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Good morning. Racing is not one of my normal subjects of conversation but Cheltenham seems to have popped up in the discussion a few times this week. In one of them an old friend told me something about her late husband I did not know. He had been born into a poor family, indeed had known hunger, but had made his way in the world. One day he went to the races and saw a sign saying “Owners and jockeys only.” He said to her, “I’m never going to be a jockey but I will own a horse”-which indeed he did, at least for a short period. I like the way he saw a challenge and the determination to respond to it. And that same ability to face a challenge with determination was very much there in St Patrick, whose life the church celebrates on March 17th. And it seems very fitting that it should fall today, when half Ireland is there to watch the Gold Cup. Patrick was born somewhere on the West coast of Britain, no one is quite sure where, about the year 390. At the age of 16 he was captured by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland where he acted as a herdsman. It was at this time that God came alive for him. After 6 years he escaped, returned to Britain and trained for ordination. Then, in his own phrase, he went back again as “Bishop in Ireland”, where he spent the rest of his life, evangelising, conciliating local chieftains , educating their sons, ordaining local clergy and founding monasteries for both monks and nuns, until he died on this day in the year 460. During these years he faced hostility and fierce opposition, as we know from his personal story in which he wrote I have had to endure insults…I have had my mission ridiculed, I have experienced persecution to the point of imprisonment. But the strongest theme in this moving account is his sense of being guided in all that happened to him, of being held close to God through all the dangers he experienced and enabled by grace to do the work he felt called to do. As with all the saints, stories and sayings accrued to him over the centuries and in the early 8th century a hymn written in Irish known as the “Breastplate of St Patrick” was attributed to him. Translated into English by Mrs Alexander and using an ancient Irish folk tune it has become a hymn loved by many. One verse begins “Christ be with me, Christ within me, Christ behind me Christ before me . The verse ends with the lovely words. “Christ in hearts of all who love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.” A lot of excitement and fun will be had today at Cheltenham with the Gold Cup still to be won, but for some of us no prize can surpass the truth in those words.