I am not sure that I would be Catholic today. 

Looking at the changes in Ireland over the last 15 years or so, I wonder how many Irish children in the very near future are going to be able to thank St. Patrick for his evangelization of the Emerald Isle?  As the nation has emerged from a long and hard economic depression by adopting EU economic policies and partnerships, the country by and large has also adopted the EU’s prevailing secular humanism.  Archbishop Sean Brady, the primate of all Ireland had some poignant words to say in this regard in his St. Patrick’s Day message.  He begins it:

Last week a group of the Holy Spirit Congregation came to Armagh on pilgrimage in preparation for the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. Among the prayers they offered was Patrick’s own famous prayer for perseverance in Ireland.  It begins with the immortal words: “My only prayer to God is that it may never happen that I should lose His people which He won for himself at the end of the earth” (“Confession of Patrick,” No. 58). These words remind me of the question posed by Jesus in the Gospel, “When the Son of Man comes again will he find faith?”

In the advance toward secularism, Ireland has skipped many decades and jumped ahead of the U.S., catching up with the EU in about 15 years time.  It must be very discouraging for faithful Catholics in Ireland to see the havoc that secularism has done to the country.  The country that used to send mission priests to the U.S. south has closed most of its seminaries and could become a mission country itself.  Please pray for the land that St. Patrick evangelized that the faith will not take the road the snakes did so many centuries ago.