Let anyone laugh and taunt if he so wishes. I am not keeping silent, nor am I hiding the signs and wonders that were shown to me by the Lord many years before they happened, who knew everything, even before the beginning of time.
Saint PatrickRead
He [God] watched over me before I knew him, and before I learned sense or even distinguished between good and evil, and he protected me, and consoled me as a father would his son.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the idea of a protective and nurturing divine presence in one's life, even before one is aware of it.
In this quote, Saint Patrick reflects on the notion that God's guidance and protection were present in his life even during his most formative and unaware years. The imagery of a fatherly figure suggests a deep, unconditional love and care that transcends understanding, highlighting the belief that divine support is continuously offered, shaping one's journey toward moral discernment and personal growth.
In practice
In a sermon about faith and divine guidance.
Let anyone laugh and taunt if he so wishes. I am not keeping silent, nor am I hiding the signs and wonders that were shown to me by the Lord many years before they happened, who knew everything, even before the beginning of time.
I see that already in this present world I am exalted above measure by the Lord. And I was not worthy nor such a one as that he should grant this to me, since I know most surely that poverty and affliction become me better than delights and riches.
The Lord is greater than all: I have said enough.
He that offereth sacrifice of the goods of the poor is as one that sacrificeth the son in the presence of his father.
I partly know why I have not led a perfect life like other believers. But I avow to my Lord, and I do not lie, that from the time when I first knew him, the love of God and the fear of him has grown in me from my youth so that I have, by the power of God, always till now kept the faith.
I only seek in my old age to perfect that which I had not before thoroughly learned in my youth, because my sins were a hindrance to me.
If nationalism makes us poor, weak, and morally insecure, how can it claim to be patriotic? I maintain that nationalists are unpatriotic.
Drinking when we are not thirsty and making love at all seasons, madam: that is all there is to distinguish us from other animals.
If then, said I, the question is put to me would I rather have a miserable ape for a grandfather or a man highly endowed by nature and possessing great means and influence and yet who employs those faculties for the mere purpose of introducing ridicule into a grave scientific discussion-I unhesitatingly affirm my preference for the ape.
There are two stories for every life; the one you live & the one others tell
The most sublime truth of all has never been stated or written or sung. Not because it is far away and can not be reached, but because it is so intimately close, closer than anything that can be spoken. It is alive as the stillness in the core of your being, too close to be described, too close to be objectified, too close to be known in the usual way of knowledge. The truth of who you are is yours already. It is already present.
My schedule for today lists a six-hour self-accusatory depression.
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