St Patrick and St Joseph

The Catholic Church celebrated two pillars of our faith this week. For those of us with some Irish in the blood- St Patrick’s Feast Day is March 17. I heard Archbishop Prowse preach on Sunday and he spoke about the seeds of faith that Patrick cast upon the ground ( like in the parables Jesus told) and our own theme this year- Luke 13:18-20 “What is the Kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like the mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree…” . Like Patrick we cannot know the fate of those seeds but in looking back we can see how they have grown.

St Patrick

• Patrick wasn't Irish, and he wasn't born in Ireland. Patrick's parents were Roman citizens living in modern-day England, or more precisely in Scotland or Wales. He was born in 385 AD.
• Patrick was a slave. At the age of 16, Patrick had the misfortune of being kidnapped by Irish raiders who took him away and sold him as a slave. He spent several years in Ireland herding sheep and learning about the people there.
• Patrick is said to have used the shamrock to preach about the trinity. Many claim the shamrock represents faith, hope, and love, or any number of other things but it was actually used by Patrick to teach the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and how three things, the Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit could be separate entities, yet one in the same.
• There are more people with Irish ancestry living outside Ireland than in Ireland itself! The Irish convicts and early settlers brought their faith to Australia.

 St Joseph

• Everything we know about the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus comes from Scripture and that has seemed too little for those who made up legends about him.

We know

• he was a carpenter, a working man (Matthew 13:55).
• He wasn't rich, for when he took Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised and Mary to be purified he offered the sacrifice of two turtledoves or a pair of pigeons, allowed only for those who could not afford a lamb (Luke 2:24).
• Joseph came from a royal lineage. Joseph is descended from David, the greatest king of Israel (Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38).
• Joseph was a compassionate, caring man.
• He was a refugee, fleeing to a foreign place with his young wife and the baby. (Matthew 2:13-23).