If yours is the latter, the coming Sunday will be the Second Sunday of Christmas, for which the reading is John's Prologue. Which is very difficult to do with children. So, you may still want to use the guidance below. You will need to read the Gospel of the Sunday and then explain that 6 Jan is Epiphany and then do the reading for Epiphany. This means the Gospel is read twice and, to avoid confusing the children, you may do the dialogue before the reading only once (maybe for the Gospel of the Sunday only).
Year A, B, C
The Epiphany of the Lord
Images
Going home a different way
Points to note
This is a very rich
reading and the chosen theme is broad enough to accommodate sub-themes you
could use. Select one that you are
comfortable with and in keeping with the age group of the children.
The younger ones may be
asked to present gifts to Jesus, with the discussion leading on from the
Christmas presents that they have received.
Older children could be asked to look at the reactions of the different
people to the coming of Jesus in the story: Herod reacting with fear for his
position; the priests reacting with indifference; the wise men reacting with
worship.
Ultimately, the session
must end with a realisation that, having met Jesus, the wise men went home by a
different way. Likewise, our routes and
actions must lead us down different paths after meeting Jesus. Otherwise the epiphany has been in vain.
Liturgy
Christmas
is not a single day but a season that lasts for twelve days. It is the second season of the Christian
year, following on from Advent and ends on Epiphany. Epiphany is a Greek word that means the
appearance of a god. Where the initial
is capitalised, it refers to the appearance of Jesus to the wise men.
Acclamation before the Gospel
Alleluia, alleluia!
We saw his star as it rose
And has come to do the Lord homage
Alleluia!
Gospel
Explain
to the children who the wise men were.
They were people who study the stars.
No, the Gospel accounts did not report them as kings or that there were
three in number. These and their names
were later additions.
Explain
that Herod was a cruel king who was always afraid that somebody would take his
throne away. This Herod, called the
Great because he rebuilt the Temple in Jerusalem, was a different Herod from
the one who ruled when Jesus was crucified.
The Lord be with you.
All: And
also with you.
A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St
Matthew
(Mt 2: 1-12)
After Jesus had been born
at Bethlehem in Judaea when Herod was king, some wise men came to Jerusalem
from the east. “Where is the infant king of the Jews?” they asked. “We saw his star as it rose and have come to
worship him.” When Herod heard this, he
was worried, and so was the whole of Jerusalem.
He called together the chief priests, and asked them where the Christ
was to be born. “At Bethlehem in
Judaea,” they told him, “for this was what the prophet wrote in the Scriptures:
And you,
Bethlehem, in the land of Judah
you are by no
means least among the leaders of Judah,
for out of you
will come a leader
who will be a
shepherd of my people Israel.”
Then Herod called the wise
men to see him privately. He asked them
the exact date on which the star had appeared, and sent them on to
Bethlehem. “Go and find out all about
the child,” he said, “and when you have found him, let me know, so that I too
may go and do him homage.” Having
listened to what the king had to say, they set out. And there in front of them was the star they
had seen rising; it went forward and halted over the place where the child
was. The sight of the star filled them
with delight, and going into the house they saw the child with his mother Mary,
and falling to their knees they paid him their respect. Then, opening their treasures, they offered
him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.
But they were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, and returned to
their own country by a different way.
This is the Word of the
Lord
Dialogue
There
being a wealth of discussion points, I have outlined some that can be linked
and organised along a unifying sub-theme. All discussions should be
personalised within the context of each person's contribution according to each
person's experience and age. Ultimately,
the children must identify how their lives can change after having met Jesus,
in big ways as in small. Just as the
wise men did not take the same route to return home after meeting Jesus,
neither should we return to our more questionable sides after meeting Jesus, in
spirit, in prayer, in the mass, or in works of charity.
For older children
How did Herod react when
he heard about the king just been born? Herod was always afraid that someone would
be king instead of him. In fact, he
killed his wife, her mother and three of his sons because he thought they were
threats to his throne. The emperor
Augustus commented that it was safer to be Herod’s pig than to be Herod’s sons.
How did the wise men
react?
They were worshipful.
How would you react? Get
them to examine themselves. How can they
be sure? Would they follow anybody who
claims to be the Christ? What are their
criteria?
For all children
They wise men brought
gifts for the infant Jesus:
©
Gold, usually given for a king, for Jesus was the
infant King;
©
Frankincense, a kind of incense used during
worship, for Jesus is the highest of all priests;
©
Myrrh, used to embalm dead bodies, for Jesus will
one day die on the cross.
What gifts will you bring
for the infant king? Gifts could be simple (eg, milk for a baby),
or personal (eg, my favourite teddy
bear), or symbolic (like those gifts the wise men brought), or intangible (eg,
acts of worship or charity).
When the wise men saw
Jesus they were filled with delight and approached him with great respect. How would you approach Jesus to show that you
truly respect, worship and love him? Extend the discussion to include how we are
to approach Jesus in the liturgy. There
is a lovely insight told by a Christian about his approach to the Church of the
Nativity in Bethlehem. Beneath the altar
of the church is a cave, which is said to be the cave where Jesus was
born. He noticed that the doorway to the
church was low, so low that anybody approaching has to stoop to enter. Isn’t it fitting that any pilgrim wishing to
see his king has to approach on bended knees?
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