A long time ago, about 400 years after Jesus was born and died on the cross, there was a boy who lived in Britain named Patrick. When he was sixteen, pirates came from Ireland to his home in Britain and captured him. They took him away from his family and back to their home in Ireland where they sold him as a slave and he had to work and take care of other people’s animals without getting paid.
After six years, Patrick was able to escape and go back home to his family. But he still thought about the pirates and the people back in Ireland. They didn’t know about Jesus and they worshipped many false gods and did many wicked things. Patrick wanted them to know about Jesus and the one true God, so he studied and learned all he could about God. Then he went back to Ireland, to the same people who had stolen him away from his home and his family, so that he could tell them that Jesus loved them and had died on the cross to save them from their sins.
Today, we remember Patrick’s love for God and how God used him as a missionary to tell many people about the gospel on St. Patricks day, which we celebrate on March 17th. Sometimes we wear green clothes, which is the color of Ireland, or we eat Irish food or listen to Irish music.
We also sometimes decorate with clover leaves, or Shamrocks. We don’t know very much about St. Patrick but according to legend, he picked a clover leaf from the grass so that he could show everyone that just like the clover has 3 leafs that make one leaf, the Father, the Son (Jesus) and the Holy Spirit are One God in three persons.
And most importantly, just like any other day, St. Patrick’s day is a good day to think about how we can be like Patrick and show Jesus’ love to the people around us, especially those who don’t know about Jesus.
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