Handing out prayer cards at stores

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300WhiteKnights

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Hi all,

One day, when I was in the chapel. I was inspired with the thought that a great way to evangelize and spread the faith would to be to hand out a prayer card every time I bought something or paid for something at a store or a restaurant or whatever, and to simply say “God bless you and have a great day.”

In theory this is a great idea, but in practice, I have found difficult to put to implement. I usually chicken out at the last moment and walk away from the cashier without giving them anything besides my credit card. It’s a lot scarier in reality than it is in my mind. Before I decided on pursuing this method of evangelization, I firmly decided that I would not lose my peace and feel terrible afterwords as if I denied Jesus if I failed to give out a card, but to focus on doing better each time.

So far I have give a card of Jesus’s sacred heart with the prayer “anima Christi” on the back to one man who prepared my Chinese take-out down the street after I said “God bless you and have a nice day!” He just stared at the card and continued smiling, and I felt pretty uncomfortable afterwords, but I don’t regret it. I’m confident that if I do this enough times, the fear will disappear and then I will be of more use to God.

If anyone has any pointers or advice I would appreciate it. Has anyone done anything similar? I’ve talked with one girl that does street evangelization. She told me that he was terrified the first couple of times but discovered receiving rebukes and looks wasn’t as bad as she had thought. Now she’s at the point where she enters bars to talk to people about Christ. Wow.
 
Why don’t you just leave then at the parish for people to take? People do that in front of the St. Jude statue at our church. People love picking up new prayers, and children collect them land trade ike baseball cards
Honestly, I’d be more upset if someone tore it up or tossed it away.
I get that you believe it’s a laudable thing to do…I just don’t think it’s terribly effective.
How many Watchtower pamphlets have you received that you really wanted to have…or did you toss them VERY quickly in the bin? 🤷
Think about it.

If you want to teach…teach Sunday school. The church needs good catechists, and the children are a better investment, IMHO.
 
I have two pieces of advice about this:
  1. If you’re in a situation, say, at a restaurant, where tipping is expected, please leave a generous tip in addition to a card. Christians who leave tracts, etc. have a horrid reputation in industries like this because their evangelization efforts do not line up with their treatment of waitstaff.
  2. Most of what you give people is going to be thrown away. So make sure the items you’re passing out are things that would be OK to be thrown away (maybe not blessed items?)
 
pianistclare said:
Why don’t you just leave then at the parish for people to take? People do that in front of the St. Jude statue at our church. People love picking up new prayers, and children collect them land trade ike baseball cards
Honestly, I’d be more upset if someone tore it up or tossed it away.
I get that you believe it’s a laudable thing to do…I just don’t think it’s terribly effective.
How many Watchtower pamphlets have you received that you really wanted to have…or did you toss them VERY quickly in the bin? 🤷
Think about it.

If you want to teach…teach Sunday school. The church needs good catechists, and the children are a better investment, IMHO.
Click to expand...
I understand your objection, but the idea was never meant to convert anyone, but just to “plant the seed.” pope franics extorts us to take the faith to the streets and not to stay within the security of our parishes and homes. I can never know how “terribly effective” I will be in foresight, but neither does anyone when they spread the faith. Who knows, maybe out of 30 people I give a card to, there might be one that has a deeper encounter with Christ and is reminded of God’s love for them and is moved to go back to church.
 
I understand.
It’s not an objection, but a visceral response to the great need fro catechesis in our parishes.Seeds need to be sown in our homes and with our children.
We’re very quickly losing our Catholic children to secular influences.
Parents are in desperate need of our help.
Peace.
 
300WhiteKnights said:
Hi all,

One day, when I was in the chapel. I was inspired with the thought that a great way to evangelize and spread the faith would to be to hand out a prayer card every time I bought something or paid for something at a store or a restaurant or whatever, and to simply say “God bless you and have a great day.”

In theory this is a great idea, but in practice, I have found difficult to put to implement. I usually chicken out at the last moment and walk away from the cashier without giving them anything besides my credit card. It’s a lot scarier in reality than it is in my mind. Before I decided on pursuing this method of evangelization, I firmly decided that I would not lose my peace and feel terrible afterwords as if I denied Jesus if I failed to give out a card, but to focus on doing better each time.

So far I have give a card of Jesus’s sacred heart with the prayer “anima Christi” on the back to one man who prepared my Chinese take-out down the street after I said “God bless you and have a nice day!” He just stared at the card and continued smiling, and I felt pretty uncomfortable afterwords, but I don’t regret it. I’m confident that if I do this enough times, the fear will disappear and then I will be of more use to God.

If anyone has any pointers or advice I would appreciate it. Has anyone done anything similar? I’ve talked with one girl that does street evangelization. She told me that he was terrified the first couple of times but discovered receiving rebukes and looks wasn’t as bad as she had thought. Now she’s at the point where she enters bars to talk to people about Christ. Wow.
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Someone suggested that the picture not be blessed and that is a good idea. It will still be effective if not blessed.

And I might suggest some portrait of Jesus rather than the Sacred Heart. Many protestants will accept his portrait but may be a bit leary when they see the heart which is Catholic. A picture is worth a thousand words. Many a protestent needs to be reminded of Jesus and also to return to church as well even if it isn’t a catholic church.

I would also suggest an appropriate phrase from the Bible such as “I am the good shepherd” or “I no longer call you servants but friends” or “No greater love does a man have than to give up his life for his friends.”

I think what you have chosen is a good idea and will lead to more good things to come. Plant a seed and someday it will be a tree.

May God our Father give you courage and peace.
 
This is probably the smartest simplest way to evangelize I’ve ever heard of.

I’ve found it hard trying to come up with ideas on how to evangelize.

I am going to start doing this, I think I might go for the most common saints that people will know.

St. Patrick
St. Jude
St Francis
etc.

God Bless you. 👍
 
sloth said:
This is probably the smartest simplest way to evangelize I’ve ever heard of.

I’ve found it hard trying to come up with ideas on how to evangelize.

I am going to start doing this, I think I might go for the most common saints that people will know.

St. Patrick
St. Jude
St Francis
etc.

God Bless you. 👍
Click to expand...
I am glad that you are also thinking about doing this! Let me know how it goes for you. I agree with the poster above that A card of Jesus is an ideal one to hand out, simply because there will be a greater number of people that will be more receptive to the card. But this is between you and God, and ask the Lord to chose the cards he wants you to hand out.

Based on my experiences so far, I have discovered that it is easier to ask the person “Hey would you like a prayer card?” While having your arm outstretched (gesture gives more physical incentive to just take the card) Instead of simply leaving it on the counter and saying God bless you. At least to me it seems like a better gesture.

I admit I haven’t actually done it this way yet, but this method of doing it came to mind after I failed again yesterday to hand out a card. I don’t know you, but you will probably fail a couple of times too. Everytime this happens, just offer up the failure to Jesus and ask for the grace to do better next time, no worries, don’t beat yourself up about it, just offer it up.

In addition, even if you were to not hand out prayer cards to people at stores. I realized yesterday that it’s still a good idea just to keep some on your person in case other situations arise when it would be good to hand them out. For example, before mass started, there was a woman crying in one of the top pews. On her way out, I gave her a Christ card and told her I would pray for her. That also happened yesterday.

I haven’t done this yet, but if you are with a group of friends, and you know one of them is Christian, you could turn to him and say “hey would you like a prayer card?” Then you could turn to the other friends in the group and say “hey you guys can have these too, this guy is my favorite saint because xyz, or the sacred heart is great because xyz.” I’ll admit it, this would also take a certain level of boldness from the holy spirt, but after you start handing out cards and are accustomed to it, talking about the faith and spreading it will feel more natural.

That’s one of the reasons I am excited to be working on this, because one of my weak points is that I can be sheepish and timid of witnessing, but through doing this, that can be overcome.

“Do what you fear and fear disappears.” - past president, I think Roosevelt? I don’t know.
 
Also, I have a general update for anyone that is interested in trying this-

So far since, my last post, I have only given out one card, and that was the guy I already mentioned. Since then, I chicken out every since time, but I have learned something each time and have offered each failure to the Lord. I wanted to post some experiential advice for anyone that is interested in trying this.
  1. Before handing out the card, pray especially to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit overcame the fear of the apostles in the upper room when they locked themselves in for fear of the Jews. Then they preached boldly. I tried praying to the Holy Spirit today and very nearly gave out a card.
  2. Fully expect the experience to be awkward. In this way, you will be better prepared to face the situation. Think of it like diving head first into a wave.
  3. DONT GET DISCOURAGED. As I was walking through the store. I was thinking to myself, “man if I don’t hand out a card this time… then thats it! Im done!” Even if you fall 10 times and fail to witness, just pick yourself up 10 more times and offer it up to the Lord. Trust in Jesus and be patient with yourself and with God.
well thats it i guess, I also had the phrase planned in my mind “hey would you like a prayer card?” Its a little less confrontational than simply leaving it on the counter and walking away. Then again, there is the possibility they would say no, so do what you think is best.
 
To the OP,
I make an effort to give items to the homeless on the street, particularly those who walk past me without asking for anything. In the past I have given grocery bags containing new socks, bars of soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, etc. Recently I have been giving out gift cards in small denominations for fast food restaurants (like Subway or McDonalds). I don’t break the bank by doing this; I just try to keep one or two items with me at all times so I’m prepared when opportunity knocks. I have been thinking that I could make these efforts more fruitful by placing a Catholic item in the grocery bag or taping a Bible quote to the back of the gift card. I like your idea of a Holy card. I will make an effort to somehow combine my idea with yours. If you also combine your idea with mine, you might solve your dilemma of feeling awkward afterwards since the Holy card and the gift go hand in hand. God Bless You!
 
Hey sloth, Im glad your cards came in and wish you the best on handing them out. 🙂

Since I last posted to this thread, handing out cards has become easier and easier. With God’s grace, each encounter has become incrementally less intimidating.

Personally, I feel called to hand out cards with Jesus on it, because I know that will resonate with more people, and hopefully move people to have a more intmiate relationship with Jesus. I wouldn’t feel comfertable with anything else.

So far God has given me the grace (I cant attribute anything to myslef) to hand out cards to 5 different people at stores. So far I have not received any negative reaction. I just ask, “Hey, also, would you like a prayer card?” Then they respond, “uh, sure,” and I give it to them and I say “God bless you and have a nice day.” Then they say thanks. I can assure you that that is the most likely reaction that you will recieve when doing this. There was one time though when a woman that was wearing tatoos and was cursing left and right ending up enthusiastically accepting a card from me. Her response to my question was “absouletely!” However, I wouldnt expect that too often.

Also, one other piece of advice that I would like to give you, is that when you hand out prayer cards, make it an act of love for the person’s salvation. After invoking the Holy Spirit for 15 minutes in my car before handing out a card (I was that scared lol & I had to wait that long for them to finish preparing) that is one of the things I discovered. It will increase the probablilty you will not chicken out at the last moment, and probably makes the action more sancitifying.

Before I hand out a card I also like to think “Wow, I have received so much through Jesus’s love throughout my whole life. He has forgiven me, comforted me, guided me, strengthened me, and protected me. What would my life be like without all of that? What if this person in front of me is living without that?” That also gives me encouragement.

So yea, I have found out that it is not really a big deal to hand out a card. Honestly, the anxiety beforehand is way worse than the event itself, which really isnt a big deal. The devil will try to discourage you as hard has he can though, especially if the card will do the person a lot of good. I disocovered this before I handed out a card to the tatooed woman. I was flooded with doubts and anxiety about the faith that were stronger than usual. Keep invoking the Holy Spirit and you will be fine.

P.S.

As I said, you might fail a couple of time handing out the cards. Dont worry about it, just treat each encounter as a learning experience and pick yourself back up again. I failed like, five times when I first started doing this.
 
This definitely works. I have seen this in action and re-action. 🙂 Another thing to do that is effective is to just leave it someplace, like sloth said at the restaurant with a the tip. People also leave it in the train, taxi, buses etc… it works!

I have given out rosaries (to prisoners and the public) and medals. I want to get pamphlets printed. I try to hand out How to Pray the Rosary along with a rosary as many people do not know how to pray it. Some people want to try it out, like thinking beads or meditation - well, in my book those are the best ‘thinking beads’. But, a lot of people, including Catholics and non-practicing Catholics - do not know how to pray it.

I want to provide the complete catechism and am thinking of getting them printed cheap in China… we’ll see. The complete catechism is expensive for the poor.
 
Abba said:
This definitely works. I have seen this in action and re-action. 🙂 Another thing to do that is effective is to just leave it someplace, like sloth said at the restaurant with a the tip. People also leave it in the train, taxi, buses etc… it works!

I have given out rosaries (to prisoners and the public) and medals. I want to get pamphlets printed. I try to hand out How to Pray the Rosary along with a rosary as many people do not know how to pray it. Some people want to try it out, like thinking beads or meditation - well, in my book those are the best ‘thinking beads’. But, a lot of people, including Catholics and non-practicing Catholics - do not know how to pray it.

I want to provide the complete catechism and am thinking of getting them printed cheap in China… we’ll see. The complete catechism is expensive for the poor.
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St. Paul’s street evangelization has some excellent pamphlets. you can sign up for free and get access to them in pdf form.

the mass market paperback catechism is pretty affordable from amazon. I got mine from Barnes and noble I think for around $7.

amazon.com/Catechism-Catholic-Church-U-S/dp/0385479670/ref=tmm_mmp_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
 
That is so wonderful that you are doing this.

Another idea would be to place a prayer card in the pages of a library book before you return it. I think it would be special to check out a library book and have a prayer card in it.
 
mommy_k said:
That is so wonderful that you are doing this.

Another idea would be to place a prayer card in the pages of a library book before you return it. I think it would be special to check out a library book and have a prayer card in it.
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That is an excellent idea. And maybe just go to the library and in one section, just insert a holy card/pray card in books.
 
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