Every one of us who has even a drop of Irish blood has a special spirituality engrained within us -- a flame that burns deep down within our souls, connecting us to the deep spirituality of our roots. This is what we celebrate on St. Patrick's Day.
I have seen angels since the day I was born. I see a guardian angel with everyone regardless of their race or religion. I see them physically as you would see someone standing in front of you and I see and talk with angels every day. For me it's natural but I appreciate that for some of you it may be hard to believe that I see angels. I am asked frequently why I can see angels and others can't. I have to be honest and admit I have no idea. When I ask the angels, "Why me?" "Why not?" is the only reply I have been given. I am just an ordinary person, and because of learning difficulties am less educated than most. I don't think, however, it's an accident that this gift has been given to someone of Irish blood.
St. Patrick is much more important than most people realize; important not just for the Irish but for the world. He came as a slave to a country that was deeply spiritual but had a spirituality of searching. The Celtic spirituality St. Patrick found was rooted in stones, nature and a rich symbolism. A lot of the old Celtic symbols were attempts to unravel the secret of life, a secret that seemed to elude them until St. Patrick came to Ireland in the fifth century.
St. Patrick brought the wisdom that there was only one God and that they each had a soul that would live forever. St. Patrick's Christianity stirred up the Celtic spirituality within the Irish people and gave it meaning. The two belief systems got fused together to create a very potent spirituality which is deeply rooted in the natural world and this is the flame that all people with Irish blood carry today.
Over the years the Irish have worked to keep this light burning. The monks written about in Thomas Cahill's book, "How the Irish Saved Civilization," protected this flame and kept it safe during the dark ages of Europe when so much spirituality was stamped out.
St. Patrick's Day is a day of celebration all around the world. To many it may be associated with alcohol and parades but St Patrick's Day has a much deeper meaning. This day of celebration exists to remind people with even a drop of Irish blood of their roots, to rekindle this flame of light within them.
As I have said, I see angels every day, but around St. Patrick's Day I start to see a special type of angel. I have been told to call them the Celtic Angels of St. Patrick. They are extremely beautiful, tall, slender and powerful and show me a green color. I am shown wings on some but not all. Within their robes I can see Celtic symbols -- the one I see most often has three circles intertwined. I don't normally see angels holding things, but I often see these angels holding either a staff with a shamrock integrated into the top of it (like St Patrick is often shown holding in pictures) or carrying something that looks like a big plate, or an upside down shield, with a Celtic symbol on it. I would see them in small numbers the week before St Patrick's Day but on St. Patrick's Day I see them in abundance.
These angels are sent to celebrate with us but they aren't here for a frivolous or trivial reason. God wouldn't have created these special angels if they didn't have an important role to play. These angels are sent as a reminder of the joining together of the old spirituality and the new. The angels are keeping the light of spirituality burning within any one of us who has even the tiniest drop of Irish blood within them.
I have seen these angels around St. Patrick's Day all my life. But until last year, when I was in New York, I had never spent a St. Patrick's Day outside Ireland. I was so pleased to see that the Celtic Angels of St. Patrick were as abundant in New York on March 17 as they were at home in Ireland and I am told by the angels that wherever in the world there are people with Irish blood at this time, the Celtic Angels of St. Patrick are there too.
The angels have told me that Irish spirituality is different from others and this is one of the reasons why so many Irish people have chosen (or been forced by circumstances) to leave Ireland and intermarry in different parts of the world, mixing the unique Irish spirituality with other spiritualities.
Without this unique spirituality I don't believe we Irish would have gone out across the world in such numbers and there wouldn't be more than 80 million people worldwide celebrating their Irish heritage at this time.
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According to many churches?
I think it is true.
God can intervene in matters and send an angel to help us, but help may come in different manner. Fellow Christians may be motivated to provide help and comfort. God may give us the wisdom and inner strength needed to cope with what afflicts us (1 Thess. 5:14).
As respects to St. Patrick's Day...in the early part of the fifth century C.E., the Roman Catholic Church sent Patrick as a missionary bishop to Ireland. His main objective was to convert the Irish to Christianity, and during his years of preaching and working among the people, Patrick is credited with having laid the foundation for the Catholic Church there.
Roman Catholics believe that “saints” intercede with God for man. And they make men into "saints", invoke “saints” like St. Patrick for protection and guidance. What did Jesus say about the veneration of individuals such as Mary or “saints”? Jesus said: “You must worship the Lord your God, and serve him alone.” (Matthew 4:10; John 4:23) Realizing this, an angel reprimanded the apostle John for attempting to worship him, saying: “Don’t do that...It is God that you must worship.” (Revelation 22:9; 1 Timothy 2:5).
Don't sell the ancestors as short as the Church and later colonial powers portray them: that includes what the monks were allowed to preserve and how, what was left of deep oral traditions and a spirituality that was about a lot more than some 'wicked paganism' that they portrayed Patrick as overthrowing. What happened in Ireland wasn't so different from what missionaries have done and continue to try and do throughout the world.
There's a context for what you're describing seeing that doesn't rely on Christianized trappings and insistences, as much as the churchmen have been demonizing and trivializing for over a thousand years. It's not very fitting to denigrate the very ancestry the holiday seeks to celebrate: consider that certain gifts go back a long, long way, and certain of our ancestors had a lot longer to figure it out than perhaps more recent religious takes on things have. ;)
BB.
It has created a great deal of conflict for me.
You are fortunate to have seen angels.
40 days of sacrifice...
for Jesus on the cross..
W.H. Auden
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos
and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin,
let the mourners come
.Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message
He is Dead.
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves
.He was my North,
my South,
my East
and West,
My working week
and my Sunday rest
,My noon,
my midnight,
my talk,
my song;
I thought that love would last forever:
I was wrong
.The stars are not wanted now;
put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun,
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the woods;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
But I digress. I do believe in angels but I draw the line at god (no evidence). Angels in the form of birds and animals visit the walnut tree congregation regularly. St. Frances has also dropped by. I like your essays a great deal.
See, now I'm about half Irish and I'm more or less an empiricist who believes in a monist world view. Guess I don't fit the mold.
Also, how exactly is getting world spinning drunk even slightly connected to spirituality? Well, I guess whiskey is called a spirit.