Year B
Fifteenth Ordinary Sunday
Images
Out on a journey
with Jesus
Points to note
This Sunday’s reading deal with the aspect of
missionary work. The perception of
missionaries is typified by the story of the old Jesuit who never had his
belongings in more than one suitcase, in order to be ready for any call to go
anywhere anytime. As such, a missionary
travels light and his direction is that given by the Spirit.
We should be drawing parallels between
this and travelling done by us. For
younger children, lead this to the awareness that Jesus and his disciples too
have been travelling a lot themselves.
Older children should be led to discuss a metaphorical travelling with
Jesus: we never travel on our faith journey alone; Jesus is always with us.
Liturgy
Acclamation
before the Gospel
Alleluia! Alleluia!
May the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the
eyes of our mind,
so that we can
see what hope his call holds for us.
Alleluia!
Gospel
Remind the children that Jesus was rejected by the
people in his hometown in last Sunday’s reading.
A
Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Mark
(Mk 6: 7-13)
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out
in pairs giving them authority over the unclean spirits. And he instructed them to take nothing for
the journey except a staff – no bread, no haversack, no coppers for their
purses. They were to wear sandals but,
he added, “Do not take a spare tunic.”
And he said to them, “If you enter a house anywhere, stay there until
you leave the district. And if any place
does not welcome you and people refuse to listen to you, as you walk away shake
off the dust from under your feet as a sign to them.” So they set off to preach repentance; and
they cast out many devils, and anointed many sick people with oil and cured
them.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Discussions
Has anyone gone out traveling before? Which ways of traveling do you prefer:
plane, ships, car, bus, trains, etc. Get the children to discuss from their own
experiences.
Discuss how people of Jesus’
days traveled. Would the children be
comfortable with that way of traveling?
If they were to travel like that, would they be able to carry a lot of
things? That may be why in the reading,
Jesus told his disciples not to carry too many things with them when they
travel.
Many of the disciples traveled a lot to bring the
Gospel to many people. Who are
they? Paul made four journeys throughout the Mediterranean while Peter went
to Rome, Thomas to India, Andrew to Greece, Matthew to Ethiopia, James to
Spain, Jude and Simon to Persia, Philip in Turkey and Bartholomew to
Armenia. Discuss why they went to these
faraway places.
The disciples often had very difficult times when
they traveled. Most of them were
persecuted, faced arrest, ridiculed and insulted. Some were even killed for the
faith they tried to preach. Yet even
when they were thrown into prison, they were not alone. Explain
how Jesus said that he would be with them always.
Go on to the story of the
footprints in the sand: a man dreamt one
night that Jesus showed him how they have walked together during his life story
along a sandy beach. The man found that during most of his life, there were two
sets of footprints on the sand, but on the more difficult times, there was only
one set. He turned and asked Jesus why
he had to walk alone during those difficult times and Jesus answered, “During
those most difficult times, you see only one set of footprints because I
carried you.”
For older children
Discuss the idea of
spiritually traveling light. We should
not have too many temptations with us on our spiritual journey. Discuss the temptations that Jesus would not
like us to carry with us when we travel with him. Use examples from the children’s everyday
lives. Would a priest be a good priest
if he was more concerned about playing computer games? Can we be good Christians if we are more
concerned about our possessions not to share them with others?
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