PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL/SEMILLA CENTER FOR ARTS AND HEALING | Marchers on Palm Sunday 2017 at corner of Bloomington and Lake Street in front of Semilla whole wall ceramic mural.
By PATRICK CABELLO HANSEL
Would you willingly go back to the land where you were enslaved? That”'s what St. Patrick did, in 432 C.E. He was a Roman citizen of Britain, and captured by slave traders when he was 16. He spent years herding sheep in County Antrim, escaped after a dream back to his family and then after another dream, decided to go back to Ireland to preach. According to legend, on the night before Easter, he lit a fire on the Hill of Tara in County Meath, which was the seat of the high king of Ireland, Laoghaire. That was the province of the high king to decide when and where the sacred fire was lit, but””again, according to legend””Laoghaire was so impressed with Patrick that he gave him permission to go throughout the whole land.
On the journey to the Hill of Tara, St. Patrick and his followers are said to have sung the song he composed, which came to be known as “St. Patrick”'s Breastplate”. One verse goes like this:
I bind unto myself today
the virtues of the starlit heaven,
the glorious sun”'s life-giving ray,
the whiteness of the moon at even,
the flashing of the lightning free,
the whirling wind”'s tempestuous shocks,
the stable earth, the deep salt sea
around the old eternal rocks.
I don”'t know how much of the legend is true, and being Patrick myself, I don”'t care! I do know that the Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts @St. Paul”'s Lutheran is hosting a St. Patrick”'s Day Bonfire on the 2800 block of 15th Ave S. It will start when the sun goes down, which three days before the vernal equinox is at 7:21 pm. We can”'t promise flashing lightning or whirling wind, but St. Paul”'s is but a half block away, in case the weather is anything but clement. Catholics, Protestants, Druids and all other manner of humans are welcome! For more info, check out our Face Book page: Semilla Center.
Then, on Sunday, March 25, St. Paul”'s will host its annual Palm Sunday Procession for Peace, starting at 11 am. We will walk through the neighborhood, stopping to pray for peace at various sites of hope and pain. It will be followed by a pot-luck lunch. Again, all manner of beings are welcome. For more information, call 612-724-3862 or e-mail: stpaulscreate@gmail.com.
