Fr. Amaro's St Patricks Day Page

Welcome to my St. Patrick's Day page.This holiday is a special one to me. I've been to Ireland several times now and it is a place that I especially enjoy visiting over and over. But this is a religious holiday. Rather than go over and over the story of St. Patrick, I'd like to just add a few links that I've run into which have some good explanations. You'll notices that all of them are a little different. There are so many tales of St. Patrick and of his origin that we really prove one thing.... no one really knows. I even found one link (that I didn't place here) that says St. Patrick wasn't even Catholic. That was a new on on me! Well, here are the links!

My Irish heritage come from my mother's side of the family. Ya see, me mother's a red-headed Doyle. One of the first songs I ever learned to sing, I learned to sing for her. "My Girl's An Irish Girl" was part of my regular Irish repertoire. I know that the tide has tuned and many don't find it fashionable for a grown man to speak about his mother sentimentally. But fortunately, my Catholic heritage, along with my Irish heritage gives me the freedom to go counter-culturally to today's society. Having been to Ireland, this heritage has become a strong component of my very being. Although I am saddened by the Americanization that has gone on there, I'm thankful for the countryside, which has not been so affected by our influence.

Of course, there's Donald. I met Donald as a tour director on my very first trip to Ireland. He was a teacher at Mount Temple School, but did the tours in the summer months. He still does consulting work after attaining a decree in pastoral studies. This isn't a ministerial degree. It has more to do with guidance of children. He also owns a driving school which has become very successful in Dublin.

Donald introduced me to a place that has become very dear to my heart. It is a special place that has had a certain philosophy of life projected upon it by the Poet, Thomas Moore. You see, two rivers come together here, the Avonmore and the Avonbeg, to form the Avoca River. As I witnessed this beautiful place for the first time, Donald was playing The Meeting of the Waters, which you hear playing in the background of this web page. It speaks of unity. Even though I suspect that Mr. Moore was thinking of his own country, it could be extended to all Christians who lose the war against secularism because of their own lack of tolerance. When I think of all the violence that has been done in the name of those who call themselves Christian... Relax. Read the poem. Know the peace that could be.

THE MEETING OF THE WATERS

THERE is not in the wide world a valley so sweet
As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;
Oh! the last rays of feeling and life must depart,
Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.

Yet it was not that nature had shed o'er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
'Twas not her soft magic of streamlet or hill,
Oh! no, -- it was something more exquisite still.

'Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were near,
Who made every dear scene of enchantment more dear,
And who felt how the best charms of nature improve,
When we see them reflected from looks that we love.

Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best,
Where the storms that we feel in this cold world should cease,
And our hearts, like thy waters, be mingled in peace.

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