The Wearing of the Green

We read The Night Before St. Patrick's Day  by Natasha Wing today. I have young grandsons. One is a musician ( has been capable of humming Star Wars since he was two). The other is a storyteller, taking after his Mom and Grandma.

The storyteller's imagination has been fired up by the book and the concept of leprechauns. He's taken my golden stuffed dragons and planted them around the house as Leprechaun Traps. He figures the little men are attracted to gold and dragons are a match to any wee folk.

St. Patrick, like St. Valentine and St. Nicholas, has origins in historical figures. Patrick was a son of a wealthy man in Britain. He was kidnapped and forced to work as a slave in Ireland. After seven years, he escaped. He hopped a ride on a pirate ship and returned home. Christ changed his life more than the slavery. He became a priest and returned to Ireland to evangelize those who had mistreated him. A great story. True.

I have to giggle at the pictures that spring to my mind. I see a monk laying traps for the Irish. His bait? The golden rule. The cost of being caught? A Gift, really--an eternal life with God.