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THE "LUCK" OF ST. PATRICK

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The waters flow green in our City of Fountains, the ides of March upon us. Oddly, the saint we celebrate in this “season of luck” was pock-marked with tragedy. At 16, Patrick was torn from his family and sold into slavery in Ireland. During six years of captivity, Patrick could have lost hope. Instead, he chose a positive way of engaging life’s misfortunes—a higher attribution theory—believing God had a redemptive purpose for his suffering. Patrick became grounded in Christianity and its life-giving themes of liberation, deliverance and resurrection.

Attribution theory, in psychology, describes how we attach meaning to life’s events. Helpful parents teach children to attribute the trajectory of their lives, in large extent, to the choices they make. Yes, things happen to us and in spite of us, but we can effectively control that which happens through us by our freedom to choose, and then act. To help our children discern among the above and place their focus on their center of control is to nurture maturity and wisdom.

But a deeper discernment requires something more: teaching our children to recognize hints of God’s guidance and revelation as they engage with life’s choices. In children’s ministry, we call these hints “God sightings.” As parents and faith-shapers, we can teach our children to have eyes to see and ears to hear God, who often speaks to us through what the Alpha Course teaches are the “five CS’s,” undergirded in prayer:

Imagine the power of a generation forging a path hand in hand with the Author of Life, attributing a higher purpose to their existence, a role in God’s redemptive story.

St. Patrick understood this. He cultivated a habit of diligent prayer, seeking “Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me” at every turn. In a vision during his captivity, Patrick saw Ireland’s pagan children reaching their hands toward him and he suddenly grasped God’s overarching purpose for his life: to free the land that had enslaved him.

And, through a commingling of Patrick’s extravagant obedience and God’s divine providence, the vision came to pass. Patrick pushed past geographical and theological borders to write a redemptive chapter of history, which we celebrate to this day.

And, as saints do, Patrick attributes it all to God.

Wendy Connelly is mom to two kids and a graduate student at St. Paul School of Theology in Leawood.

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