The writings of Patrick (7)

                                    So at last I came
unto my home in Britain, to that same
familiar country from which I had been
abducted to become a slave to men.
My family rejoiced at my return,
and when my tribulations they had learned,
they begged me, as a son, to stay with them
and never leave our happy home again.
And so, no doubt, I would have been content
to do, but God was pleased I should be spent
in other ways; for while I tarried there
amid my leisure, He worked to prepare
me for a larger task. There came to me
one night a vision. From across the sea
a man appeared; Victoricus by name.
He had in his possession as he came
so many letters, and he gave me one
of them. The heading of it left me numb:
“The Voice of the Irish,” it proclaimed. As I
began to read the letter, deep in my
imagination in that moment I
could hear the voices of the people by
the wood of Foclut, which is near the sea
in western Ireland, and it seemed to me
that they were crying out, as with one voice,
“O holy servant boy, we would rejoice
for you to come and walk among us.” I
was pierced by great emotion, and my eye
could not continue, so I woke. I praise
the Lord that finally, after many days
and years, he answered their request. Again,
He spoke to me another night, and when
I heard His words – if they were in me or
beside me, only He can know – before
He finished, I was struck with terror, and
His words I simply could not understand,
except for at the end, when He declared,
“The One Who speaks to you is He Who spared
not life on your behalf.” And so again,
I saw Him praying hard in me, and then,
as if I were in my own body, I
was hearing Him above me, over my
most inner being, and with groanings hard.
I felt that it could only be the Lord
Who interceded thus for me. And all
the while I was dumfounded at His call,
astonished, wondering Who it was Who prayed
so earnestly for me. And then He made
me know He was the Spirit of the Lord.
So I awoke, and I recalled the Word
of the Apostle, where he said, “We do
not know how we should make our prayers unto
the Lord; so in our weakness He provides
His Spirit, Who instructs us, and Who guides
and pleads for us in groanings without words.”
He also says, “Our Advocate, the Lord,
on our behalf will intercede.” I knew
that moment what He wanted me to do.

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