St. Patrick's Feast Day is celebrated with a Mass and gifts of shamrocks at the cathedral

Wishing parishioners a “top of the morning to you all,” Bishop Emeritus Robert Deeley shared St. Patrick’s Day greetings and a message of hope to parishioners gathered for a St. Patrick’s Day Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland.

During the Mass, which was celebrated by Bishop James Ruggieri and concelebrated by Bishop Deeley and Father Seamus Griesbach, rector of the cathedral, Bishop Deeley spoke of St. Patrick’s deep faith and his tireless efforts to proclaim the Gospel up and down the island of Ireland.

“One of Patrick’s greatest contributions to Irish Christianity was his emphasis on constant prayer. He taught his followers to pray unceasingly. As a devotion, the rosary, as we know it today, did not really appear until the 12th century, but repetitive prayers guiding believers through continual meditation on Christ’s life were part of the instruction of Patrick and the Irish monks who followed him. This emphasis on devotion helped create a culture of prayer,” Bishop Deeley said.

Bishop Deeley, whose parents emigrated to the United States from County Galway, Ireland, said that the best way to celebrate St. Patrick and his faith is to live as he lived, “deepening in our own prayer a living relationship with Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life, and striving to carry the good news of Jesus and the hope he brings to our lives, to others.”

Bishop Deeley said that through prayer, St. Patrick developed a deep relationship with God and learned to put his trust in him.

“That prayer led him to bring the Gospel to the people who enslaved him. He even tried to convert the man who owned him when he was captivity. Patrick believed. He loved because he knew himself as loved by God. Therefore, he could forgive,” Bishop Deeley said.

While St. Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland and most associated with that country, he was actually born in Roman Britain in the fifth century. When he was a teenager, he was captured and enslaved by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland to herd sheep. Lonely and depressed, it was there that he turned to God. Patrick escaped after six years and returned to Britain, but a vision convinced him that he was called to return to Ireland to evangelize the people there.

Tradition has it that St. Patrick used the three leaves of the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity, and the shamrock remains associated with the saint until this day. At the conclusion of the Mass at the cathedral, Bishop Ruggieri, Bishop Deeley, and Father Griesbach handed shamrocks to the faithful gathered.

Bishop Deeley, in his homily, recalled the words of the Lorica, also known as the Breastplate of St. Patrick, a prayer likely written a few centuries after the saint's death that is reflective of St. Patrick's spirituality and belief in the Trinity.

“I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through belief in the Threeness, through confession of the Oneness towards the Creator. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of Christ. May your salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.”