My greatest wish for these times in Northern Ireland is that we would be truly people of St Patrick - not just in wearing shamrock and drinking green milkshakes, but in radical and deep ways.

Patrick was a person who was determined, for the sake of Christ, to become immersed in a culture other than his own. That meant stepping outside of comfort-zones, risking life and limb and loving people who were unlike himself. He did it because Jesus did the same.

It is so sad to see St Patrick hijacked for one political persuasion or the other, when he truly belongs to all the people of this island. If we could learn, as he did, to sacrificially lay down our prejudices and preferences for the sake of others, then this would be a great St Patrick's Day.