Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

LSW children

Year B

Eighteenth Ordinary Sunday

Images

 

Bread and wine at mass

Points to note

 

This week’s reading is the second of a series of readings centred around the account of the feeding of the five thousand in Jn in Sunday 17.  For the five weeks, the readings will be laden with theological themes of: the feeding (Sunday 17); true bread (Sunday 18); the person of Jesus (Sunday 19); Jesus as bread (Sunday 20); and accepting Jesus (Sunday 21).

While it makes sense to present them in such a cycle to adults, it is very difficult for children. I have therefore interpreted it as: preparing the meal (Sunday 17); what we eat (Sunday 18); who we eat with (Sunday 19); the wider church who shares the bread (Sunday 20); and what to do after the meal (Sunday 21).

In all instances, it is important to emphasise the personal and the everyday occurrences that children encounter at meals and parallel them with the meal for their spiritual world.

Liturgy

Acclamation

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Man does not live on bread alone, 

but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Remind the children that Jesus has just fed the five thousand men, with the women and children.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John

(Jn6: 24-35)

When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus.  When they found him on the other side, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”  Jesus answered:

“I tell you most solemnly, 

you are not looking for me because you have seen miracles but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.

Do not work for food that cannot last, 

but work for food that last forever, 

the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you, 

for on him the Father, God himself has set his approval.”

Then they said to him, “What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?”  Jesus gave them this answer, “This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.”  So they said,  ”What sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you?  What work will you do?  Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert; as scriptures says: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

Jesus answered: “I tell you must solemnly, 

it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven, 

it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven, 

the true bread; 

for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread always.”  Jesus answered:

“I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me will never be hungry; 

he who believes in me will never thirst.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Discussion

Just as the family at home have meals together, the family of God also have a meal together. The mass.  Draw parallels between the family at home and the family of God.  There is a dining table (the altar table) with a table-cloth over it (the altar cloth). There is food on the table (the bread and wine) and lots of diners (the congregation).  Discuss why the bread at mass looks the way it does.  There is no yeast in it.  This is because when the Jews left Egypt, they left in a hurry and had no time to wait for the dough to rise.  Our mass is a successor to the Jewish Passover meal, which celebrated the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt

Discuss what bread represents to most people.  It is important especially in places where bread is eaten everyday.  Discuss where there are places with famine, etc.  How important do the people there think bread is?

Discuss what is meant by eating the flesh of Jesus. Remember it is not just that our body is eating the physical flesh of Jesus, but rather our spirit eating the spiritual flesh of Jesus.  Explain that by eating him spiritually, we bring the spirit of Jesus into us. Wouldn’t we all like that?

If asked, explain that the wine that is used must be alcoholic, but there are set rules as to how alcoholic.  There is a maximum level for obvious reasons.  There is also a set minimum so that the wine will keep. Also, the wine must be a fruit of the grape.  So, no cider. The rules do not say that the wine must be red to symbolise blood.  I have taken white wine at mass before.

Discuss what the wine means to people.  In countries where wine is drunk a lot, it is normally drunk at dinner time.  It is the kind of dinner where people are relaxed and the meal could take quite a long time because people chat a lot over the meal.  So, wine represents fellowship to these people.

Discuss what is meant when we say we drink the blood of Jesus. Jews and Muslims do not eat meat with blood in it.  Halal & kosher therefore doesn’t just mean no pork, but also that the animal is slaughtered in such a way that all the blood is drained out.  This is because they believe that blood contains life and life can only belong to God.  Going by that therefore, we can say that the blood of Jesus is his life. When we drink the wine, we are drinking the life of Jesus into us.

Therefore, at the end of mass, we are all filled with the spirit and the life of Jesus after partaking of the bread and wine at mass.  With the spirit and life of Jesus in us we can go out and be better Christians. That is the meaning of spiritual sustenance given to us at mass.

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year A

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

The mass as a meal

Points to note

Actually, the image stated above is not exactly accurate.  Liturgists agree that the feeding of the five thousand does not constitute a mass.  In fact, some liturgists even contend that no incident involving Jesus, including the Last Supper, can constitute a mass: The mass is a sacrifice and it cannot be a sacrifice if the victim is still presiding!

The feeding of the five thousand, though, contains some elements of the mass.  In particular, it highlights what is known as the four liturgical actions: take, bless, break and give; which is central to the celebration at mass.  A wider discussion of the mass is invited.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace on the earth and glory in the highest heavens!

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain that Jesus has been teaching the people: remember the parables of the past weeks?  Now, he is tired.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Matthew

All:   Glory to you O Lord

(Mt 14:13-21)

When Jesus received the news of John the Baptist’s death he withdrew by boat on a lonely place where they could be by themselves.  But the people heard of this and, leaving the towns, went after him on foot.  So, as he stepped shore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them and healed their sick.

When evening came, the disciples went to him and said, “This is a lonely place, and the time has slipped by; so send the people away, and they can go off to the villages to buy themselves some food.”  Jesus replied, “There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat yourselves.”  “But,” they answered, “All we have is five loaves and two fish.”  “Bring them here to me.”  He said.  He gave orders that the people were to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessings.  And breaking the loaves, he handed them to his disciples who gave them to the crowds.  They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected the scraps remaining, twelve baskets full.  Those who ate numbered five thousand men, to say nothing of women and children.

This is the Word of the Lord

Dialogue

Identify those children who have already celebrated their Holy Communion.  You may wish to use them to help lead the discussions.

Have you been to a birthday party?  Do you enjoy it?  Let the children talk about the birthday parties that they have been in and enjoyed.

Is there a big table at the birthday party?  Is there a clean and pretty tablecloth on the table?  What do you find on that table?  Lots of food.  What takes the pride of place on the table?  The birthday cake.  Let the children talk about their favourite food at birthday parties and the best cake they have ever seen.

Who is the most important person at the birthday party?  The birthday boy/girl.  Is he/she the only person needed to make a party?  Get them to imagine if they have a party with all the favourite food and cake but there is no one to share it with or to play with.  Without the guests, we cannot have a party.

Do you know that the mass is a meal?  Draw parallels with the birthday party.  At church, there is a table (the altar) with a table cloth on it (altar cloth).  The pride of place on the table is the bread and wine.

Focus more on the people.  Just like in a birthday party, we have someone who must be there for it to be a mass.  The priest.  Discuss also about the people.  Imagine if only the priest turns up for mass and no one else, would that be a mass?  Actually, it would be a canonically valid mass, but common sense would tell us that it is not complete without the community being present.

Link it back to the reading where Jesus had a meal with a lot of people.  Without the people, the glory of God cannot be seen.  Discuss why people are so important to make a meal complete.  We do not eat just because we are hungry.  We also take the opportunity of the eating environment to socialise and strengthen our bonds with each other.  In children terms, to make friends and to play.  Mealtime is always more fun the bigger the crowd.

One final point: do we invite people who are close to us or people we hardly know to our parties?  In the church, we attend mass with people who we know to have the same beliefs about God as we do.  These people are part of our Christian family.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year C

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

Treasures in heaven

Points to note

We live in a materialistic world and our children are a sad reflection of ourselves.  Before we get carried away with this cliché, we must remember that children are basically not materialistic.  Therefore it needs prompt action to steer any discussions on materialism in the right direction.

While children are not materialistic by nature (we just make them like us), they have prized possessions: a well worn out teddy bear for instance.  There are girls I know who keep them well into their twenties.  It will be good to discuss whether they are willing to sacrifice that teddy bear for instance.

A few points about being materialistic.  Jesus never said that money is evil.  He said the love of money is the root of all evils.  Jesus never said the poor are blessed or rich people cannot go to heaven.  It is the poor in spirit who are blessed and it is just that little bit harder for the rich to get to heaven (eye of the needle?).  What he meant was that if you are poor but you love money, you won’t be among the blessed but if you are rich but was never that interested in money, you should be ok.

As they say, there are two types of people in the world, people who are rich and people who wants to be rich.  Basically, it implies that the base motivation of people remains the love of money.  We Christians would like to think there is a third category: people who follow Jesus.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Your word is truth, O lord,

consecrate us to the truth.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain to the children what a parable is.  It may not be a story that actually happened, but it does contain a truth nevertheless.  Truth doesn’t mean the same thing as factual evidence.  Truth is reality.  And parables often tell a little something about what we really are like.  Jesus used parables to explain the Truth.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Luke

All:   Glory to you O Lord

(Lk 12:13-21)

A man in the crowd said to Jesus, “Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.”  “My friend,” he replied, “who appointed me to judge your claims?”  Then he said to them, “Beware, and be on guard against greed of any kind, because what a man owns will not make his life safe, even when he has more than he needs.”

Then he told them a parable:  “There was a rich man who had a good harvest from his land.  He thought to himself, ‘What am I to do?  I have not enough room in my barns to store my crops.’  Then he said, ‘This is what I will do:  I will pull down my barns and build bigger ones, and store all my grains and my goods in them.  Then, I will say to my soul:  ‘My soul, you have plenty of good things and you can eat, drink and have a good time for many years to come.  So take things easy,’  But God said to him, ‘Fool!  This very night I will ask for your soul back.  And these good things of yours, whose will it be then?’  So it is when a man store up treasures for himself on earth instead of making himself rich in the God’s eyes.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Dialogue

If you are going to go away and live somewhere else for quite a long time, what would you take with you?

Why?

If you were told that there isn’t enough space in the car and you would have to leave something behind, what would you leave behind?

The rich man in the parable was going to go away to live somewhere else that night, but he didn’t know it.  He thought he could take his riches with him wherever he was going.  Could he?

Explain that when we go to live with God, we take none of our favourite toys or treasured possessions with us.

What did the rich man do with all his wealth?   To have a good life.

How can we make sure that we can have a good life in heaven?  Discuss how Jesus has promised that all who believe in him and love and do good will deserve to be with him in paradise.  That is the way a Christian pile up treasures in heaven. 

Discuss greed.  That is what the rich man had lots of.  For a Christian, greed will just reduce his treasures in heaven.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B

Eighteenth Ordinary Sunday

Images

 

Bread and wine at mass

Points to note

 

This week’s reading is the second of a series of readings centred around the account of the feeding of the five thousand in Jn in Sunday 17.  For the five weeks, the readings will be laden with theological themes of: the feeding (Sunday 17); true bread (Sunday 18); the person of Jesus (Sunday 19); Jesus as bread (Sunday 20); and accepting Jesus (Sunday 21).

While it makes sense to present them in such a cycle to adults, it is very difficult for children.  I have therefore interpreted it as: preparing the meal (Sunday 17); what we eat (Sunday 18); who we eat with (Sunday 19); the wider church who shares the bread (Sunday 20); and what to do after the meal (Sunday 21).

In all instances, it is important to emphasise the personal and the everyday occurrences that children encounter at meals and parallel them with the meal for their spiritual world.

Liturgy

Acclamation

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Man does not live on bread alone,

but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Remind the children that Jesus has just fed the five thousand men, with the women and children.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John

(Jn 6: 24-35)

When the people saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus.  When they found him on the other side, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?”  Jesus answered:

“I tell you most solemnly,

you are not looking for me because you have seen miracles but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.

Do not work for food that cannot last,

but work for food that last forever,

the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you,

for on him the Father, God himself has set his approval.”

Then they said to him, “What must we do if we are to do the works that God wants?”  Jesus gave them this answer, “This is working for God: you must believe in the one he has sent.”  So they said,  ”What sign will you give to show us that we should believe in you?  What work will you do?  Our fathers had manna to eat in the desert; as scriptures says: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”

Jesus answered: “I tell you must solemnly,

it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven,

it is my Father who gives you the bread from heaven,

the true bread;

for the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

“Sir,” they said, “give us that bread always.”  Jesus answered:

“I am the bread of life.

He who comes to me will never be hungry;

he who believes in me will never thirst.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Discussion

Just as the family at home have meals together, the family of God also have a meal together.  The mass.  Draw parallels between the family at home and the family of God.  There is a dining table (the altar table) with a table-cloth over it (the altar cloth).  There is food on the table (the bread and wine) and lots of diners (the congregation).  Discuss why the bread at mass looks the way it does.  There is no yeast in it.  This is because when the Jews left Egypt, they left in a hurry and had no time to wait for the dough to rise.  Our mass is a successor to the Jewish Passover meal, which celebrated the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt

Discuss what bread represents to most people.  It is important especially in places where bread is eaten everyday.  Discuss where there are places with famine, etc.  How important do the people there think bread is?

Discuss what is meant by eating the flesh of Jesus.  Remember it is not just that our body is eating the physical flesh of Jesus, but rather our spirit eating the spiritual flesh of Jesus.  Interestingly, there was a medieval heresy that the Church condemned, which held out the view that the bread becomes the physical flesh.  Explain that by eating him spiritually, we bring the spirit of Jesus into us.  Wouldn’t we all like that?

If asked, explain that the wine that is used must be alcoholic, but there are set rules as to how alcoholic.  There is a maximum level for obvious reasons.  There is also a set minimum so that the wine will keep.  Also, the wine must be a fruit of the grape.  So, no cider.  The rules do not say that the wine must be red to symbolise blood.  I have taken white wine at mass before.

Discuss what the wine means to people.  In countries where wine is drunk a lot, it is normally drunk at dinner time.  It is the kind of dinner where people are relaxed and the meal could take quite a long time because people chat a lot over the meal.  So, wine represents fellowship to these people.

Discuss what is meant when we say we drink the blood of Jesus.  Jews and Muslims do not eat meat with blood in it.  Halal & kosher therefore doesn’t just mean no pork, but also that the animal is slaughtered in such a way that all the blood is drained out.  This is because they believe that blood contains life and life can only belong to God.  Going by that therefore, we can say that the blood of Jesus is his life.  When we drink the wine, we are drinking the life of Jesus into us.

Therefore, at the end of mass, we are all filled with the spirit and the life of Jesus after partaking of the bread and wine at mass.  With the spirit and life of Jesus in us we can go out and be better Christians.  That is the meaning of spiritual sustenance given to us at mass.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

LSW children

Year A

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

The mass as a meal

Points to note

Actually, the image stated above is not exactly accurate.  Liturgists agree that the feeding of the five thousand does not constitute a mass.  In fact, some liturgists even contend that no incident involving Jesus, including the Last Supper, can constitute a mass: The mass is a sacrifice and it cannot be a sacrifice if the victim is still presiding!

The feeding of the five thousand, though, contains some elements of the mass.  In particular, it highlights what is known as the four liturgical actions: take, bless, break and give; which is central to the celebration at mass.  A wider discussion of the mass is invited.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the Lord!

Peace on the earth and glory in the highest heavens!

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain that Jesus has been teaching the people: remember the parables of the past weeks?  Now, he is tired.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with you.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Matthew

All:   Glory to you O Lord

(Mt 14:13-21)

When Jesus received the news of John the Baptist’s death he withdrew by boat on a lonely place where they could be by themselves.  But the people heard of this and, leaving the towns, went after him on foot.  So, as he stepped shore he saw a large crowd; and he took pity on them and healed their sick.

When evening came, the disciples went to him and said, “This is a lonely place, and the time has slipped by; so send the people away, and they can go off to the villages to buy themselves some food.”  Jesus replied, “There is no need for them to go: give them something to eat yourselves.”  “But,” they answered, “All we have is five loaves and two fish.”  “Bring them here to me.”  He said.  He gave orders that the people were to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, raised his eyes to heaven and said the blessings.  And breaking the loaves, he handed them to his disciples who gave them to the crowds.  They all ate as much as they wanted, and they collected the scraps remaining, twelve baskets full.  Those who ate numbered five thousand men, to say nothing of women and children.

This is the Word of the Lord

Dialogue

Identify those children who have already celebrated their Holy Communion.  You may wish to use them to help lead the discussions.

Have you been to a birthday party?  Do you enjoy it?  Let the children talk about the birthday parties that they have been in and enjoyed.

Is there a big table at the birthday party?  Is there a clean and pretty tablecloth on the table?  What do you find on that table?  Lots of food.  What takes the pride of place on the table?  The birthday cake.  Let the children talk about their favourite food at birthday parties and the best cake they have ever seen.

Who is the most important person at the birthday party?  The birthday boy/girl.  Is he/she the only person needed to make a party?  Get them to imagine if they have a party with all the favourite food and cake but there is no one to share it with or to play with.  Without the guests, we cannot have a party.

Do you know that the mass is a meal?  Draw parallels with the birthday party.  At church, there is a table (the altar) with a table cloth on it (altar cloth).  The pride of place on the table is the bread and wine.

Focus more on the people.  Just like in a birthday party, we have someone who must be there for it to be a mass.  The priest.  Discuss also about the people.  Imagine if only the priest turns up for mass and no one else, would that be a mass?  Actually, it would be a canonically valid mass, but common sense would tell us that it is not complete without the community being present.

Link it back to the reading where Jesus had a meal with a lot of people.  Without the people, the glory of God cannot be seen.  Discuss why people are so important to make a meal complete.  We do not eat just because we are hungry.  We also take the opportunity of the eating environment to socialise and strengthen our bonds with each other.  In children terms, to make friends and to play.  Mealtime is always more fun the bigger the crowd.

One final point: do we invite people who are close to us or people we hardly know to our parties?  In the church, we attend mass with people who we know to have the same beliefs about God as we do.  These people are part of our Christian family.