On St Patrick and the dispensations...
A crumbling culture needs discipline, not corned beef on a Lenten Friday
Growing up in Chicago, the spirit of St. Patrick’s day was quite clear to any child: It was the day that everyone with even a drop of Irish Heritage would don green, proclaim that “everyone is Irish today!”, and dye the Chicago river green on their way to riotous partying. As I got older and went to high school, our band marched in the South Side Irish parade. Later, as I hit a more legal age, the evening would be spent in bars, dodging those very same South Side Irish meatheads (and South Side Irish meathead aspirants, who it turns out were even more annoying drunk than sober) as they stumbled drunkly through the street seeking another fine establishment to bring them to the point of evacuating the contents of their stomachs (and maybe a fistfight along the way).
It was, I was told, a grand way to spend a day in the middle of Lent. I no longer cared, because I had long since stopped deferentially treating a Catholicism which wouldn’t take it seriously and left the faith. Young folks are most sensitive to the stench of inauthenticity and hypocrisy, after all, and Churches in Chicago stank of inauthenticity. (They still do).
A long and tumultuous story later I was once again a practicing Catholic, seeking tradition, and starting to learn a great deal as the red pills seemingly dropped from the sky. (I always point out to people, for instance, that my parents paid dearly for 12 years of Catholic schooling, and I had never heard about the Real Presence, or learned about how the Holy Spirit actually operates, or what the considerable basis for Catholic moral teachings was).
Anyhow: Patrick, it turned out, wasn’t even Irish. You’d never know this growing up on the South Side of Chicago, where you were either Irish or a less-than. Of course, as I learned more about the beautiful history of Ireland later, and how similar its fate was to that of my ethnic homeland, Poland, I learned that the Irish-Polish Chicago animosity was an absurdity, and that most of those hapless drunken green-haired jablonies didn’t know the first thing about their venerable ancestry. )If they did, they wouldn’t act like drunken apes on their national feast day.) It also turns out that Patrick was a mighty spiritual presence, an ascetic, and managed to convert an entire nation. And it turns out that actual Irish people, living in Ireland, did not engage in the pathetic spectacle which has become known as “St. Paddy’s day” in the United States. They have some sense left.
And so we come to the topic of Lenten dispensations for St. Patrick’s day, which have been a popular topic on social media in recent weeks. St. Patrick’s day falls on a Friday during Lent. Fridays in the Church are traditionally days of penance, and during Lent specifically are used to commemorate the terrible Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, in the Church, every Friday is in a sense a Good Friday, and every Sunday is a mini easter. As we cannot have funerals on Sunday - even when a Pope dies - we cannot have feasts on a Friday. This is only abrogated when a major feast - such as Christmas Day - falls on a Friday. It’s strict, it’s clear, and it’s very good for us, especially in a culture as intemperate and narcissistic as our own.
I would like to suggest, therefore, that the dispensations for meat for St Patrick’s day - which falls on a mini Good Friday this year - are entirely ludicrous. It’s not even a debate, let alone a debate in which the day’s namesake, St. Patrick, would support you in. No cultural tradition, no ethnic pride, no local custom supersedes the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Anywhere. Ever. The fact that this is even a debate shows the frenetic intemperance and unbalanced priorities of our culture. It shows that we have lost sight of our ultimate values.
Did we forget that St. Joseph is the other saint being celebrated this day? Do you recall what he did in life?
Like celebrating Mardi Gras and ignoring the Lent which follows, to upend any Friday in Lent is indeed an imbalanced gesture which fails to reach to the depths of the meaning of this beautiful season. To do so on a Lent in Friday, where two of the greatest saints in heaven are commemorated: well, that looks like demonic inversion to me.
As to the ethnically Irish — who it turns out have a heritage I myself revere and envy — it would be a great step in the right direction if, rather than clamoring for corned beef on a Lenten Friday, you gave a good example and insisted that your Catholic heritage — and the Saint which converted your beautiful country — would be better served drinking green beer on Saturday. And if your Bishop is a compromised weakling, public petition him to honor the saint - and Good Friday - properly.
You can still dye the Chicago river green, of course. Just go to a fish fry at the local Polish parish when you’re done, where folks won’t be getting hammered and gorging on pierogis in the name of St. Joseph.
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Postscript: Looking for a great way to spend St. Patrick’s day? Kneel and say St. Patrick’s Lorica this evening with your family, for the conversion of Ireland and the west:
I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through belief in the Threeness, through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.
I arise today through the strength of Christ with His Baptism,
through the strength of His Crucifixion with His Burial,
through the strength of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
through the strength of His descent for the Judgment of Doom.
I arise today through the strength of the love of Cherubim
in obedience of Angels, in the service of the Archangels,
in hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
in prayers of Patriarchs, in predictions of Prophets,
in preachings of Apostles, in faiths of Confessors,
in innocence of Holy Virgins, in deeds of righteous men.
I arise today, through the strength of Heaven:
light of Sun, brilliance of Moon, splendour of Fire,
speed of Lightning, swiftness of Wind, depth of Sea,
stability of Earth, firmness of Rock.
I arise today, through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me,
God's host to secure me:
against snares of devils, against temptations of vices,
against inclinations of nature, against everyone who
shall wish me ill, afar and anear, alone and in a crowd.
I summon today all these powers between me (and these evils):
against every cruel and merciless power that may oppose my body and my soul, against incantations of false prophets,
against black laws of heathenry,
against false laws of heretics, against craft of idolatry,
against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
against every knowledge that endangers man's body and soul.
Christ to protect me today
against poison, against burning,
against drowning, against wounding,
so that there may come abundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ in breadth, Christ in length, Christ in height,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through belief in the Threeness, through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.
Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of Christ. May Thy Salvation, O Lord, be ever with us.
St. Patrick, pray for us.
St. Joseph, pray for us.