Wednesday, November 3, 2010

St. Patrick Questions, pt. I


1. Why does St. Patrick immediately begin by addressing himself as “a sinner, unlearned, the lowliest of men”? Why does he put forth such a low opinion of himself?

2. With a deacon for a father and a priest for a grandfather, why do you think Patrick did not embrace the faith of his family as a young boy? Is this a common trend among young people (to be lukewarm about faith)? If so, why? And is that a bad thing?

3. St. Patrick turns to prayer in the midst of his captivity. Do you think that, generally speaking, it takes a crisis or catastrophe to bring people to the point of developing their spiritual life? Explain.

4. Why was the captain and ship’s crew reluctant to take St. Patrick on board? What do you think the meaning is of their strange custom of “making friends”?

5. After the ship lands Patrick and the crew travel by land for weeks. What biblical story do you find echoing through his account of this event? Provide as correlations and explanations as you can.

6. When he was about your age St. Patrick committed some unnamed sin that came back to haunt him as an adult. Do you think it just that a sin of one’s youth could have such lasting effects?

7. One does not typically think of St. Patrick as a mystic, and yet we read that he was prone to visions throughout his life. What role do these visions play in his life and ministry? How (and why) does our contemporary culture respond to such claims of mystical visions?

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