“Our oldest grandchild is Patrick. We like to send a St. Patrick’s Day card to his family every year.”
“Is it today?” asked the clerk.
“No,” I said. “It’s Friday.” I then told him a brief history of who St. Patrick was, explaining that he had escaped from being a slave in Ireland and then God had called him to return and share about Jesus.”
“Wow! Well, how did St. Patrick’s Day become a day of parades and drinking beer?” Ted asked.
“Good question,” I replied. “It’s also true of Easter.”
“And Christmas,” exclaimed Ted.
“Right,” I agreed enthusiastically. “You should do a Google search on St. Patrick and learn more about him.”
“I will,” Ted promised.
Sharing Christ around St. Patrick’s Day
Take a moment and familiarize yourself with this early missionary. I wrote about him in Who Was St. Patrick? on The Sovereign blog. Check it out. (I wish I had a business card with a link, so I made some cards for you to use. See NOTES.)
Prayerfully be prepared to talk about St. Patrick this time each March, leading into a conversation about Jesus. Write a comment here to let me know who you were able to talk to.
More about Patrick
Also, check out my review of the book, The Celtic Way of Evangelism. Christians would benefit by learning effective ways to share our faith from the example of the missionary movement that spread from Ireland.
St. Patrick’s Prayer
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me, Christ in the ear that hears me.
NOTES:
- I’ve made cards you can print and use to share about Jesus through Saint Patrick’s story.
- Saint Patrick’s Day has been celebrated for more than 1400 years by the Irish. Read more here about missionary work in Ireland today.
- The photo is copyrighted by Mike and Sus Schmitt. We found this Celtic cross tombstone in a churchyard in Birmingham, England, in 2014.
Mike and Sus Schmitt 
I asked Debbie, a new employee at the fitness center, about her green earrings. She isn’t Irish, but just wearing some green for the day. When I asked her if she knew anything about St. Patrick, she didn’t know anything, so I told her a bit of what I had learned about him. I plan to pick up the conversation with her when I see her again.
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