St. Patrick's Day!

I love the color green. For as long as I can remember, it has been my favorite color. Perhaps because I loved Kermit the frog as a young child, perhaps because green is the color most associated with nature and life, I love it. The green buffalo grass in summer (in Texas), the quaking green of aspen leaves in the spring (in New Mexico), the green moss that grows in abundance in winter (in Washington), and my favorite dish of green beans and shallots at Thanksgiving -- green is just marvelous. I could also go on for years about the virtues of green chile, a substance I once abhorred and now crave beyond belief. I also happen to have a complexion that rocks most shades of green.

St. Patrick's Day is naturally a day where I don't have to worry about finding something to wear. I had a student once ask me if I liked green because I wore it every day. Ha! If she only had a look at my wardrobe, she would understand the extent of my green obsession.

Besides green being the official (Catholic) color of St. Patrick's Day, I also love this day because I love St. Patrick.

St. Patrick is dear to me not because he is my patron (St. Juliana of Lazarevo is) nor has he interceded for a miracle for me (that was St. Nicholas -- see this blog post), but I am just in awe of his life.

Captured and sold into slavery, he was able to escape only to have God tell him to go back and convert those who held him captive. Like most Apostles, or Equal-to-the-Apostles (St. Nina is a good example), St. Patrick listened to God which is quite unlike me. I am willful. I don't like talking to others about God or my faith -- it isn't shame, it is just that I get all defensive and am generally not good at it. I would NEVER make a good missionary. Yet, there are people out there that are AMAZING apostles and can convert whole countries. They inspire others to love God and teach them the truth!

Yet, I named my child after an Equal-to-the-Apostles for a good reason: even if it is not our talent to go forth and preach the Gospel, literally, to others, as a Christian we are held to a standard of preaching the Gospel figuratively through our actions. The two commandments Christ said were most important were to love God and love others. Loving others is not merely social justice, but also a turning of another's heart to God and His divine grace. However, shoving how wrong someone's lifestyle is in their face does not win many followers. Not blinking an eye to their choices and embracing them as a fellow man loved by God, I believe, is.

May St. Patrick pray for us and teach us all how to love each other more fully and so fulfill the law of God.