I'm wearing green; I love green. Despite the fact that I'm not Irish, I enjoy celebrating St. Patrick's Day, although not in the green-beer drinking way.
You see, I like Patrick. He's one of those heroes of the Church who managed to accomplish a great deal of good despite many adversities. By adversities, I mean slavery, pirates, hostile kings, and people trying desperately to hold on to their power. Oh, and snakes.
He used a shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity. The three leaves are all unique, all a part of the same plant. They also inspired those wonderful mint shakes at McDonald's.
Yet of his many gifts, the one that impresses me the most is that he started the one-on-one confessional. Well over a millennia before psychoanalysis, Patrick decided that people's mental and spiritual well-being were best served by having someone to confide in and confess their deepest fears and faults. Now, this wasn't a new idea. Group confessions had been part of Christian faith for quite some time and the idea of a single confident had been prevalent at many monasteries, including the one from which Patrick got his idea. He, however, was like the inventor of the Reese's peanut butter cup and merged the two ideas together.
Patrick was an extraordinary man. He had a vision and followed God's voice to convert an island. I envy his courage and his belief.