Sunday, June 29, 2014

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time


Year A

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time



Images

Strong persons to help carry burdens


Points to note

There are two separate imageries from this Sunday’s reading.  In the first part of the reading, Jesus touched upon the fact that the kingdom of heaven is revealed to mere children.  I have chosen for the discussion, the second part with its well-known line, Come to me, all you who labour and are over burdened, and I will give you rest.

This reading can be very abstract for the children and, again, it should be best translated into the more practical terms of children’s lives with the more vivid imageries for younger children.


Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel
Alleluia!  Alleluia!
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom to mere children.
Alleluia!

Gospel
Explain that Jesus is travelling around Galilee with his disciples and teaching them along the way.

The Lord be with you.
All:   And also with your spirit.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Matthew
All:   Glory to you O Lord
(Mt 11:25-30)
Jesus exclaimed, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.  Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased you to do.  Everything has been entrusted to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

“Come to me, all you who labour and are over burdened, and I will give you rest.  Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.  Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.”

This is the Word of the Lord


Dialogue

What is a burden?  Start with physical burdens and then go onto more mental and emotional ones.  Describe it with burdens from children everyday lives:  exams anxieties, fears over being punished for a misdeed, etc.

If we have a burden, what do we do?  Get others to help.  Again, it is easy to discuss where a physical burden is involved like getting many people to push a broken down car.  In more emotional burdens, we have someone to talk to about it:  a teacher, parents, a close friend.

Emphasise that this other person that you would call in to help, be it a physical burden or not, would normally be someone stronger than you.  For a physical burden, it would be someone who is bigger and has more muscles.  For emotional burdens, it is normally someone who is older and more experienced than us.  Discuss the strongest person in the world: Jesus.  Discuss how he would help us with our burdens.

For older children, you may want to go into the kind of burdens that Jesus was trying to relieve in his days.  For instance, in this passage, he probably meant the burden of the Jewish Law, which heavily prescribes what is permissible and what is not permissible in daily lives.  The rules on Sabbath did not allow people to work and travel.  Work is defined as lifting a set weight and travel is defined by a set distance.  Jesus did away with all that.  Does this lesson still apply today?  Discuss how laws can become burdensome if the end reason is ignored.  Discuss how various people have challenged unreasonable or unjust laws like Jesus did.

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Ss Peter and Paul


Year A
Ss Peter and Paul


Images

The Pope and the Apostolic Succession


Points to note

This Sunday is not part of the normal sequence of Ordinary Sundays as the Solemnity will take precedence over Ordinary Sundays.

There is a board inside the Westminster Catholic Cathedral in London, which lists down the names of all the Popes and next to them, the list of the leading bishops in England at that time.  There are two ideas here which are important.  Each bishop is consecrated a bishop by another bishop, who has been consecrated by another bishop, who has been consecrated by another bishop, and so on, who has been consecrated by another bishop, who has been consecrated by one of the Apostles.  This is known as the Apostolic Succession, the principle that every Catholic bishop traces his lineage back to the Apostles and we have the list of bishops to prove it.  Every diocese in the world keeps such a list of its own line of bishops.  This list that traces back to the Apostles is our proof that what our bishops teach is the same as what the Apostles, and Jesus, taught.

The other is one of communion.  Every Catholic owes allegiance to his or her local bishop.  We are said to be in communion with our bishop.  Each bishop is in turn in communion with the Pope.  Therefore, each Catholic is communion with each other through his or her communion with the local bishop who is in communion with other bishops through his communion with the Pope.

This session will require a bit of research from you regarding your diocese.  You will have to fill in all the details in square crackets below and you should be able to find most of these in the Directory of yoru diocese.



Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel
Alleluia!  Alleluia!
You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.
And the gates of the underworld can never hold our against it.
Alleluia!

Gospel
Jesus has just been debating with some Jews and Pharisees.

The Lord be with you.
All:   And also with your spirit.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Matthew
All:   Glory to you O Lord
(Mt 16:13-19)
When Jesus came to the region of Ceasarea Philippi he put this question to his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say he is John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”  “But you,” he said, “who do you say I am?”  Then Simon Peter spoke up, “You are the Christ,” he said, “the Son of the living God.”  Jesus replied, “Simon son of Jonah, you are a happy man!  Because it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.  So I now say to you: You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.  And the gates of the underworld can never hold out against it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.”

This is the Word of the Lord




Dialogue

Who is the head of the Church?  Jesus.  Explain that Jesus does not what to take care of the entire Church by himself and so he has a lot of people to help him.  He has the Pope to help him.  The Pope helps Jesus to take care of all Catholics throughout the world, all one billion of us.  The Pope wears white and lives in Rome.  He has a huge church called St Peter’s Basilica.

The Pope could not possibly take care of all Catholics, too.  So he has over 5,000 bishops to help him.  Most of these bishops take care of an area called a diocese.  Some dioceses are larger than others and are called archdioceses.  We are in the Archdiocese/Diocese of [        ], which includes [the states/provinces/regions that the diocese covers].  There are more than [        ] Catholics in our archdiocese/diocese.  The bishop who is appointed to help the Pope take care of all Catholics in our diocese is Bishop [       ].  The bishop wear purple and lives in [    ], near his church called [          ] Cathedral.

Even Archbishop/Bishop needs help to take care of so many Catholics in his diocese.  So, there are over [   ] priests to help them.  There are 400,000 priests helping bishops throughout the world.  Many of these priests help take care of a parish.  We are in the parish of [         ] and there are [        ] people in our parish who comes to our church for mass.  Priests normally wear black except in hot tropical countries.

Sometimes, priests may have brothers and sisters to help them do God’s work.  These brothers and sisters run schools, orphanages and hospitals or they may do other work like praying for us in monasteries.  There are more than 700,000 of them throughout the world.
 
Bishops are important people.  They teach us the same things that the Apostles have been teaching.  So, when the Pope picks someone to succeed them, he will choose the next bishop very carefully and ensure that they are well trained.  The new bishop will be consecrated a bishop by several bishops, who themselves have been consecrated a bishop by several other bishops, laying their hands on the new bishop.  Having these other bishops there is the guarantee that the new bishop is a genuine Catholic bishop, who can trace his lineage back to the Apostles.  You can explain the Apostolic Succession in these simple terms and that the Apostles were the only bishops who were consecrated bishops by Jesus himself.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Solemnity of Body and Blood of Christ


Solemnity of Body and Blood of Christ
Second Sunday after Pentecost


Image

Spiritual Sustenance


Points to note

If there is a celebration of First Communion, it will be good to refer to it, especially if any of the children know of family or friends who will be receiving Jesus for the first time at that celebration.

The key thing in this discussion is that we are both body and spirit.  Each has its own realm and each has its own sustenance.  The Holy Communion is spiritual food for our spiritual bodies.  To me this is the simple answer to differentiating between the Real Presence of the Body of Jesus and apparent appearance of bread. 

In the past, we used to struggle with insisting that the communion wafer is really the body of Jesus, just that it doesn’t look it.  For me, it is the real body of Jesus, spiritual body and not physical body, though.  Interestingly, a mediaeval doctrine arguing that act of consecration converts the bread into the physical body of Jesus was held by the Church to be heretical.

One more point, this is the day in our annual liturgical calendar when we celebrate the consecration at the Last Supper, not Holy Thursday.





Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel
Alleluia!  Alleluia!
I am the living bread which has come down from heaven,
says the Lord, anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.
Alleluia!

 

Gospel

Jesus has just fed the multitudes with bread and is teaching the disciples about the significant of the miracle.

The Lord be with you.
All:   And also with your spirit.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John
All:   Glory to you O Lord

(Jn 6:51-58)
Jesus said to the Jews:
“I am the living bread which has come down from heaven.
Anyone who eats this bread will live for ever;
and the bread I shall give is my flesh,
for the life of the world.”

Then the Jews started arguing with one another: “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.  Jesus replied:
“I tell you most solemnly,
if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man
and drink his blood, you will not have life in you.
Anyone who does eat my flesh and drink my blood
has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day.
For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.
He who eats my flesh and drink my blood
lives in me and I live in him.
As I, who am sent by the living Father,
myself draw life from the Father,
so whoever eats me will draw life from me. 
This is the bread come down from heaven;
not like the bread our ancestors ate: they are dead,
but anyone who eats this bread will live for ever.

This is the Gospel of the Lord


Dialogue

Let’s start with everyone’s favourite topic: food.  What is your favourite food?

Why do we eat?  To keep us alive.  To keep us healthy.  To give us strength.  Elaborate on each of these.  How long can we last without food?

You said we eat to give us strength.  Give us strength to do what?  Elaborate on the kind of work that we will do with strength in us.

Explain that each one of us alive have a physical body as well as a spirit.  Having one without the other would normally mean that you are dead.  Explain that just as the physical body eats physical food to stay alive, keep its physical body healthy and get physical strength to do physical work, our spirits too need spiritual food to be spiritually alive, spiritually healthy and get spiritual strength to do spiritual work.  What kind of spiritual food do we get?  What kind of spiritual work do we do?  Explain to the younger children that we do not expect them to do much spiritual work yet, that is why they do not need the Holy Communion yet.

If we eat physical food but do not do any physical work, where will that food go?  Eventually, down the toilet.  I would imagine, therefore, that if we do not do any spiritual work after eating spiritual food, that spiritual food will go down a spiritual toilet and we really do not want that to happen to the Holy Communion that we eat, do we?

If there is time
Explain that the mass is where we eat our spiritual food and it is mealtime just like our dinner time at home.  At home, we have a dining table, with a table cloth, and food & drink on the table.  At mass, we have a dining table (the altar), with a table cloth (altar cloth), and food & drink on the table (bread & wine).

Just like the dining table, we also have table manners for the meal at mass.  We have to turn up on time, dressed properly, with clean hands (and clean spirits).  It is also a good opportunity to go through the table manners again with those who are going for communion:

·        Ask for the food politely (palm raised high, as if you are really eager for it, and don’t grab it before it reach your palm)
·        Put it in your mouth straight away (and not play with your food) with the non-receiving hand instead of popping it all into your mouth
·        Eat it quietly, with the mouth closed and no chewing noise (yes, you can chew: your physical teeth is biting into the physical bread, not the spiritual Body of Jesus)
·        Say thank you, with an acknowledgement (some people do a sign of the cross) and a prayer.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Trinity Sunday


Year A

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Sunday after Pentecost


Image

Mystery


Points to note

Learning is a continuous process and we never stop learning.  It is important to stress the fact that we continue to learn about Jesus through our parents and our catechists.  Even grown-ups continue to learn about Jesus through the Church.  Actually, even the Pope.

As it is Trinity Sunday, the stress is also that whatever that is taught by the Spirit about the Father is the same as what Jesus taught.

Try to say “Holy Spirit” instead of just “Spirit” as the latter has connotations for some children that can be a little distracting, while the former is a proper name to many children.


Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel
Alleluia!  Alleluia!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit,
the God who is, who was, and who is to come.
Alleluia!


Explain that Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus, one of the Jewish leaders.  Some of the things that Jesus said are a little difficult for non-Christians, like the Jews, to understand.

Gospel

A simple Sign of the Cross is made to start the mass, but you should explain its significance.  The early Christians used the sign of the cross to bless themselves during the liturgy, and to show that they are Christians at other times.  We don’t really know if they use it as a secret sign known only to themselves during the persecution, but it is an intriguing thought.

Children also like the idea that as our hands move to the different parts of our body when signing ourselves, we are also making a silent prayer with our hands: God, grant us wisdom (head), love (heart), and strength (shoulders).

Again, it may help explaining about the other Sign of the Cross that we use before hearing the Gospel.  This one is a little more primitive and being more discreet, was more likely to have been used as a secret sign if there was one.  It survives a lot more in the liturgies than the more conventional one.  For instance, the priest traces the cross on the forehead of the baby or catechumen during the Liturgy of Baptism.

Again, children like the idea of a prayer using their hands.  So: As we hear your word, let us think good thought (head), say good words (lips), and feel love (heart).

The Lord be with you.
All:   And with your spirit.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John
All:   Glory to you O Lord

(Jn 3:16-18)
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“God loved the world so much
that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost
but may have eternal life.
For God sent his Son into the world
not to condemn the world,
but so that through him the world might be saved.
No one who believes in him will be condemned;
but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already,
because he has refused to believe
in the name of God’s only Son.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord


Dialogue

Does anybody like adventure games on the computer?  (for the uninitiated, adventure games are where you have to navigate a course, which could be like a house, by answering questions or going through locked doors, etc, in order to arrive at a destination where a prize will be waiting)  Get the children to talk about those games, but not too long.  Dwell on the aspects of the game where they have to figure out something that will take them to the next level.  In the game, a little bit will be made known to you – bit by bit.

What is a mystery?

In the early Church, a mystery is a hidden truth that is revealed only to the elect, i.e., baptised Christians.  A catechumen is initiated into the mystery in a rite of initiation lasting years, during which the faith is gradually revealed to him.  At the end of his  formation, he will be baptised and is said to have entered into the mystery.  Even after that, though the newly baptised continue to be further initiated into the faith and will finally enter fully into the faith on meeting his Creator face to face.

Explain to the children that God is like a mystery to us and we learn about him gradually through the people around us and through talking to him in prayers.  In a way, our knowledge of God is a bit like the computer game – you cannot know about God all at once.  You can only know about God bit by bit.

Is Jesus still around to teach us?  Be careful!  Jesus isn’t dead on the Cross.  He stayed with the disciples for forty days after his resurrection, after which he went to heaven to prepare a house for us.  Forty days isn’t a long time to teach anyone about God, I guess!  But he has asked the Holy Spirit to continue to teach us about himself.  Stress that whatever the Holy Spirit teaches is the same as what Jesus taught.  So, therefore, the Holy Spirit will continue to teach us from where Jesus left off.

Ask the children how the Holy Spirit continues the teaching of Jesus.  Discuss how the Holy Spirit teaches us through things that happen around us; through people close to us, etc, etc.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Pentecost Sunday


Year A, B, C
Pentecost Sunday


Image

Birthday of the Church


Points to note

For this Sunday, the Gospel is not used and the more vivid story of the descent of the Holy Spirit from the Acts of the Apostles is used instead.

The emphasis is on a beginning of the Church.  It is from the day of Pentecost that the mission of the Church began.  Armed with the Holy Spirit, the Church now had the courage to take Christ’s message to the world.  It is important to convey this to the children.

As such, this feastday is sometimes known as the birthday of the Church.  This may be something that can be played up as birthday is something that children identify with.  Discussions, I feel, should go beyond birthdays.

Stories of missionaries may be used.  Perhaps, the stories of the apostles as used in Easter 2 could kick off the story telling.


Liturgy


Reading

As the Gospel is not read, the Acclamation is omitted being the birthday of the Church, we could welcome the reading with a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ to the Church instead.

The Lord be with you.
All:   And with your spirit.

A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles
(Ac 2: 1-11)
When Pentecost day came round, the apostles had all met in one room, when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them.  They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.

Now there were devout men living in Jerusalem from every nation under heaven, and at this sound they all assembled, each one bewildered to hear these men speaking his own language.  They were amazed and astonished.  “Surely”, they said, “all these men speaking are Galileans?  How is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?  Iranians and Syrians; people from Iraq, Israel, Jordan and Turkey, Egypt and Libya; as well as visitors from Rome - Jews and converts alike - Greeks and Arabs; we hear them preaching in our own language about the marvels of God.

This is the Word of the Lord


Discussion

Has anybody just celebrated a birthday?  Or been to a birthday party?  Discuss what is a birthday, and that it happens once a year and it celebrates an event that took place once before on the same day.  Explain that that first birthday is a beginning of a life.

Do you know that the Church has a birthday?  Do you know which day?  Discuss that the Church also has a beginning.  Discuss the story of Pentecost.  Emphasise the fear the apostles had after the resurrection and contrast it with the courage they had after Pentecost.  Explain that after Pentecost, the apostles went out to preach the Gospel to all the people all over the world.  You may wish to revisit some of the stories of where the apostles went.  The following stories are not biblical:

The apostles drew lots to see where they would go.  Peter went to Rome and became the first bishop of Rome.  Once, when he was running away to escape from soldiers, he saw Jesus walking the other direction.  When he asked Jesus where he was going, Jesus replied that he was going to Rome to be crucified again.  Peter was so ashamed of himself that he ran ahead of Jesus and was arrested.  He told the soldiers that he should be crucified upside-down as he was not worthy to be crucified like Jesus.

Thomas was chosen to go to India.  He didn’t want to because it was so far away.  Jesus visited him in a dream, but still he told Jesus, “Anywhere Lord but India”.  The next morning, Jesus was at the harbour and asked the captain of a ship if he needed a slave, pointing out to him Thomas.  The captain called Thomas over and asked him if Jesus was his master.  When Thomas said yes, the captain said he had bought him and Thomas was going to India.  Thomas went and made many Christians there.

Of all the apostles, only John lived to an old age but in exile in the island of Patmos.  Andrew was crucified on an X-shaped cross in Greece.  James was martyred in Spain and Matthew in Ethiopia.  Philip was crucified in Turkey.  Bartholomew was whipped to death in Armenia.  Simon and Jude were killed for the faith in Persia.

St Paul, according to the Acts of the Apostles, made four missionary journeys.  He probably made more, one of which was to Rome where he was martyred. 

You may also wish to discuss stories of the great missionary saints.  It is recommended that this be limited to the saints known to the children.  A good example would be St Francis Xavier, who brought the message of Christ to Goa in India, Melaka and to Japan, where he baptised thousands.

In addition there are thousands of other people who may not be saints, but are devout nevertheless and have brought the Gospel to all the places of the world.   These people are called missionaries.  Discuss those who the children may know personally.

St Francis Xavier is famous in parts of Asia.  He was a Spaniard, who left his family, home, country, and all things familiar to him to a faraway place to tell people about Jesus.  Get the children to imagine having to do that and go to a place where they did not know anyone, know the language, the costumes, the customs, the food, to do something which people could kill you for.  St Francis went to India, then Melaka, and then Japan.  Along the way, he made many people Christians.  He wanted to make teach Chinese about Jesus but he died near Macau, before he could set foot into China.

St Francis Xavier and many other missionaries made many sacrifices so that people could become Christians.  It was because of their sacrifices that many are now Christians