Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!
This is a day that just makes me all happy-skippy inside, and a day that makes me want to cry. A day where I can’t help smiling and feeling a bubbly excitement (that often turns into a laugh and a twirl), and a day that makes me sad in some deep-down place. Why? Well, the reasons are numerous.
I love this day because I’m part Irish, and, in case it wasn’t obvious from the blog title, "Irish word of the day" widget, and profile ramblings, I’m proud of it!I love this day because my family goes a little over-board, and has fun with celebrating! Green waffles, Ireland shirts, Celtic fiddle music, "Poor Paddy Works on the Railway," corned beef with cole-cannon for dinner - yes, it’s a true day of celebration!
I love this day because, at some point (I think we’re doing it tonight), I get to sit down with the Littles and watch St. Patrick's story with ‘Lutfie’s Fanciful Flannel Graph’ from whichever-veggie-tales-episode-it-is, and laugh at the quote "no soccer balls in church!"
But this day makes me sad because, on this day, we remember the reason anyone knows of a ‘St. Patrick’. We remember one man’s burden for the spiritual depravity so prevalent in the people of the Emerald Isle. I was doing some research this morning on Ireland's spiritual state and the results were quite sobering. *Did you know that 87.4% of the Irish peoples are Roman Catholic? Of the puny 12.6% left, 2.9% is the Church of Ireland (essentially Anglican) and only 1.9% is "other Christian" - an ambiguous title I find disheartening.Join me in beginning a new St. Patrick’s Day tradition. Among your green décor and clothing, amidst your Celtic songs and tunes, between your meals of unique coloring or culture, will you pray for Ireland?
*Information taken from the CIA world factbook, 2006 survey.
