Well, good morning, everybody, and thank you for joining us.

I'm Father Chris A. Lar, one of the Marian priests here at the National Shrine.

And as always, I think we're at number 134 episodes.

We're approaching our third year of explaining the faith as I'm going back,

taking you to seminary with me, cracking out the seminary notes.

You've always heard me say that was my favorite time of my life was being in seminary.

And I just wanted to share that with the world.

And one of the genuine gems of our Catholic faith is the saints.

This is a gift we have from God, not to be just discarded, but to rather be embraced. And after my

trip to Ireland just a couple of weeks ago, my life changed. And I figured this with St. Patrick's

Feast Day coming up. This Friday, It was a perfect time to talk about this saint

and what's happening in Ireland. So we're glad you'll join us. We're going to separate fact from fiction.

There's a lot of both. So let us begin with a prayer in the name of the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. Amen. Heavenly Father,

we ask you send the Holy Spirit down upon us. We ask you to bless all of us in the West who are

struggling in the darkness, to bless the people, bless especially Ireland, and through the intercession of St. Patrick,

bring back the zeal of the faith to these incredible people. And Mother Mary, wrap your mantle

around us so that through the intercession of you and St. Patrick, we may all turn back to God.

And we ask all this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

In the name of the Father and to the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So yes, today we're going to

separate fact from fiction talking about this bishop and patron of Ireland, St. Patrick.

Now, I just mentioned that my trip, my trip to Ireland,

it was short, and I'm going to be going back. I feel I got to go back. And that's what happened

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