Welcoming & Embracing the Stranger: Lenten Reflections with the Artwork of James Tissot

March 17, 2026 - Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Lent, Optional Memorial of Saint Patrick, Bishop

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! On this optional memorial of St. Patrick, and in relation to our own Lenten journey, it is interesting to consider how St. Patrick’s life began and how it ended. St. Patrick was captured and taken to live as an enslaved person in Ireland from his hometown of Bannauenta Berniae, which was probably in modern-day Wales. He was sold to a man in the West of Ireland and spent six years working in isolation as a shepherd. He was a stranger in a strange land, and nobody welcomed him. He was shown absolutely no hospitality. He escaped after a divine message that said, “It is good that you have been fasting, your ship is ready.” This began a journey back to Britain, yet his journey with Christ was just beginning. Although the pagan Irish people hid their faces from him, he was determined to go back and share with them the only hospitality that he ever received, the hospitality of God. And this he did!  

And so, after returning home, completing his education, and becoming a bishop, he eventually made his way back to Ireland to do what he was compelled to do: preach the Gospel, even to the ends of the earth. Western Ireland at that time must have felt like the ends of the earth. And yet, because St. Patrick relied on, and passed on to the pagans, the only hospitality that he’d ever received—the hospitality of God—he was able to welcome all strangers into his heart and had an incredible ability to convert them. Spending countless hours praying as a shepherd slave allowed Patrick to pray unceasingly, and he took advantage of it. It is good for us to recognize that the source of St. Patrick’s strength, of his love for the stranger, even his oppressors, was prayer. According to Patrick, he used to pray sometimes two hundred times a night and then repeat that number before dawn. It cannot be overemphasized that it is prayer that was the source of all of Patrick’s “reverse” hospitality and love for the stranger.  

As we approach the goal of our Lenten journey, which is a glorious encounter with the risen Christ, may we dispense hospitality and goodness to all that we meet, as if rivers of charity were spilling forth from our side. In this way, we will be united in action to the One who knows no stranger at all. 

May the venerable exercises of holy devotion shape the hearts of your faithful, O Lord, to welcome worthily the Paschal Mystery and proclaim the praises of your salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. (Roman Missal)

Br. Brian Sullivan, OFM Cap., Graduate Student, ICSST

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