Skinboat

Children’s Sermon

10 May 2026

Good morning, guys. How are we doing? I’ve got a story for you today, about a monk named Brendan who lived over the ocean in Ireland. Does anybody know what a monk is? They dedicate their whole lives to prayer. That’s their job.

Anyway, Brendan had heard a rumor about a beautiful paradise in the west, over the sea; so he set out with 14 monks to go and find it. They sailed out on the Atlantic Ocean in a skin boat, if you can believe it. Any guesses as to what a skin boat is? It’s made of wood and leather. And the ocean is full of things that eat wood and leather.

They had fantastic adventures. They saw islands made of crystal pillars. They glimpsed the fire and brimstone of Hell. They sat and prayed while sitting in the midst of a feeding frenzy of sharks. And on Easter Sunday, out there on the waves, they were delighted to find a tiny little island on which they could celebrate Holy Communion.

Only guess what—after they shared Communion, the island moved! It was a whale. They celebrated Easter on the back of a whale.

Eventually they found that beautiful paradise, and made their way back home. A thousand years later, when Christopher Columbus ran into the Americas, he had St Brendan’s Isle on his maps. In fact, people began to think: “Hey, those crystal pillars that the monks say that they saw, those sound like icebergs. And that glimpse of Hell resembles the volcanoes of Iceland. And that earthly paradise—could it be America?”

Did Brendan discover America a thousand years before Columbus, 500 years before Leif Erikson? Believe it or not, other brave voyagers set out in skin boats to prove that you could make it from Ireland to America in more-or-less one piece.

I tell you this because I think it’s a good story. But it’s also an example for us of bravery and of faith. Brendan and his friends believed that they could do great things if they trusted in God, facing great hardships, having great adventures. And that’s what faith should be for us as well.

We should be curious, and prayerful, and faithful, and brave. We should be true to our friends and excited to explore this world that we all share. And most of all, we should trust that Christ is always with us, always sending us out, and always bringing us home.

Sound good? Okay. Let’s pray.