An author and filmmaker on a mission to inspire found himself deeply intrigued when he stumbled upon the writings of St. Patrick a few years ago and discovered some powerful words.
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Aaron Burns said, like many, he didn’t know much about the historic religious figure, but after a journey of discovery he ended up writing an entire book about Patrick titled, “Praying with Saint Patrick: Prayers and Devotions Inspired by the Irish Hero of the Faith.”
“Growing up, I didn’t know if he was any more real than Robin Hood or King Arthur … he’s just some kind of a leprechaun with a green hat and beer and all this kind of stuff,” Burns said. “But then I read these two letters that he wrote and was just blown away by the character and the story of the man that we met there.”
The movie-maker said his exploration drove him to uncover some powerful facts about Patrick, explaining that he grew up in a Christian home with a father and grandfather who were faith leaders who shared God’s love with him — something he wasn’t interested in until later in life.
“At age 16, he’s kidnapped by Irish pirates, and then spent seven years as a slave in Ireland,” Burns said. “It’s in that time when he’s a slave that God starts to work in his heart, and says he remembers the things he was taught, and his heart is transformed … He eventually escapes and makes his way back home.”
Patrick ends up feeling called to do something pretty remarkable: show God’s love to his former captors. Thus, he embarked on a missionary journey to reach “pagan barbarians.”
Watch Burns explain:
“In his letters, he lays out the case. … [He says,] ‘God’s love is for everyone, and that is why I’m doing these things,'” Burns said. “And so he goes back across to the island of Ireland, and brings the Gospel with him.”
And Patrick’s influence ended up being quite massive.
“In the course of his lifetime, you see this transformation take place — that the human trafficking that Patrick was a victim of is eradicated, the human sacrifice that was practiced by the Celtic religion at the time is largely wiped out.”
What followed was a golden age of sorts, with Ireland suddenly sending out missionaries and teachers. Patrick’s efforts to bring faith the Ireland left Burns deeply inspired.
“There’s two prayers that he has in his book,” he said. “One is: he prays that he’d be able to leave a spiritual legacy; he never had kids, but he said, ‘I want people who are my followers today to continue to do the work that I did.'”
Burns said the second prayer was one centered on pointing people toward the Lord.
“[Patrick] says, ‘I pray that anyone who hears about me [or] hears my name or what happened in Ireland wouldn’t think of me but would think of Christ,” Burns said, noting the unfortunate part about this prayer is that much of the St. Patrick’s Day images today surround beer, leprechauns, and sentiments unrelated to faith.
He continued, “I felt a call and a desire to be a part of answering that prayer to share the story of what God did in Ireland and to inspire [people] learn about what happened and then to learn to pray like he did — to pray for his community, pray for himself.”
Find out more about Patrick in Burns’ book “Praying with Saint Patrick” and also consider watching CBN Films’ “I Am Patrick.”
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