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Saint Patrick's Day Address by Elizabeth Clare Prophet
So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
This day of days, March 17, 1985, brings us to that example so noted by Sanat Kumara of beloved Saint Patrick. And therefore, I deliver to you this Summit University lecture on the fire infolding itself in the very heart and life of Saint Patrick.
I deliver it to all the congregation of the righteous upon earth for many important reasons - principally that we must walk in the footsteps of the immortals, that we must see the goal of the ascension as being realized by ourselves - not as an exception to this path of striving but in fulfillment of it.
We see in the life of Jesus Christ and Moses and the prophets and the apostle Paul and the saints who have walked with us these two thousand years, as well as in that of the Masters of the Far East, that there are certain known factors in life and in what we face as we master each of the seven planes of being through the seven chakras.
These are not different, but they are the same tests given to all. They may be clothed in different guises in different centuries, but when it comes down to the moment of Truth, as for the testing, the temptation, and the trials, there are givens and there are knowns.
Therefore, by acquainting ourselves with the lives of the saints, we may know what to anticipate and not be dismayed when we ourselves as chelas, or our leaders or the Ascended Masters, come under the reproof of the fallen angels upon earth.
It is so essential, according to Saint Germain and to beloved El Morya, to understand our position in history. A long cosmic history precedes us - millions of years. We have been a part of that history. If you would like to hear my remarks on that subject made to Summit University last evening, I would be most happy to have this played for anyone in the community.1
It is important that we know as a whole, as a body of God and as a movement, what is the essence and the purpose of each quarter of Summit University. This we can come to understand through the dictations preceding and included in each quarter, and in the teachings given.
All who have been to Summit University and all who are preparing to attend ought to avail themselves of the opportunity of the continuing study which qualifies us as ministering servants, which qualification is by the Holy Spirit-not necessarily by ordination or by officially becoming a minister, but by the very cloak and mantle of the Brothers and Sisters of the Golden Robe and the Order of Francis and Clare-the spiritual anointing of our souls by God.
The Strength of the Individual in God
The cape of responsibility for life and for one another and for our individual path is something we must keep constantly with us and before us lest we become a bit complacent because the body of God is so large, the movement is strong, the revolution is ongoing, and we do not see ourselves alone standing against the backdrop of the stark reality of the desert or the mountains or the darkness of the earth.
Yet these saints who have gone before us have been pillars of eternity standing in the mists of time and space. And as we study them, we see them in their aloneness, their all-oneness, standing out in relief against the complicity of the fallen ones.
And so, we understand, beloved hearts, that this message today is given to make us realize that no matter how many are our numbers, we must not number the numbers but consider that the individual clothed with God is the One and the Law of the One. Whether we are many together or whether we stand alone, we must count that the strength must be where we are, where the individual is.
We must see ourselves alongside Isaiah and Jeremiah. We must see ourselves as having to make it by the internal strength of the soul, the strength of character, and the courage necessary to face that energy veil in our own selves or in the world. For thereby will the community be strong, because the individual identifies himself individually and not collectively.
And this is what we underscore today: we must not become complacent in the sense that we are among many, but each individual must understand the supreme necessity of earning that ascension and marching forward on that personal path of Christhood.
Therefore it matters supremely what each one of us does each day, how we serve-that we come to decree sessions, that we meet Saint Germain's call Saturday evening, that we are here early Sunday morning, and that we understand that "through the Law of the One, I am accountable for the saving of the nations. I am accountable for implementing Saint Germain's call to the nations or whatever is the call of the hour"-which we hear in the dictations published in the current Pearls of Wisdom.
So let us see the example and the trial of Saint Patrick today and equate with it and run with it and not allow ourselves to be any less filled with fervor and soul-searching and God-mastering than this saint of the Most High God.
We are looking forward to our festivities and celebrations of Saint Patrick's Day and this, too, is important, but for now I ask you to meditate in the secret chamber of your heart with Gautama Buddha, El Morya, and Saint Patrick, and take this opportunity that we have on Sunday to contact the great Gurus, the World Teachers, to do our soul-searching, our meditation, our quiet confessions to the Almighty, so that we may know that we are truly on the path that is required of us and that we are meeting the requirements of the ascension and the goal set before us.
El Morya and Lanello, Saint Germain and Jesus, Mother Mary are very concerned that you pause to consider whether your spiritual life is in keeping with all that they have given and taught. Thus, do not be dismayed at the length of this lecture. You need to hear every word of it, and therefore please pay attention and stay awake.
I am going to read to you about the life of Saint Patrick, first from The Story of the Irish Race by MacManus.2
The coming of Patrick to Ireland marks the greatest of Irish epochs.
Of all most momentous happenings in Irish history, this seemingly simple one had the most extraordinary, most far-reaching effect. It changed the face of the nation, and utterly changed the nation's destiny. The coming of Patrick may be said to have had sublime effect not on Ireland alone, but upon the world. It was a world event.
I want your coming upon this planet to be a world event. I want you to know today, in the name of your Mighty I AM Presence, that your soul, your lifestream was sent to earth by God. And when you were born, it was a world event. And the second world event in your life is to be your confirmation, your externalization of that internal Light.
Let the history written of your soul's sojourn upon earth be noteworthy that the earth was changed by your coming. If it is not so, you shall not have fulfilled your fiery destiny. Such is the power of God in the individual. The Law of the One is about to proclaim the nova of your coming.
The man himself proved to be a world figure ...
May you also prove that you are a world figure.
One of the massive giants who tower distinct and sublime above the dense mists of dim antiquity-one, too, of whom it may truly be said that the more intimately you approach him and the nearer you view him, the greater he grows. He was one of the greatest of Celts, became one of the greatest of Irishmen, and one of the very great among men.
Patrick first came to Ireland - as a captive - in the year 389, in the reign of Niall. It was forty-three years later, in the year 432, the reign of Laoghaire, that he came upon the mission which was so miraculously to change the Island's destiny.
An ancient Pagan prophecy attributed to Conn of the Hundred Battles says: "With Laoghaire the Valiant will the land be humbled by the coming of the Tailcenn (i.e., Patrick): houses across (i.e., churches): bent staffs which shall pluck the flowers from their high places."
In the period of Patrick's coming the great Roman Empire was crumbling, while Ireland, with fleets on the sea and armies in foreign lands, had reached the pinnacle of her political power - a time that would seem the least propitious for winning men to the meek and abnegatory doctrines of Christ. Yet was it, in His own mysterious way, God's chosen time for sending His chosen man.
I will read to you from the Pearl of Wisdom of Sanat Kumara of November 18, 1979, concerning Saint Patrick.3
My Beloved Who Will Yet Go to the Mountain to Fast and Pray with Me That the Serpents Might Be Expelled from the Earth:
Let us go to the mountain in the land of Erin where a youth enslaved by pagans is in prayer through the day and into the night. So fervent is the love of God within him that the fire of his heart is a light midst snow and ice. He lived on the mountain, alone with God, tending his master's herds. And on that mountain I called my son Patrick, that out of the condition of servitude there might be produced the miracle fire of freedom.
It was late fourth century A.D. and the clans of the Irish - the reincarnated tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh-were ruled by a host of kings. They served not the LORD God, nor had they the salvation of his Son. Therefore I, the Ancient of Days, called my son, freeborn, unto slavery that I might deliver him to freedom and to the mission of implanting the violet flame in the hearts of my true sons and daughters that they might one day carry it to the New World in the name of Saint Germain.
And therefore, unto slavery was he called and unto slavery are we called. We are called to the slavery of our own personal karma. The Law will not allow us to escape its bonds. Thereby we come to the realization of the need for liberation and the seeking of the Flame of Freedom and the one who delivers it, Sanat Kumara, and delivers it through his servant-sons, Saint Germain and Morya and the great Lights.
So we understand that there is a law of opposites whereby from unreality we are catapulted unto reality. And we are joyous to find ourselves in the knowledge of our obligations which we have incurred karmically, that we may draw upon the Light of God and prove that the Flame of Freedom and its Spirit is greater than all of these things.
The Vision and Preparation for the Mission
To him I gave the vision of the people of Erin whose seed would one day ignite the fires of freedom on every shore and in every nation. Your own prophet Mark derived his fervor from that lineage of the Ancient of Days which goes back to the Emerald Isle. And the Irish eyes of Thomas Moore, poet and prince of my heart, yet smile through the sternness of El Morya and his twinkle of mirth always needed on earth.
Finally restored to his kinsfolk after six years of humbling himself before me on the mountain, tending sheep as he would soon feed my sheep, Patrick heard the voices of the souls of my children crying out from the land of Erin for deliverance: "We beseech thee, holy youth, to come and walk among us once more." Indeed they remembered him when he had walked among them as a prophet in Israel, rebuking their waywardness in the name of the LORD. Now they awaited the message of their salvation through Messiah's anointed apostle.
Patrick prepared for his mission under the lineage of the Ruby Ray and with the saints of the inner Church. And that mission, my beloved, was to subdue the seed of Serpent in Ireland and to raise up the tribes of Israel, the remnant of Joseph's seed who would be Christ-bearers to the nations. Empowered of the Holy Ghost and bearing the Staff of Jesus, he wielded such power and wrought such miracles that pagan chiefs and decadent Druids bowed in submission to this rod of Aaron that, in the new tongue, became the rod of Erin.
So perilous was the mission of the shamrock saint of the fifth ray that he wrote in his "Confession": "Daily I expect either a violent death or to be robbed and reduced to slavery or the occurrence of some such calamity. I have cast myself into the hands of Almighty God, for He rules everything; as the Prophet saith, `Cast thy care upon the LORD, and He Himself will sustain thee."'
His Consecration, Commission, and Reception at the Irish Court of King Laoghaire
The reading from MacManus continues:
Having been consecrated Bishop, Pope Celestine commissioned him to carry the gospel to the land of his love-and conferred on him the Roman noble name Patricius.
He reached Ireland in 432 in the fourth year of the reign of Laoghaire, son of Niall, High-King.
On the eve of Easter, Patrick's party encamped at Slaine, on the left bank of the Boyne, opposite to and in sight of Tara; and Patrick lighted in front of his tent a fire which was visible at the king's court.
Now a great festival was beginning at Tara, coincident with the beginning of Patrick's Easter festival. And it was a gross violation of royal and ancient order that on this eve any fire should be lighted before the court Druids should light their sacred fire upon the royal Rath. Accordingly, when Laoghaire's astounded court beheld in the distance the blazing of Patrick's fire before the Druid fire had yet been lit, great was their consternation and high and hot their wrath.
"What audacious miscreant," demanded the king, "has dared to do this outrage?" The Druids answered him that it was indeed the Tailcenn of the old prophecy, come to supersede his rule, and their rule, in Eirinn. "Moreover," they said, "unless the fire on yonder hill be extinguished this very night, it shall never more be extinguished in Eirinn. It will outshine all fires that we light, and he who lit it will conquer us all: he will overthrow you, and his kingdom overthrow your kingdom: he will make your subjects his, and rule over them all forever."
Then King Laoghaire, a splendidly determined old pagan, of like nature with Miliuc, angrily demanded that the transgressor should be dragged before him, with all the other foreign intruders who were supporting him.
Then Patrick's camp was raided by Laoghaire's soldiers, and he and his companions ordered to march to Tara.
An old tradition has it that, as, on Easter morning, the missionaries proceeded in processional order, toward the king's court, they chanted the sacred Lorica, called the Faed Fiada, or Deer's Cry, specially composed by Patrick for their protection.
It is said that as the minions of the Druids lay in ambush to intercept and kill them as they came to court, these evil ones now saw not Patrick and his companions pass, only saw pass a harmless herd of gentle deer, a doe followed by her twenty fawns. Hence the hymn's title, the Faed Fiada - Deer's Cry.
And through all the centuries since, the Faed Fiada - which many old authorities pronounce to be Patrick's own work, and the first hymn written in Gaelic - has been used by the Irish Race as a lorica for protection.
And so I shall read it to you so that you may also offer this prayer for your spiritual protection from all evil.
Patrick's Lorica for Protection
I bind me to-day,
God's might to direct me,
God's power to protect me,
God's wisdom for learning,
God's eye for discerning,
God's ear for my hearing,
God's word for my clearing.
God's hand for my cover,
God's path to pass over,
God's buckler to guard me,
God's army to ward me,
Against snares of the devil,
Against vice's temptation,
Against wrong inclination,
Against men who plot evil,
Anear or afar, with many or few.
Christ near,
Christ here,
Christ be with me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ within me,
Christ behind me,
Christ be o'er me,
Christ before me.
Christ in the left and the right,
Christ hither and thither,
Christ in the sight,
Of each eye that shall seek me,
In each ear that shall hear,
In each mouth that shall speak me -
Christ not the less
In each heart I address.
I bind me to-day on the Triune - I call,
With faith in the Trinity-Unity - God over all.
Patrick Challenges the Court, Converts the Queen,
Gains the King's Favor and Freedom
And having been carried safe by the Lord through the ambushes prepared for them, Patrick led his host into the king's presence, chanting: "Let them that will, trust in chariots and horses, but we walk in the name of the Lord."
To impress and awe these foreigners, King Laoghaire with his queen and court, sat aloft in state, while his warriors, in silence, sat around in a great circle, with the rims of their shields against their chins.
Laoghaire, evidently apprehensive of the secret power of the Tailcenn, had warned his court that none of the marks of respect which were the due of a stranger, should be shown to this bold aggressor. But so impressive was Patrick's appearance that immediately when he came into their presence, Dubthach, the King's Ollam poet, arose, in respect for him; as also a young noble, Erc-who afterwards became Bishop Erc. And these two were Patrick's first converts at Tara.
In the presence of King and court Patrick was first confronted with the Druids, who, it was hoped, would quickly confound him. But matching his miracles against their magic he showed to all that his powers far transcended theirs. He dispelled a darkness, which they, by their magical powers had produced, but were powerless to dissipate-"They can bring darkness," he significantly said, "but cannot bring light."
He preached Christ to the assembly, and won to his Master the queen and several prominent members of the court. And, though Laoghaire's pagan faith was unshaken, he was so far won by the man Patrick that he gave him the freedom of his realm to preach the new faith where and to whom he would.
Patrick's Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus on the Occasion of the Slaughter of the Newly Baptized
Continuing Sanat Kumara's discourse:
Well might you emulate the courage and the humility of my son Patrick when he boldly challenged Prince Corotick, that serpent who dared plunder Patrick's domain, massacring a great number of neophytes, as it is written, who were yet in their white garments after baptism; and others he carried away and sold to infidels.
Patrick circulated a letter in his own hand pronouncing the judgment of Corotick and his accomplices and declaring them separate from him as the established Bishop of Ireland, and from Jesus Christ. He forbade the faithful "to eat with them, or to receive their alms, till they should have satisfied God by the tears of sincere penance, and restored the servants of Jesus Christ to their liberty."
I am going to read to you now Patrick's letter to Corotick, from "The Letters of the Holy Bishop Patrick," in The Steadfast Man.4 And I expect that as I am reading these accounts of Patrick's life you are planning and visualizing how you yourselves will so fulfill your fiery destiny in his footsteps.
This book states that the letter is to the soldiers of Coroticus, the Latin name of Corotick.
I, Patrick, a sinner, unlearned, resident in Ireland, declare myself to be a bishop. Most assuredly I believe that what I am I have received from God. And so I live among barbarians, a stranger and exile for the love of God. He is witness that this is so.
Not that I wished my mouth to utter anything so hard and harsh; but I am forced by the zeal for God; and the truth of Christ has wrung it from me, out of love for my neighbours and sons for whom I gave up my country and parents and my life to the point of death. If I be worthy, I live for my God to teach the heathen, even though some may despise me.
2- With my own hand I have written and composed these words, to be given, delivered, and sent to the soldiers of Coroticus; I do not say, to my fellow citizens, or to fellow citizens of the holy Romans, but to fellow citizens of the demons, because of their evil works. Like our enemies, they live in death, allies of the Scots and the apostate Picts. Dripping with blood, they welter in the blood of innocent Christians, whom I have begotten into the number for God and confirmed in Christ!
3- The day after the newly baptised, anointed with chrism, in white garments (had been slain) - the fragrance was still on their foreheads when they were butchered and slaughtered with the sword by the above-mentioned people - I sent a letter with a holy presbyter whom I had taught from his childhood, clerics accompanying him, asking them to let us have some of the booty, and of the baptised they had made captives. They only jeered at them.
4- Hence I do not know what to lament more: those who have been slain, or those whom they have taken captive, or those whom the devil has mightily ensnared. Together with him they will be slaves in Hell in an eternal punishment; for who committeth sin is a slave and will be called a son of the devil.
5- Wherefore let every God-fearing man know that they are enemies of me and of Christ my God, for whom I am an ambassador. Parricide! fratricide! ravening wolves that eat the people of the Lord as they eat bread! As is said, The wicked, O Lord, have destroyed Thy law, which but recently He had excellently and kindly planted in Ireland, and which had established itself by the grace of God.
6- I make no false claim. I share in the work of those whom He called and predestinated to preach the Gospel amidst grave persecutions unto the end of the earth, even if the enemy shows his jealousy through the tyranny of Coroticus, a man who has no respect for God nor for His priests whom He chose, giving them the highest, divine, and sublime power, that whom they should bind upon earth should be bound also in heaven.
7- Wherefore, then, I plead with you earnestly, ye holy and humble of heart, it is not permissible to court the favour of such people, nor to take food or drink with them, nor even to accept their alms, until they make reparation to God in hardships, through penance, with shedding of tears, and set free the baptised servants of God and handmaids of Christ, for whom He died and was crucified.
8- The most High disapproveth the gifts of the wicked. ... He that offereth sacrifice of the goods of the poor, is as one that sacrificeth the son in the presence of his father. The riches, it is written, which he has gathered unjustly, shall be vomited up from his belly; the angel of death drags him away, by the fury of dragons he shall be tormented, the viper's tongue shall kill him, unquenchable fire devoureth him.
And so - Woe to those who fill themselves with what is not their own; or, What doth it profit a man that he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul?
9- It would be too tedious to discuss and set forth everything in detail, to gather from the whole Law testimonies against such greed. Avarice is a deadly sin. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods. Thou shalt not kill. A murderer cannot be with Christ. Whosoever hateth his brother is accounted a murderer. Or, He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. How much more guilty is he that has stained his hands with the blood of the sons of God whom He has of late purchased in the utmost part of the earth through the call of our littleness!
10- Did I come to Ireland without God, or according to the flesh? Who compelled me? I am bound by the Spirit not to see any of my kinsfolk. Is it of my own doing that I have holy mercy on the people who once took me captive and made away with the servants and maids of my father's house?
I was freeborn according to the flesh. I am the son of a decurion. But I sold my noble rank - I am neither ashamed nor sorry - for the good of others. Thus I am a servant in Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
11- And if my own people do not know me, a prophet hath no honour in his own country. Perhaps we are not of the same fold and have not one and the same God as father, as is written: He that is not with me, is against me, and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth. It is not right that one destroyeth, another buildeth up. I seek not the things that are mine.
It is not my grace, but God who has given this solicitude into my heart, to be one of His hunters or fishers whom God once foretold would come in the last days.
12- I am hated. What shall I do, Lord? I am most despised. Look, Thy sheep around me are torn to pieces and driven away, and that by those robbers, by the orders of the hostile-minded Coroticus. Far from the love of God is a man who hands over Christians to the Picts and Scots.
Ravening wolves have devoured the flock of the Lord, which in Ireland was indeed growing splendidly with the greatest care; and the sons and daughters of kings were monks and virgins of Christ - I cannot count their number. Wherefore, be not pleased with the wrong done to the just; even to hell it shall not please.
13- Who of the saints would not shudder to be merry with such persons or to enjoy a meal with them? They have filled their houses with the spoils of dead Christians, they live on plunder. They do not know, the wretches, that what they offer their friends and sons as food is deadly poison, just as Eve did not understand that it was death she gave to her husband. So are all that do evil: they work death as their eternal punishment.
14- This is the custom of the Roman Christians of Gaul: they send holy and able men to the Franks and other heathen with so many thousand solidi to ransom baptised captives. You prefer to kill and sell them to a foreign nation that has no knowledge of God. You betray the members of Christ as it were into a brothel.
What hope have you in God, or anyone who thinks as you do, or converses with you in words of flattery? God will judge. For Scripture says: Not only they that do evil are worthy to be condemned, but they also that consent to them.
Not Only They That Do Evil Are Worthy to Be Condemned
But They Also That Consent to Them
El Morya's Warning to His Chelas
Let us consider that statement again - "Not only they that do evil are worthy to be condemned, but they also that consent to them."
Keepers of the Flame, the law is written: Silence is consent. And this is the very heart and message of the life of Saint Patrick. Where there was evil, he challenged it forthrightly and directly. He did not remain silent.
And this is the great message of Saint Patrick and El Morya and Saint Germain today: that Keepers of the Flame who do not attend services and give their calls to Saint Germain for the Afghans, for Nicaragua, for El Salvador and for the burdens of the earth are in silence consenting to the ravaging of the earth and the lightbearers.
Therefore I am sent by the hierarchy this day to remind you of your covenant with the Magi, to remind you of Morya and Patrick and Saint Germain and Mother Mary, and to remind you of your responsibility in service.
For Morya said to me this morning that those who know the law and do it not in this activity and in this Fraternity of Keepers of the Flame already have written on their record of the Book of Life their neglect and therefore their consent to world conditions - having, as they do, the knowledge of the violet flame and the knowledge of the Call and failing to present themselves a living sacrifice in the testimony of the Word in this sanctuary or in their homes and centers around the world.
Withholding your life from the defense of innocent victims worldwide becomes an accountability, and that accountability is upon your lifestream this day. And therefore, be forewarned not to have the expectancy that by the momentum of the movement (the organization and its activities) you will arrive at the gate of Paradise.
Thus, as your Messenger, I divest myself of the responsibility of this knowledge and warning, even as El Morya, your Guru, does the same through me in this hour. Therefore, hear the law which was spoken by Patrick in the fifth century: "Not only they that do evil are worthy to be condemned, but they also that consent to them." The law is written - your silence is your consent.
15- I do not know what I should say or speak further about the departed ones of the sons of God, whom the sword has touched all too harshly. For Scripture says: Weep with them that weep; and again: If one member be grieved, let all members grieve with it.
Hence the Church mourns and laments her sons and daughters whom the sword has not yet slain, but who were removed and carried off to faraway lands, where sin abounds openly, grossly, impudently. There people who were freeborn have been sold, Christians made slaves, and that, too, in the service of the abominable, wicked, and apostate Picts!
16- Therefore I shall raise my voice in sadness and grief: O you fair and beloved brethren and sons whom I have begotten in Christ, countless of number, what can I do for you? I am not worthy to come to the help of God or men. The wickedness of the wicked hath prevailed over us. We have been made, as it were, strangers.
Perhaps they do not believe that we have received one and the same baptism, or have one and the same God as father. For them it is a disgrace that we are Irish. Have ye not, as is written, one God? Have ye, every one of you, forsaken his neighbour?
17- Therefore I grieve for you, I grieve, my dearly beloved. But again, I rejoice within myself. I have not laboured for nothing, and my journeying abroad has not been in vain. And if this horrible, unspeakable crime did happen - thanks be to God, you have left the world and have gone to Paradise as baptised faithful. I see you: you have begun to journey where night shall be no more, nor mourning, nor death; but you shall leap like calves loosened from their bonds, and you shall tread down the wicked, and they shall be ashes under your feet.
18- You, then, will reign with the apostles, and prophets, and martyrs. You will take possession of eternal kingdoms, as He Himself testifies, saying: They shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Without are dogs, and sorcerers, ... and murderers; and liars and perjurers have their portion in the pool of everlasting fire.
Not without reason does the Apostle say: Where the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the sinner and ungodly transgressor of the law find himself?
19- Where, then, will Coroticus with his criminals, rebels against Christ, where will they see themselves, they who distribute baptised women as prizes - for a miserable temporal kingdom, which will pass away in a moment? As a cloud or smoke that is dispersed by the wind, so shall the deceitful wicked perish at the presence of the Lord; but the just shall feast with great constancy with Christ, they shall judge nations, and rule over wicked kings for ever and ever. Amen.
20- I testify before God and His angels that it will be so as He indicated to my ignorance. It is not my words that I have set forth in Latin, but those of God and the apostles and prophets, who have never lied. He that believeth shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned, God hath spoken.
21- I ask earnestly that whoever is a willing servant of God be a carrier of this letter, so that on no account it be suppressed or hidden by anyone, but rather be read before all the people, and in the presence of Coroticus himself.
May God inspire them sometime to recover their senses for God, repenting, however late, their heinous deeds - murderers of the brethren of the Lord! - and to set free the baptised women whom they took captive, in order that they may deserve to live to God, and be made whole, here and in eternity!
Be peace to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This letter, then, is the expression of the sacred fire of God through the heart of Saint Patrick upon a most burdensome and grievous crime committed-the slaughter of the innocents. Thus you understand that the testimony of the lightbearers in the face of injustice wherever you find it is your calling-subject to the direction of the Holy Spirit upon you and your own Christ Self.
Our Individual Responsibility to Fulfill the Requirements of the Law
Remember that silence is agreement in any area of life and in the face of any crime. And thus, understand individual and personal responsibility for the rebuke, either of the seed of the wicked or of the burdens or grievances or sins of one another. This is according to the Old Testament where it is written in the prophecies of Ezekiel (Chapters 3 and 33) that if we keep silence and do not challenge and rebuke the wickedness of the seed of the wicked, their karma will be upon us.
And the same of the children of the Light: If we do not challenge their wrongdoing, their karma will be upon us; and we are responsible if, for our failure to preach to them, they are judged in the Day of Judgment and lose their salvation.
Thus, you see the little book that is sweet in the mouth and bitter in the belly that is given to John the Revelator by the mighty angel clothed with a cloud and a rainbow on his head.5 He takes the book. He eats it. It is sweet in his mouth. He is filled with the glory of God - as you are filled with the glory of the Masters' dictations and the Light and the results of your meditations and dynamic decrees.
It is bitter in his belly. And the bitterness in the belly is his and our accountability in the new age. And the angel tells him exactly what is this accountability. He says: "Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings."
Thus, it is the dawn of our responsibility in this life for the karma of our previous embodiments, for whatever is happening upon earth in the hour and the day of our incarnation, and for our taking on the burden of the LORD which is the preaching, verily the prophesying, to the nations.
The bitterness in the belly is the realization that we must face those wicked ones who transgress against the LORD and challenge them in their iniquities. And we must challenge the self-righteous to embrace the righteousness of the LORD Sanat Kumara. This is the calling and the office of those who are the Christed ones.
Following the directive of beloved El Morya and his dictation6 to you prior to my leaving on the Pacific Stump, the one who holds the office of chela or is aspiring to the office of chela must already be acting the part of the office of Christ in order to inherit the mantle of Christ. Therefore you understand your unique and individual accountability rather than saying, "The Messenger is taking care of this. The Messenger is preaching the Word, therefore I do not have to do it. The board of directors is taking care of these burdens, and therefore I will not be necessarily involved in this action."
If we do not fulfill our calling and our office, wherever we are on the ladder of life, we will lose both the calling and the office.
Understand that individually, one by one, you must daily keep your peace with Almighty God in obedience to His laws. Though I am the Shepherd of your souls, I cannot be accountable for the misdemeanors which you yourselves are responsible for, because you are fulfilling your discipleship in the Aquarian dispensation of Saint Germain.
The knowledge of the Law itself makes you accountable. And therefore, realize that the disciplining of your soul, the watchfulness, the realization of Light and Darkness and right and wrong is a supreme responsibility which you have under your own Christ Self and I AM Presence.
Remember this. And do not tarry in passivity, waiting for someone who you refer to as a "hierarch" to come along and tap you on the head and remind you of your responsibility to be the incarnate Word. Remember that the Teaching itself has made you immensely responsible for a path on which you must set the example. And this path was nobly outpictured by Saint Patrick in the fifth century.
So you see, we cannot claim ignorance. All Patrick had was Jesus Christ, the apostles, the prophets, and his own I AM Presence, Christ Self, and his responsibility to the one who anointed him - the Ancient of Days. It is not as though he had any outer person goading him to these actions. They sprung from the wellspring within him of the sacred fire.
Saint Germain says to you, "Go and do likewise." The Masters have spoken. They have dictated. They have released their intents. They have called their chelas. They have called their Keepers of the Flame. Everyone who has heard the dictations stands accountable for fulfilling the requirements of the Law.
When you place yourselves at the feet of the Ascended Masters, know that you have the responsibility for the Light and the Wisdom and the Mandate given. These are the terms of chelaship. When you expect God to serve you through the Ascended Masters, you are expected to return in kind.
This is the quickening and the awakening that the Darjeeling Council brings to the body of God on this Saint Patrick's Day. It is the Emerald Matrix of Truth. And Truth is a two-edged sword and it cleaves asunder the real from the unreal. And we all need that fiery flame of Truth and the Science of Being it brings to us today.
I would like to read you the concluding statements of Sanat Kumara on Saint Patrick.
Such is the true Work and Word of the saints of the Ruby Ray who, with all due seriousness, receive the sign of their coming in the taking up of serpents. Thousands upon thousands of the descendants of Jacob's favorite son were baptized and confirmed by the Lord Jesus through my son Patrick. Like the apostle Paul, he bound the power of Serpent's seed that had invaded the land of Erin; and like him, he healed their sick, he restored sight - both inner and outer-to their blind, and he raised Abram's seed - dead in body and in spirit - to new life through the indwelling Christ by the Word of Christ Jesus, his beloved.
Now the Ascended Master Saint Patrick stands with me on the summit of Mount Aigli where, at the close of his earthly sojourn, he retreated forty days and forty nights, fasting in body and in spirit that he might be filled with the Light of the Ancient of Days. There on that occasion fifteen hundred years ago, I summoned all the saints of Erin - the light of Aaron's priesthood and the lightbearers of the Christic seed of Joseph-past, present, and future, to pay homage to him who was father to them all.
Again I call the saints to a pilgrimage to the mountain to bless and be blessed by Patrick, to be infilled with his Spirit, to receive his mantle, to pray fervently that the fruit of all of his labors might provide a plenteous harvest in this age unto the World Mother who labors long for her children and for the Manchild.
Now I say, saints of the Ruby Ray, let Mission Amethyst Jewel return to the shrine where there once burned in the heart of a youth enslaved a kindling light that was to light a world. Let him who is an initiate of the fifth ray and the Lamb who is worthy transfer to you the momentum of his light that by your dynamic decrees unto the living Word you might once again cast out of Ireland the seed of Serpent now persecuting the blessed seed of the Woman.
Let the violet fire of freedom ring through hill and dale! Let it restore truth and the true Church Universal and Triumphant that belongs unto the saints!
My beloved, many of you were among the souls of the saints who came to Patrick in his final hours on the mountain. You saluted him in the glory of God that was upon him, and to him you were the promise that his Word and Work would be carried to golden shores unto a golden age of Christ peace and enlightenment. It is time and high time that you go forth to bind the barbarians that have returned to the British Isles with their terror and terrorism and their age-old tyranny by which they would bind the souls of my people Israel.
I Call for a Prayer Vigil for Ireland
This is a very great calling upon my heart that has burdened me throughout my trip as I have read daily the newspaper reports of more killings and deaths in Ireland. Surely God has placed in my heart in the past month, leading to this day, the great need of Ireland for the Light and the lightbearers.
And therefore, I call for a prayer vigil on behalf of Ireland once again that we may move with the saints and the holy ones of God to demand that the Light devour these murderers and assassins who have reincarnated for their final judgment and may very well have been a part of those soldiers who performed this dastardly deed in the slaying of the holy innocents in the time of Patrick.
Surely there is a battle raging of Armageddon, of life and death. And so, let us consider the suffering of the people of Ireland, whence came Morya and Lanello and many of your hearts-truly a land of angels, a land of Light, a land unique and that is under attack. Even adversaries siding in with the murderers and terrorists are in the United States today providing them with funds, as you know.
In the heart of all of this and in the midst of it is the presence of Saint Patrick. And yet we know that the key to unlock the power of his causal body, his shepherd's crook, his mitre and the sword of the Spirit must be the dynamic decree. And our dynamic decree is far more effective when, in our hearts, we, too, have fasted and prayed and sacrificed that the Light might shine through us in the most efficacious manner, as it did through him. He came and he delivered that land of serpents. `Psychic snakes' (formed on the astral plane) were driven out of Ireland, and thus the serpents-the fallen ones - likewise must be driven out.
Thus we understand what is the power of the raised shepherd's crook, the Kundalini fire, the crook which rises. And the crook itself is the shape of that rising flame that comes around the head and seals in the third eye the Emerald Matrix, the green of Saint Patrick.
I am going to read to you Saint Patrick's Confession.7 He wrote it toward the end of his life, and it is the main source of the information which we have today about Patrick. It was composed as the defense of his ministry in answer to charges that he was seeking profit for himself in his mission in Ireland.
In it he tells of his six-year captivity as a shepherd in Ireland during his teenage years, thus showing all of us by his example that in the teenage years we bear the burden of our karma and we are preparing for our mission and we are being initiated. And this is the great significance of becoming a teenager today. And would it be to God that the American teenager would understand this path from age thirteen to nineteen - as representative of the six years of Saint Patrick's imprisonment8 - and understand that it is meet that the sacred fire be exalted in them and that they commune with God.
He speaks of his escape to Britain and subsequent calling to return to Ireland to minister to her people, his spiritual work among the Irish and some of the perils that he faced, including an attack by Satan and his persecution and betrayal by a close friend.
In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Mother, Amen.
1- I, Patrick, sinner, am the most illiterate and inconsiderable of all the Faithful, and am despised in the hearts of many.
I had for father Calpurnius, a deacon, one of the sons of Potitus, a presbyter, who belonged to the village of Bannavem Taberniae; for he owned a small farm hard by, where I was made a captive.
At the time I was about sixteen years old. I had no knowledge of the True God, and I was led to Ireland in captivity with many thousand others, according to our deserts, because we departed from God and did not keep his commandments, and we were not obedient to our priests, who were wont to admonish us for our salvation. And the Lord poured upon us the fury of his anger, and scattered us among many gentile nations, even unto the ends of the earth, where now my littleness may be seen among stranger folk.
2- And there the Lord opened the understanding of my unbelief, so that, though late, I might summon my faults to mind and turn with all my heart to the Lord my God, who regarded my low estate, and pitied my ignorance and youth, and kept watch over me before I knew him or had attained discernment or could distinguish good from evil, and fortified me and comforted me as a father his son.
3- Therefore I cannot now maintain silence (nor would it be fitting) as to the great favours and the great grace which the Lord vouchsafed to bestow on me in the land of my captivity. For this is the return we make: that after our chastening and our recognition of God we shall exalt and praise his wondrous works before every nation which is under the whole heaven.
4- For there is no other God, and never has been, and never will be hereafter, except God the Father unbegotten, without beginning, from whom is all Beginning, who holds all things, as we say, and his Son Jesus Christ, whom we witness likewise to have been ever with the Father, spiritually existing in the Father before the origin of the universe, begotten inexpressibly before all beginning.
And by him were made things visible and invisible. He was made man, and after triumphing over death was received up to the Father in heaven. And he gave to him all power above every name of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth; and let every tongue confess to him that Jesus Christ is Lord and God in whom we believe.
And we look for his Coming any day now. He the Judge of the quick and the dead, who will render to each man according to his deeds. And he shed on us abundantly the Holy Ghost, the gift and pledge of immortality, who turns those that believe and obey into the Children of God and Joint-heirs with Christ, whom we confess and adore as One God in the Trinity of the Holy Name.
5- For he himself declared through the prophet, "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." And again he says, "It is honourable to reveal and confess the works of God."
6- Yet, faulty as I am in many ways, I desire my brethren and kinsfolk to know what manner of man I am, so that they may be able to understand the dedication of my soul.
7- I know well enough the testimony of my Lord, who witnesses in the Psalm, "Thou shalt destroy them that speak a lie." And again he says, "The mouth that belies kills the soul." And the same Lord says in the Gospel, "The idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment."
8- Therefore I ought exceedingly, with fear and trembling, to dread this sentence in that day when no man shall be able to absent himself or hide; but all of us, every man of us, must give account of even his tiniest sins before the judgment seat of the Lord Christ.
9- Consequently I have long considered a written statement, but till this moment I have hesitated. For I feared to come under the censure of men's tongues, because I am not learned as others are, who have imbibed in the most approved ways both Law and Holy Scripture in one draught, and who from their infancy have never changed their speech but instead went on bringing it to ever greater perfection.
For my speech, my style, is translated into a strange tongue, as can easily be perceived from the flavour of my writing the degree of my training and instruction in the matter of words. For, says the wise man, "By the tongue will be discovered understanding and knowledge and the teaching of truth."
10- But what use is an excuse however nigh the truth, especially when joined to presumption? seeing that now I myself, in my old age, strongly desire that which in my youth I did not acquire; because my sins stood in the way of my mastering what I had previously read over. But who believes me even if I repeat what I have said in my prefatory remarks?
Conquering Fear and Illiteracy, Patrick Preaches the Word
A youth, scarcely indeed a boy, I was made a captive before I knew what I should strive for or what I ought to shun (in language). And so today I blush and am exceedingly afraid to show nakedly my inexperience, because through lack of education I cannot express myself with brevity. For as the Spirit yearns, the disposition discloses the soul and the understanding.
11- But even had I had the same opportunity as others, still I would not keep silent, on account of the reward. And if perhaps it should appear to many that I am thrusting myself forward in this matter with my ignorance and my slow tongue, yet it is written, "The tongue of the stammerers shall quickly learn to speak peace."
How much rather should we covet to do this, who are, he says, the Epistle of Christ for salvation unto the ends of the earth, although not a learned one, yet ministered with all strength, written in your hearts, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. And again the Spirit witnesses, "And husbandry (or rusticity) was ordained by the Most High."
12- Whence I, at first illiterate, an exile, unlearned as is one who does not know how to provide for the future-yet this I do know with full certainty, that before I was afflicted I was like a stone which lies in the deep mire; and he that is mighty came, and in his mercy lifted me up, and set me on the top of the wall. And therefore I ought to cry out and render somewhat to the Lord for his benefits so great both here and in eternity, which the mind of man cannot estimate.
13- Therefore, be you filled with wonder, you that fear God, both small and great, and you lordly rhetoricians, listen and search it out. Who was it that called me up, fool as I am, from the midst of those who seem to be wise and skilled in the law and powerful in word and in everything?
And me, too, the abhorred of this world, did he inspire beyond others, if such I were, only that with reverence and godly fear and unblameably I should faithfully serve the gentile people to whom the love of Christ transferred and presented me, as long as I live, if I should be worthy: that in humility and truthfully I should serve them.
14- So it is right that according to the rule of faith in the Trinity, I should define doctrine and make known the gift of God and everlasting consolation, without being held back by danger, and spread everywhere without fear, confidently, the name of God; so that even after my decease I may leave a legacy to my brethren and sons whom I baptised in the Lord, many thousands of men.
15- And I was not worthy, nor such a one, that the Lord should grant this to his poor slave after calamities and such great difficulties, after captivity, after many years: that he should grant me so great a grace towards that gentile people-what formerly, in my youth I never hoped for or pondered.
Prayer, the Voice of God, Voyage to Britain
16- Now after I came to Ireland, daily I pastured flocks, and constantly during the day I prayed. More and more there grew the Love of God and the Fear of him, and my Faith increased, and my Spirit was stirred up, so that in a single day I uttered as many as a hundred prayers, and nearly as many in the night, so that I stayed even in the woods and the mountain.
Before dawnlight I used to be roused to prayer, in snow, in frost, in rain. And I felt no harm, nor was there any slothfulness in me (as I now see), because then the spirit in me was fervent.
17- And there verily one night I heard in my sleep a voice saying to me, "You fast to good purpose, soon to go to your fatherland." And again after a very little time I heard the Answer speaking to me, "See, your ship is ready." And it was not near, but was far off about 200 miles. And I had never been there, nor had I knowledge of any person there.
And thereon shortly afterwards I took myself to flight and left the man with whom I had been for 6 years; and I came in the strength of God who prospered my way for good, and I encountered nothing alarming until I came to that ship.
18- And on the very day I came, the ship sailed from its anchorage. And I declared that I had to sail away with them. And the shipmaster was displeased, and replied harshly with anger, "On no account seek to go with us."
When I heard this, I departed from them to go to the hut where I was lodging; and on the way I began to pray. And before I had completed my prayer, I heard one of them. He was shouting loudly after me, "Come quickly, these men are calling you."
And they began to say to me, "Come, we accept you in good faith. Make friends with us in any way you like."
And on that day I refused to suck their breasts through fear of God; but nevertheless I hoped that some of them would come into the faith of Jesus Christ, since they were gentiles. For that reason I stayed with them; and straightway we set sail.
Starving Shipmates Taught to Pray, God Sends a Miracle
19- And after three days we reached land, and for 28 days we travelled through a desert; and food failed them and hunger overcame them. And one day the shipmaster began to say to me, "How is this, you Christian? you say your God is great and almighty. Why then can't you pray for us? We're in danger of starvation. Hardly are we like to see a human being again."
"Turn in faith and with all your heart to the Lord my God, to whom nothing is impossible, so that he may send you food today for your journey until you can eat no more, for everywhere he has plenty."
And, by God's help, so it came to pass. Lo, a herd of swine appeared on the track before our eyes; and they killed many of them and spent two nights there, and were well refreshed, and their dogs were fed full, for many of them had fainted and were left half dead by the way.
And after this they offered the fullest thanks to God, and I became an object of honour in their eyes, and from that day on they had food in plenty. They even found wild honey and gave me a piece of it. But one of them said, "This is offered in sacrifice."
Thanks be to God, I tasted none of it.
His Deliverance from Satan in the Splendor of the Sun
20- On that very same night I lay a-sleeping, and powerfully Satan assailed me; which I shall remember as long as I am in this body. He fell upon me like an enormous stone, and I was stricken nerveless in all my limbs. Whence then did it come into my unscholarly spirit to call upon Helias?
At once I saw the sun rising into the dawn sky, and while I kept invoking "Helias, Helias," with all my strength, lo, the Splendour of the Sun fell over me and instantly shook all the heaviness off from me.
I believe I was succoured by Christ my Lord and that his Spirit even then was calling out on my behalf.
If anyone ever asks you why you pray to Helios, you may cite them the record of this Christian saint and his deliverance. By the direct knowledge of the Holy Spirit, he was given the name of the Sun and the name of the Son behind the Sun, and Helios delivered him. Isn't it the great miracle of God that the doctrine of the Almighty One transcends the doctrines of men to deliver our souls?
And I trust that it will be so in the day of my trouble, as he says in the Gospel. "In that day," the Lord testifies, "it is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you."
The Spirit of the Father, our Father Helios, speaks in him and in us. Can he not also deliver us by the splendor of his shining from the works of the devil forever?
21- And a second time, after many years, I was made a captive. And so on that first night I remained with them. I heard the Answer of God declaring to me, "For two months yet you will be with them."
So it came to pass. On the sixtieth night after that, the Lord delivered me from their hands.
22- Moreover, on our way he provided us with food and fire and dry weather every day until on the tenth day we reached our journey's end. As I explained above, for 28 days we travelled through a desert. And on the night on which we finished our journey we came to the end of our food.
23- Again, a few years later, I was in Britain with my kin, who welcomed me as a son and in good faith besought me that now at least, after the great tribulations which I had endured, I would not ever again go away from them.
Visions of Victoricus Bearing Tidings of the Irish
And there verily I saw in the night visions a man whose name was Victoricus, coming as it were from Ireland with countless letters. He gave one of them to me, and I read the beginning of the letter, which was entitled, "The Voice of the Irish"; and while I was reading out the beginning of the letter, I thought that at that very moment I heard the voice of those that lived beside the Wood of Focluth, which is near the western sea. And thus they cried out, as if from one mouth, "We beg you, holy boy, to come and walk among us yet again."
"Victoricus," the vision - the vision of Mighty Victory, the vision of Sanat Kumara, the vision of his home star Venus and the hierarch who sent him to deliver this people.
And I was deeply broken in heart, and could read no further, and so I awoke. Thanks be to God that after a great length of years the Lord dealt with them according to their cry.
Jesus Christ Speaks in Patrick, the Spirit Prays within Him
24- And on another night, whether within me or at my side, I cannot tell, God knows, in words of the utmost eloquence, which I heard but could not comprehend until the end of the prayer, he spoke thus, "He who laid down his life for you, he it is who speaks in you." And so I awoke with heart of glee.
Thus, by the direct transmission of the Ascended Master, Patrick has the revelation that Christ in him speaks. Christ within Patrick-the same Christ who was in Jesus-speaks through him: the true and clear teaching of the Ascended Masters in all ages.
25- And another time I saw him praying in me, and he was as it were within my body, and I heard him over me - that is, over the inner man. And there he was praying, mightily, with groanings. And meanwhile I was wonder-struck, and marvelled and considered who it was that prayed within me; but at the end of the prayer he spoke out that he was the Spirit.
And who is it that prays within us? It is the hidden man of the heart,9 the Holy Christ Self who prays at the altar of your heart daily for the salvation of your soul and for the salvation of the souls of the world through you. This is the true guardian angel who prays without ceasing for your deliverance from the pits of Death and Hell that are physical on this planetary home.
How can you fail with an Advocate before the Father like your Holy Christ Self? How can you be absent of fervor and the desiring to enter this consummate union that entails the sacrifice, the universal call, the pain of surrender, the giving of oneself that millions might be healed?
So I awoke and remembered how the Apostle says, "The Spirit helps the infirmities of our prayer, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, which cannot be expressed in words." And again: "The Lord our Advocate makes intercession for us."
Ought we therefore not to make intercession for those who know not the way of the Holy Christ Self?
Patrick Prays for His False Accuser
26- And when I was assailed by several of my elders, who came to urge my sins against my toilsome episcopate-certainly on that day I was sore thrust at that I might fall both here and in eternity. But the Lord graciously had mercy on the stranger and sojourner for his name's sake; and he helped me stoutly in that humiliation, so that I did not fall badly into disgrace and reproach. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge as sin.
Thus, falsely accused by a fellow prelate, he passed the test of praying for that one and for himself.
27- For after thirty years had passed they found as an occasion against me a matter which I had confessed before I became a deacon. In my anxiety, with sorrowing heart, I disclosed to my closest friend what I had done in my youth on one day, no, in one hour, because I had not then triumphed.
I cannot tell, God knows, if I was then fifteen years old, and I did not believe in the living God - nor had I believed from my infancy; I remained in death and unbelief until I was thoroughly chastened and humbled in truth by hunger and nakedness, and that daily.
28- Towards Ireland I did not stir of my own accord until I was almost worn out. But this was all to my good, since thus I was amended by the Lord. He fitted me to become something which was once quite beyond my grasp; he made me take for my care and busy myself about the Salvation of others, whereas at that time I did not even think about myself.
29- Accordingly, on that day when I was rejected by the aforesaid persons whom I have described, during the night I saw in the night visions. There was a writing without honour over against my face. And meanwhile I heard the Divine Answer speaking to me, "We have seen with wrath the face of So-and-so." (I suppress the name.) He did not say, "You have seen with wrath," but "We have seen with wrath," as if in that matter he linked himself with me.
As he said, "He that touches you is as he that touches the apple of my eye."
"The apple of my eye" is an Old Testament reference to Christ, the Incarnate.10
30- So I thank him who has enabled me in all things, since he did hold me back from the journey on which I had resolved, and from my labour which I had learned from Christ my Lord; but rather I felt in myself no little virtue proceeding from him, and my faith has been approved in the sight of God and of men.
31- Therefore I say boldly that my conscience does not blame me here or hereafter. I call God to witness that I have told no lie in the matters which I have recounted to you.
32- Rather do I grieve for my close friend that we should have deserved to hear from God such an Answer. A man to whom I trusted even my soul! And I discovered from some of the brethren before that contention - at which I was not present; at the time I was not in Britain at all; nor will the story originate with me - that he, this friend, had fought for me in my absence. He had said to me with his own lips, "You are the man to be raised to the rank of bishop." Of which I was not worthy.
How then did it occur to him after to shame me in public, before everyone, good and bad, with regard to an office which previously of his own accord and joyfully he had conceded to me, and the Lord too, who is greater than all?
33- I have said enough. Still, I ought not to conceal the gift of God, which he bestowed upon me in the land of my captivity; since then I zealously sought him, and there I found him and he kept me safe from all iniquities (as I believe) because of his indwelling Spirit, who has worked in me till this day.
Boldly again I speak. But God knows if man had said this to me - maybe I would have held my peace for the love of Christ.
34- Hence therefore I render unwearying thanks to my God who kept me faithful in the day of my temptation, so that today with confidence I offer sacrifice to him, as a living victim, even my soul to Christ my Lord, who saved me out of all my troubles so that I may say, Who am I, O Lord? or what is my vocation that you have opened so great a source of divine aid? so that today among the gentiles I should constantly exalt and magnify your name wherever I may be; and that not only in prosperity, but also amid afflictions; so that whatever may happen to me, whether of good or bad, I ought to accept it with equanimity and always give thanks to God who showed me that I might yield him endless trust as one that cannot be doubted; and who heard me, so that I, ignorant as I am, and in the world's last days, should proceed to take up this work so holy and so wonderful; so that I might to some extent imitate those whom the Lord long ago prophesied would proclaim his Gospel for a witness unto all nations before the end of the world.
Accordingly, as we see, this had been so fulfilled. Lo, we are witnesses that the Gospel has been preached to the places beyond which no man dwells.
Initiations at the Twelve Gates of the Holy City
35- A long task it is to narrate in detail the whole of my labour, or even parts of it. I shall briefly tell in what manner the most gracious God often delivered me from slavery and from the Twelve Perils by which my soul was beset, besides many plots and things which I am not able to express in words - lest I should tire out my readers.
The "Twelve Perils" of Saint Patrick we understand to be the twelve initiations of the twelve gates of the city, the New Jerusalem, whereby we are then anointed to enter into that Holy City, having passed the twelve initiations of the twelve lines of the clock, of our karma and of our Christhood.
But for voucher I have God, who knows all things even before they come to pass, as the Divine Answer frequently warned me the poor starveling uneducated orphan.
36- Whence came to me this wisdom which was not in me, who neither knew the number of my days nor had a taste of God? Whence after came to me that gift so great and so salutary, to know God and to love him, only that I should put aside my fatherland and my kindred?
37- Many were the gifts proffered to me with wailing and with tears. And I displeased them, and also, against my wish, some of my elders. But, through God's guidance, in no way did I acquiesce or surrender to them. Not my grace was it, but God who conquered in me and resisted them all, so that I came to the Irish heathen to preach the Gospel and to endure insults from the unbelieving, so as to hear the reproach of my going abroad, and to meet many persecutions, even unto bonds; and so that I should give up my free condition for the profit of others.
And if I should be worthy, I am ready to give even my life for his name's sake, unhesitatingly and most joyfully; and there I desire to spend it until the day of death, if the Lord would grant it to me.
38- Because I am greatly a debtor to God, who afforded me such great grace that through me many people should be regenerated to God and afterwards confirmed, and that clergy should everywhere be ordained for them-for a people newly come to belief, whom the Lord took from the ends of the earth, as he promised of old through his prophets:
"The Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, As our fathers have got for themselves false idols and there is no profit in them." And again: "I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth."
39- And there I wish to wait for the promise of him who never disappoints. As he promises in the Gospel, "They shall come from the east and west and from the south and from the north, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob"; as we believe that believers will come from all over the world.
40- For that reason then we ought to fish well and diligently, as the Lord forewarns and teaches, saying, "Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." And again he says through his prophets, "Behold I send fishers and many hunters, saith God, and so forth."
Therefore it was urgently necessary that we should spread our nets to take a great multitude and a throng for God, and that everywhere there should be clergy to baptise and exhort the poverty-stricken and needy folk, as the Lord in the Gospel warns and teaches, saying:
"Go ye therefore now and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world."
And again he says: "Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" [which means judged].
And again: "This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations: and then shall the end come."
And in like manner the Lord, foretelling by the prophet, says: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith the Lord, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy."
And Hosea says: "I will call them my people, which were not my people; and the one that hath obtained mercy which had not obtained mercy. And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said, Ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God."
41- Whence Ireland, which never had the knowledge of God, but up to the present always adored idols and abominations - how has there lately been prepared a people of the Lord and the name given to them of Children of God? The sons of the Scots and the daughters of their chieftains are seen to become the monks and virgins of Christ.
Noble Lady Baptized by Patrick Becomes Virgin of Christ
42- But once especial there was one blessed lady of Scottic birth, noble of line, very lovely, and of full age, whom I myself baptised; and after a few days she came to me for a certain purpose. She disclosed to us that she had received from God a private admonition, and it warned her to become a Virgin of Christ and live closer to God.
Thanks be to God, on the sixth day after, most worthily and zealously she snatched at that vocation, as all the Virgins of Christ do in like manner; not with the consent of their fathers; no, they endure persecution and lying reproaches from their kindred, and yet their numbers increase all the more and we cannot tell how many of our race are thus reborn there, besides widows and the continent.
But the women who are held in slavery are in the worst toils. They constantly endure even unto terrors and threats. But the Lord gave grace to many of my hand-maidens; for, although they are forbidden, they resolutely follow the example of the others.
43- Therefore, even if I should wish to depart from them, and thus proceeding to Britain - and gladly ready was I to do so - as to my fatherland and kindred; and not that only, but to go as far as Gaul, to visit the brethren and behold the face of the saints of my Lord-God knows that I used to yearn deeply for it - yet I am bound in the Spirit, who witnesses to me that if I should do this he would mark me as guilty; and I fear to lose the labour which I have started off - no, not I but Christ the Lord who bade me come and be with them for the rest of my life, if the Lord so will, and if he should guard me from every evil way, so that I may not sin in his sight.
44- Now I hope that this is my course of duty; but I do not trust myself as long as I am in the body of this death. For he is strong that daily strives to turn me away from faith and from the chastity of a religion without fiction, which I have resolved to preserve till the end of my life for Christ my Lord. But the flesh our enemy forever drags us towards death; that is, the baits of pleasure which can be enjoyed but only in woe.
I know in part wherein I have not led a faultless life; but I confess to my Lord, and I do not blush in his sight, for I tell no lie: From the time that I learned to know him in my youth, the love of God and the fear of him grew in me; and to this day, with God's favour, I have kept the faith.
45- Let who will laugh or insult, I shall not keep silent or conceal the signs and the wonders which were furnished to me by the Lord many years before they came to pass, since he knows all things even before the world began.
46- Therefore I ought without pause to render thanks to God who often pardoned my folly and my negligence - and that not in one place only-so that he was not passionately angered against me who was given as a fellow-labourer; and yet I did not speedily acquiesce in accord with what had been revealed to me, and as the Spirit brought to my remembrance. Thousands of times the Lord showered mercy upon me, because he saw that I was ready but did not know what I should do in response, situated as I was with many men forbidding this embassage.
Patrick's Motives Questioned by the Brethren
Behind my back they were talking among themselves and saying, "Why does this fellow push himself into danger among hostile folk who know not God?" Not for reasons of malice; but it did not seem sensible to them, as I myself bear witness I understood, on account of my illiteracy. And I did not quickly recognise the grace which was then in me. Now I see the right course which I ought to have seen before.
47- Now, then, I have with simplicity made these disclosures to my brethren and fellow-servants who have believed in me, for the reason which I told you before and foretell you to strengthen and confirm your faith. Would that you too would imitate greater things and perform acts more potent for good! That will be my glory, for a wise son is the glory of his father.
48- You know, and God also, in what manner from my youth onwards I have lived with you, in faith of the truth and in sincerity of heart. Even towards those gentiles among whom I dwell I have kept faith, and will go on keeping it. God knows, I have defrauded none of them; nor do I think of doing so, for the sake of God and his Church, lest I should raise persecution against them and all of us, and lest the name of God should be blasphemed through me. For it is written, "Woe to the man through whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed."
49- But though I be rude in all things, still I have sought in some degree to keep watch over myself, both for the Christian brethren and the virgins of Christ and the devout women who used of their own free will present me with their little gifts and threw on the altars various of their adornments, which I delivered back to them.
And they were scandalised against me because I acted thus. But I did it out of my hope of immortality, that I might keep myself cautiously in all things, that the heathen for one reason or another might accept me or the ministry of my service, and that I should not, even in the smallest detail, give pretext to the unbelievers to defame and disparage.
50- Maybe, then, when I baptised so many thousands of men, I hoped from any one of them even as much as the half of a scruple? Tell me and I shall restore it to you. Or when my trivial self had been the Lord's instrument for the ordaining of clergy on all sides, and I gave them my ministrations for nothing, if I required from any one of them even the price of my shoe, tell it against me and I shall restore you the price and more.
51- I spent for you that they might receive me; and both among you and wherever I travelled for your sake, through many dangers, even to outlying regions beyond which was no man, and where nobody had ever come to baptise or ordain clergy or confirm the folk, I have, by God's bounty, done everything diligently and joyfully for your salvation.
Patrick Seized and Put in Irons,
Rescued by God on the Fourteenth Day
52- At times I used to give presents to the kings besides the wages I paid their sons, who went round with me; and yet they seized me once with my companions. And on that day they most eagerly desired to slaughter me; but the time was not yet come. Everything which they found upon us they plundered, and myself they bound with irons. And on the fourteenth day the Lord freed me from their power; and whatever was our property was restored to us for God's sake and the sake of the near friends whom we had provided beforehand.
53- You know also from your own experience how much I paid out to those who were Judges throughout all the districts which I more regularly visited; for I calculate that I distributed to them not less than the price of 15 men, so that you might enjoy me and I might enjoy you ever in God. I do not regret it, nor consider it enough. Still I spend and will spend more. The Lord is mighty to grant me afterwards to be myself spent for your souls.
54- Lo, I call God for a record upon my soul that I lie not; nor was it that there might be an occasion for flattering words or covetousness that I have written to you; nor do I hope for honour from any of you. Enough for me is the honour which is not yet seen but is believed in the heart. And faithful is He that promised; never does he lie.
55- But I see that already in this present world I am exalted beyond measure by the Lord. And I was not worthy, nor am I such that he should grant me this gift, since I know with full certainty that poverty and affliction become me better than riches and luxuries.
Why, Christ the Lord was a poor man for our sakes. But I, wretched and stricken, possess no wealth even if I should wish for it; nor do I judge mine own self. For every day I expect either a violent death or to be defrauded or to be reduced into slavery, or some such disaster. But none of these things move me, on account of the promises of heaven. I have cast myself into the hands of Almighty God, for he rules everywhere, as the prophet says: "Cast thy care upon God, and he shall sustain thee."
56- Lo, now I commit the keeping of my soul to my most faithful God, for whom I am an ambassador in my lowliness, only because he accepts no man's person and he chose me for this office, that I should be his minister, one of the least of them.
57- Therefore I shall render unto him for all his benefits towards me. But what shall I say or what shall I promise to my Lord? For I see no worth except what he himself has given to me. But he tries the hearts and reins, and knows that abundantly and strenuously do I desire, and have long been ready, that he should grant me to drink of his cup, as he has granted to others who love him.
58- For which reason may it never happen to me from my God that I should ever lose his people whom he purchased at the ends of the earth. I pray God to grant me perseverance and deign that I may render myself a faithful witness unto him till the time of my passing hence, for God's sake.
59- And if I ever accomplished aught in the cause of my God whom I love, I beseech him to grant me that I may shed my blood with those strangers and captives for his name's sake, even though I should lack burial itself, even though the dogs and the wild beasts most wretchedly should rend my corpse limb by limb or the fowls of the air should devour it.
With perfect certitude, I think, if such should be my fate, I have gained a soul as profit with my body. For beyond all doubt we shall rise on that day in the crystal brightness of the sun; that is, in the Glory of Christ Jesus our Redeemer, as sons of the living God and joint-heirs with Christ, conformed to his image which is to be. For of him and through him and in him we shall reign.
60- For that sun which we behold rises by God's command on our behalf every day. But it will never reign, nor will its Splendor endure; but all who worship it, wretched men, shall stumble upon their punishment. Whereas we, who worship and believe in the True Sun, Christ, who will never pass away-nor will anyone who doeth his will; but he will abide for ever, as Christ will abide for ever, who reigns with God the Father Almighty and with the Holy Spirit, before all worlds, and now, and for all the ages ever to come. Amen.
61- Lo, again and yet again I shall briefly set forth the words of my confession. I testify in truth and in glorying of heart before God and his holy angels, that I never had any cause except the Gospel and his promises in ever returning to that people from whom I had before with difficulty escaped.
62- But I pray those who believe and fear God, whosoever has deigned to scan and to take this writing which Patrick the Sinner; verily of no education, composed in Ireland, that none shall ever say it was my ignorance which achieved whatever tiny success was mine or whatever I showed in accordance with God's will; but make your judgment, and let it be most truly believed that it was the Gift of God.
And this is my Confession before I die.
This sermon was delivered by the Messenger Elizabeth Clare Prophet at Camelot on Sunday, March 17, 1985, prior to the dictation "I Call the Living Saints" by Saint Patrick.