PATRICK & THE SNAKES

 Happy St Parick's Day!

The following is excerpted from my Stick in Time novel, from Appendix 3, where the narrator says,

Patrick & the Snakes.

I should mention that one of the effective devices used by the enemy in his covert actions is to help propagate the myth that he and his demons do not exist. Thus, like one of your modern stealth-bombers, he can do serious damage to an individual, community, or even a whole nation, without it being realised by the injured party or parties what is going on!

Ireland can be used as an example of this. It is a nation divided: Protestant and Catholic. To be sure Protestant England’s wishing to expand her borders to include a subjugated Ireland does not help the Irish one bit. However, the teachings of the Reformation entered every other country in Europe too. However, in Ireland Protestantism – those seeking to reform the Christian church – is seen by these same Protestants as a bringing of that special freedom from bondage that only comes with the Gospel. But, by the Catholics, this same Gospel is seen merely as a propaganda tool, a weapon, used by the invading forces! The enemy loves this! Divide and conquer a whole nation: Protestant and Catholic!

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However, if both Protestants and Catholics could be brought to see the whole of Ireland and all her people the way Saint Patrick saw them, which was as a factional people in need of God and His healing love and forgiveness, then we shall dream of seeing that nation become one with itself once more.

To be sure, the people Patrick met in his day had their own versions of God and how He ought to be worshipped, long before Patrick arrived. Yes, it was paganism! Yes, it was false worship! Yes, before Patrick Ireland was captive to the Serpent and his brood of vipers. But Patrick with his staff in his hand traversed the whole green countryside – uniting Ireland, by driving out, as it were, the snakes.

Did Patrick do it by force? By shouting down those he opposed? By vitriolic diatribe? No! He opened the floodgates of the Sacred Record to let its life-giving waters flow into every nook and cranny of every village, town and city. He did not attempt to defend the Sacred Record’s doctrines. He simply lived them! He loved the nation, the whole nation!

Patrick came to Ireland in obedience to what the Prince of Peace says in the Sacred Record, ‘Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.’

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To be sure Patrick cared for the individual, but in obedience to his Master it was the nation, the Irish nation, that was his strong focus. He did not favour one faction or clan over another. He did not say to himself, let’s see, which group is closest to the truth and I’ll throw my lot in with them. No! He healed the Serpent-wounded nation by pouring in the balm of the Gospel! He did not use the Gospel as a club, as a stick, the measure of orthodoxy! Rather he lived it! He breathed it! He taught it! He taught it to the nation. He baptised the nation. He united the nation as one – Christian!

Ireland needs her Patrick to reunite her. She needs his staff to comfort her, for in the right hands his staff is symbolic of the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. It is the rod of God. It is the reminder of the One who has crushed the Serpent’s head. ‘And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots.’ Patrick’s Staff is the Bachall Iosa.

To be sure the Serpent has been mortally wounded by the Master at the cross. The great dragon knows his days are few. That is why he seeks to wreak so much devastation. He is the Destroyer. He is Appolyon. He is Abaddon, the Angel of the Abyss!

Watch video of The Deer's Cry aka St Patrick's Brerastplate: 

https://youtu.be/GGHWiAGpIP0?si=ZMlm2sFR_mNxI1sY

https://youtu.be/GGHWiAGpIP0