First Sunday in Advent

Year A

First Sunday in Advent

Images

We are the Sign of Jesus’ Coming

Points to note

This is the start of a new Church Year, which we will need to explain this to the children.  If the children get confused over the idea of a new year's day that isn't on Jan 1, here are a few more new year's day that are also not on Jan 1:

·  Chinese New Year is on the day of the new moon between Jan 21 and Feb 20.

·  School year in many countries in the Northern Hemisphere starts in the end of summer.

·  Tax year in UK starts on Apr 6 (interesting story, that one) and other dates elsewhere.

The Gospel reading today is a little difficult to follow but you can lead in with the explanation of Advent being the season of preparation before the reading and discuss being a sign to others of the Coming of Jesus during the dialogue.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia!

Let us see, O Lord, your mercy

and give us your saving help.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Discuss with the children about the new season of the Christian calendar that we are entering.  This is available in the end panel of this leaflet & for a more complete explanation, at http://childrenlivingthesundayword.blogspot.com/2013/09/soundbites-about-advent-christmas.html.

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 24:37-44)

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it be when the Son of Man comes. For in those days before the Flood people were eating, drinking, taking wives, taking husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and they suspected nothing till the Flood came and swept all away. It will be like this when the Son of Man comes. Then of two men in the fields one is taken, one left; of two women at the millstone grinding, one is taken, one left.

‘So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. You may be quite sure of this that if the householder had known at what time of the night the burglar would come, he would have stayed awake and would not have allowed anyone to break through the wall of his house. Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.’

This is the Good News of the Lord

Dialogue

This discussion should be kept short as the bulk of the discussions takes place before the reading.

Can you come up with any event that gets a lot of alerts and warning before it happens?  A storm could have a storm warning beforehand.    The Olympics could have the torch runs.  Your school exams could have extra classes and teachers who keep giving advise.  A wedding could have the invitation cards going out.

Advent is the alert notice for which event?  Coming of Jesus at Christmas.  What do we do in Advent to show that we are alert for Jesus’ coming?  Prayers, advent wreath and advent calendar, setting up the crib.

Does Jesus only come at Christmas time?  No, other than the Second Coming, which Jesus has clearly stated will come without any warning, we encounter Jesus everyday at mass, in people we meet, in acts of kindness and mercy.

Sometimes, Jesus comes to people who never knew him, who are not yet his friends or, because of a problem they may have, is far away from him.  Sometimes, Jesus also sneds an alert notice to those people that he is coming.  What kind of alert notice do you think he will send?  It is Ok to let the children be confused and give many strange answers before you lead into your final point.

Do you think you could be the sign that Jesus wants to send out to tell people that he is coming?  Discuss the ways that children can be a sign of Jesus’ Coming to others.  Reaching out to someone who is hurt, physically or otherwise, is a precursor to Jesus’ healing.  Making friends with someone who is lonely opens up Jesus’ love.  Helping others could be Jesus’ way to helping them, using us as his hands and feet.

You should end with a resolve from the children on how they can be a sign of Jesus’ Coming.

BEING IN ADVENT

This is the period of preparation for the arrival of Jesus at Christmas.  The word Advent comes from the Latin for coming.  It means a period of prayer and penitence before we are allowed to celebrate the birth of Christ.   Advent is also the new year for the church calendar and the First Sunday in Advent is our New Year's Day. 

Being a preparation season, the liturgical colour is purple, meaning the priest wears purple vestments at mass - only the stole (piece of cloth around his neck and down his chest), chasuble (the robe on the outside) or any other decor; the basic vestments underneath remain white.  The church may also be decorated with purple flowers, purple buntings and the like.  Purple is deemed the colour of penitence (It is also the colour of mourning - which is why the priest wears purple at funerals). 

There is an exception, though: the colour for the third Sunday of Advent is pink (or rose).  That Sunday is called Gaudate Sunday (Latin for Rejoice): to give us a little break after we pass the mid-point of a penitential season.

It runs for the four Sundays before Christmas day and so the last day is always Christmas eve.  It can be as long as a full four weeks starting from Nov 27 (if Christmas Day is a Sunday) or as short as three weeks and one day starting from Dec 3 (if Christmas Day is a Monday).

The Advent Wreath, with its four candles fixed on a circle of evergreens, has its roots in pagan northern Europe, which the Lutherans first adopted as a Christian symbol.  The circle represents the never-ending cycle of seasons while the evergreens symbolise the persistence of life even during winter.  Christian symbolism differ slightly: the circle represents the the eternity of God while the evergreens tells of Jesus, who death could not conquer.  The four candles are lit one every Sunday, causing all candles to be of different heights by the end of the season.  There are three purple candles and a pink/rose one for the Third Sunday of Advent.  Sometimes, there is a fifth white candle in the middle to symbolise Christ, and is lit on Christmas Day or Christmas eve.

The Advent Calendar that we have today seems to be a combination of two separate customs.  The original advent calendar notes the goals for personal prayer and penitence for the different days in this period of penitence.  This calendar is now merged with the Jesse Tree, named after King David's father and unfortunately a dying custom.  Symbols of saints and Old Testament prophets & patriarchs are hung on the Jesse Tree, one on each day of Advent.

Solemnity of Christ the King

Year A

Solemnity of Christ the King

Images

Kingdom of Christ

Points to note

In every Catholic church in the world, there is that big crucifix in the middle.  A crucifix differs from a cross by having Jesus on it.  Catholic crucifixes also have that little note containing the letters “INRI” at the top.  It stands for “Iesu Nazarene Rex Idumea”, which means “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” in Latin.  This was what Pilate wrote as the crimes to Jesus, to be nailed on top of the cross.  It is ironic that Pilate in putting up what he thought is the false assertion of a condemned man, has spoken a truth that echoed through the centuries since.

In Year A, we have discussed Jesus role as a judge (one of the roles of a king) and in Year B, the nature of kingship.  So, in Year C, we reconcile our membership in both our secular country and our spiritual kingdom.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia, alleluia!

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

Blessings on the coming kingdom of our father David!

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain that today is the last Sunday of the Church year and next week we start the season of Advent of a new cycle.  This reading takes place when Jesus was dying on the cross.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And also with your spirit.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Luke

All:   Glory to you O Lord

(Lk 23:35-43)

The people stayed there before the cross watching Jesus. As for the leaders, they jeered at him. ‘He saved others,’ they said ‘let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.’ The soldiers mocked him too, and when they approached to offer vinegar they said, ‘If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.’ Above him there was an inscription: ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

One of the criminals hanging there abused him. ‘Are you not the Christ?’ he said. ‘Save yourself and us as well.’ But the other spoke up and rebuked him. ‘Have you no fear of God at all?’ he said. ‘You got the same sentence as he did, but in our case we deserved it: we are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus,’ he said ‘remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ ‘Indeed, I promise you,’ he replied ‘today you will be with me in paradise.’

This is the Good News of the Lord

Dialogue

What country do we belong to?  Discuss your country and you may want to take the opportunity to impart a bit of civil knowledge, particularly if the country and the nation are different for you.

How did you become a citizen of your country and how do you prove that you are a citizen?  Most of us were citizens when we were born in the country but some were naturalised (meaning, changed citizenship from another country). Many countries have identity cards but at minimum all countries have passports that you can use to show which country you are from.  (NB: citizenship documents are sometimes too complicated to explain to children).

What does the country do for you and what do you need to do in return?  The country protects us all & our rights and provides an environment for us to live our way of life with our family, community and church.  In return, we have to pay our taxes, follow the laws of the country and are obliged to defend it, our identity and our way of life (way of life, not necessary our government, our food or our football team).  This is known as the social contract.

Do you know we are citizens of another country?  A country whose king is not of this world.  Explain that we are citizens of God’s kingdom.  Explain that Jesus is a king and what Pilate wrote on the cross.  Show the children a crucifix with the INRI on it.

What does God’s kingdom do for us and what do we do for God’s kingdom?  Just like our country, God’s kingdom also protect us but in the afterlife.  It also provides faith for us to understand ourselves, love to live with our neighbours and hope for the peace in God’s kingdom in the afterlife.  At the same time, we have to be willing to defend God’s kingdom and our right to our way of life as Christians.

How do we join God’s kingdom and how we prove we are citizens?  You may want to spend a bit more time here.  We join God’s kingdom when we get baptised.  But our baptism has to be sincere and God may not accept our membership in his kingdom if we do not mean it.  So our conversion and our acceptance of Jesus as King has to be true.

In a way unlike out country, you can never be born into God’s kingdom but will always be naturalised.  We will always have to apply to join and our membership is always dependant on whether he thinks we have been true to the values of the kingdom or not – it is never a sure thing unlike our citizenship of our country, which can never be taken away.

Also sometimes like the Prodigal Son, we wander out of God’s kingdom and we lose God’s protection.  We get upset and are no longer calm until we return to God’s kingdom.  And until we return, we will not be under God’s protection.

We prove that we are citizens of God’s kingdom by the way we live our lives.  We show that we are Christians by loving each other and forgive anyone who offends us.  What other ways can the children come up with?

As with anything else, draw the parallels with the secular examples so that the children can identify with it.

33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year C

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

Hope in God’s protection

Points to note

This can be a rather complex reading as it dwells on the prophecy of Jesus that the Temple will be destroyed and that his disciples will face numerous persecutions.  These are all very adult concepts and hard for children to follow.

Leaving the first two paragraphs aside, I will focus on the last paragraph but not in terms of persecutions that children will not be able to follow, but to present them in children terms.  None of us would enjoy being persecuted and while most children would never encounter it, children and adults do meet up with the fear that makes us avoid persecutions if possible.

If there is time, go through the stories of great persecutions that form the seed out of which the Church grew all over the world.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Stand erect, hold your heads high,

because your liberation is near at hand.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Explain that in Jesus’ time, there was a huge Temple in Jerusalem where the Jews made their sacrifices to God.  It was huge, 400m by 500m in size and the parts of the outer walls that was not decorated with metal plates, was snow-white in colour.  That Temple was destroyed 37 years after Jesus and all there is left today are parts of a stone wall.

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 21:5-19)

When some were talking about Temple, remarking how it was adorned with fine stonework and votive offerings, Jesus said, “All this things you are staring at now - the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed.”  And they to him this question: ”Master,” they said “when will this happen, then, and what sign will there that this is about to take place?”

“Take care not to be deceived,” he said “because many will come using my name and saying, ‘I am he’ and ‘the time is near at hand.’ Refuse to join them. And when you hear of wars and revolutions, do not be frightened, for this is something that must happen but the end is not so soon.” Then he said to them, ”Nation will fight against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes and plagues and famines here and there; there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.

“But before all this happens, men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and bring you before kings and governors because of my name – and that would be your opportunity to bear witness.  Keep this carefully in mind: you are not to prepare your defence, because I myself will give you an eloquence and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able resist or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, relations and friends; and some of you will be put to death. You will be hated by all men on account of my name, but not hair on your head would be lost. Your endurance will win you your lives.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Dialogue

Is there anything you are afraid of?  Lead the children from talking of being afraid of the dark to situations where they were fearful about what is going to happen – being lost somewhere big or someone getting them into trouble with the teacher.  Discuss what the worst that could have happened in that situation.  Remember though children nowadays have been well protected by their parents that some of them never had a fearful moment in their lives.  If they do not have any appropriate experience, use a hypothetical one.

Did the fear remain forever or did the fear pass eventually?  How?  Discuss whether someone helped them get over the fear.  Was it their parents, teachers, or friends?  Was God involved in helping them get over their fears?  Wasn’t it God who sent them someone to help them get over their fears?

Now, looking back at that situation, was there any point in fearing?  Was the worrying wasted?  If it were to happen again, what would you do?  Would you be fearful all over again or would you leave it to God to help you get out of the situation unharmed?  Gently bring them to an understanding that with God looking over them, there is no need to be so fearful.  This is what hope is about.

Contrast this with the great cities of the past that now lies in ruins because people did not put their trust in God but believed in their own greatness.  Starting with the Tower of Babel, there is the Temple of Jerusalem in this reading, the many Roman ruins all over Europe, the city of Pompeii buried when the volcano erupted, the city of Troy (no it was not a legend), the city of Tanis of Indiana Jones fame (there really was such a city buried under the sands but no Ark), many other ruins buried under the sea or elsewhere.

If there is time

Run through some of the stories of persecution that the Church faced and is still facing today.

Each and every one of the apostles other than John was martyred.  They all died in different ways in different countries.  John was exiled to an island away from home.

During Roman times when the Church was young, people were required to sacrifice to Roman gods and get a certificate to say that they were good citizens.  Many Christians who refused ended up being thrown to hungry lions in stadiums like the Coliseum in Rome, as a sporting spectacle with Romans cheering on the lions.

Many priests who tried to bring the Gospel to pagan people were killed, and most of these deaths were not even recorded – we only remember them as part of the multitude of countless and nameless saints on All Saints Day, which we just celebrated.

In Japan many years after St Francis Xavier baptised many Japanese, a new government decided to persecute Christians and all Catholic priests where either expelled from the country or were crucified.  Many Catholic families though continue to pray in secret. They baptised & taught their children even though they had no priests.  More than a century later, they re-joined the Church when Japan opened its doors once again to missionaries.

Today in China and Vietnam, Catholics and priests loyal to the Pope can be jailed by the government (and sometimes killed), as has happened in Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall.  In the Middle East, some Christians were driven from their homes if they do not renounce Christianity.  The Church was and is constantly persecuted but has always trusted God and has flourished to this day.

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year C

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

Death and resurrection

Points to note

It may be morbid but I think it is very Christian to talk about death.  Our culture is unfortunately still not Christian enough to talk about it openly and if we do, death is seen as an end in itself.  Is it?  Christianity teaches us that death is only a passage to better life and there is no fear of death.  Somehow, we do not seem to have taught our Christianity very well.

Due to this, we need to take this discussion sensitively.  There could be a bit of discomfort, particularly among some younger children.  The discomfort could be` so strong that other children could end up picking it up.  While you will need to work out how to deal with it, based on your own level of comfort and the situation with the children, my preference is to deal with it: stop the discussion and get the children to talk about their fears, which is usually what they have heard.  This will be a good opportunity to launch into the planned discussion.  If you do not deal with it immediately, try to ensure that at least the fears of the children with discomfort are dealt with during the planned discussion.

Be sensitive.  Children normally would not experience any loss and mourning until they are old enough or the deceased is close enough to them.  So, while younger children may not feel the loss of an uncle who they have not met, any child of Children Liturgy of the Word age certainly feel the loss of a doting parent.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Stay awake, praying at all times

for the strength to stand with confidence before the Son of Man

Alleluia!

Gospel

In Jesus’ days, belief in resurrection of the dead was not an article of faith.  Some did and some did not and they then to argue a lot about it.  Sadducees were a group of high-profile people who did not and they were found among high priests.  They generally fought (in debates) the Pharisees but were largely unpopular with the people.

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 20:27-38)

Some Sadducees – those who say that there is no resurrection – approached Jesus and they put this question to him, “Master, we have it from Moses in writing that if a man’s married brother dies childless, the man must marry the widow to raise up children for the brother.  Well, then, there were seven brothers.  The first, having marries a wife, died childless.  The second and then the third married the widow.  And the same with all seven, they died leaving no children.  Finally, the woman herself died.  Now, at the resurrection, to which of them will she be wife since she had been married to all seven?”

Jesus replied, “The children of this world take wives and husbands, but those who are judged worthy of a place in the other world and in the resurrection from the dead do not marry because they can no longer die, for they are the same as the angels, and being children of the resurrection they are sons of God.  And Moses himself implies that the dead rise again, in the passage about the bush where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.  Now he is God, not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all men are in fact alive.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Dialogue

It may be a strange time but let’s talk about Easter?  What is painted, hidden, and associated with Easter?  Easter eggs!!  Why do we have Easter eggs?  Look at an egg (it would be good if you have an egg handy).  Is it alive?  No.  But what happens if the mother hen sits on it for 21 days.  It hatches and new life comes out.  Something that looks dead comes alive.  So it is with Jesus on Easter Sunday.  He who looks dead is actually alive.

Jesus says the same thing about seeds.  Does a seed look alive?  (It would be good if you have a seed handy).  Does it move or jump about?  But what happens if a seed is planted in the ground and watered?  It sprouts and new life emerges.

Let’s put that aside for a while.  Has anyone attended a funeral?  Children may not be allowed to attend the funeral but they would have witnessed the stress from the loss and mourning at home.  Ask them about what they see from others.  If they have seen a corpse, let them talk about it.  Let them talk about the sorrow and the negativity that they saw.  If someone had a positive incident to talk about, bring it out and highlight it.

Where do you think people go after they die?  Other than the standard answers about heaven, be prepared for fanciful ideas.  Explain that death is the start of a journey to somewhere else and that other place is a better life for all who have been good.  Get them to imagine what heaven looks like and what happens there.  Older children may be ready to talk about heaven as a state of mind as opposed to a physical place

What do you think happen to the body after death?  Yes, it decays, etc.  Christian doctrine teaches us though that, at the end of time, Jesus will return and all Christians will be resurrected.  This means that we will get our clean and uncorrupted bodies again.  We will all get to live with Jesus in an earthly paradise forever.  Like the egg and seed, bodies of Christians who have died, which look dead now but will come back to life again.

This teaching of death as only a passage is why we celebrate the feast-days of saints on the anniversary of their death, not their birth.  That is their day of glory when the enter paradise, their birthday in heaven so as to speak.

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time

LSW children

Year C

Thirty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

The disadvantaged gets ahead

Points to note

This is the favourite story of a priest I used to work with.  It is because he was short, short like Zacchaeus!  All of us are like that – we try to identify with someone in the Bible story that we hear about, someone like us.  And that’s the key to facilitating with children: getting them to identify with a character in the story and this week Zacchaeus is someone whom children seem to identify well with – because if Jesus turned up, the children would also need to climb a tree to get a glimpse of him.

Liturgy

Acclamation before the Gospel

Alleluia!  Alleluia!

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

Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heavens!

Alleluia!

Gospel

Remind the children how a tax collector is often treated as an outcast of society in Jesus’ times because they work for the Romans, who are foreigners and because they tend to collect more than their due.  Remind the children of the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector in last Sunday’s reading.

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 19:1-10)

Jesus entered Jericho and was going through the town when a man whose name was Zacchaeus made his appearance; he was one of the senior tax collectors and a wealthy man.  He was anxious to see what kind of man Jesus, but he was too short and could not see him for the crowd; so he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to catch a glimpse of Jesus who was to pass that way.  When Jesus reached the spot he looked up and spoke to him: “Zacchaeus, come down.  Hurry, because I must stay at your house today.”  And he hurried down and welcomed him joyfully.  They all complained when they saw what was happening.  “He has gone to stay at a sinner’s house,” they said.  But Zacchaeus stood his ground and said to the Lord, “Look, sir, I am going to give half my property to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody I will pay him back four times the amount.”  And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man too is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Dialogue

How many of you is a younger child in the family?  Do you feel like the elder one gets all the chances?  Get ready for a lot of complaints!!  Get the children to talk about situations where they have been overlooked when going out (because the movie is ‘not for little children’, for instance).  How did they feel about it?  Careful that it doesn’t get to be a gripe session.  Focus on feelings of disappointment, neglect, abandonment or even despair.  How did they respond to the situation?

It may also be a good idea to explore the reaction of the elder siblings to such a situation.  Were they aware that the younger brother or sister was unhappy about it?  Did they do anything about it?  Promise to bring something back, for instance?  Yeah, sure there will be some kids who rejoiced that the younger sibling got their just desserts in being left behind!!

Discuss whether the state of affairs ever last?  How did the younger child feel when they got all the attention again (eg., when everyone got back home), especially when they got some compensation for being left behind (eg., a little gift)?  Happy, satisfied, redeemed. He who laugh last, laugh loudest.

Explain that this was what happened to Zacchaeus.  He was short and never got the best vantage points.  He was probably bullied in school because he was short.  He seems to have been short-changed in life (excuse the pun).  Jesus, however, always had a soft spot for those who are disadvantaged, particularly those who called on his help in the midst of their problem.  Those whom we think are losers are often loved even more by Jesus.  Draw the parallels with our discussion: those whom we think have lost out often end up with a better deal.

Explain also that Zacchaeus was not just short but also disliked by people because of his job.  He was an outcast and has been pretty much a sinner.  Jesus however loved him because he invited Jesus not only into house but also into his heart.  He said sorry and invited Jesus to change his life and Jesus loved him all the more for it.  Similarly, those of us who are in the doghouse because of something wrong we did can often change our fortunes by saying sorry and change over a new leaf.

Help the children to conclude that we should not be looking down on people who seem to have lost out because in losing, they often win Jesus’ heart.

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

LSW children

Year C

Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Images

Bargaining with God

Points to note

The dialogue for this session revolves around leading the children to discuss what they think God owes them as a result of their good works.  Inevitably, the children may already know that God does not owe them anything.  As a child, I knew that but I was a little devious in suggesting to God that the good deed I did that day was not done with any motive but I will leave it up to God how he intends to respond to my good deed!

The idea is that God does not owe us anything and we cannot bargain with God but we try to contrast between what the children think and what we then lead them to realise.  The contrast is, then, between the Pharisee and the tax collector.

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 what a Pharisee is.  They are members of a group within Judaism who believe that salvation lies in being faithful to God by scrupulously following the Law to the letter and that anyone not following the exact wording of the law is condemned.  A tax collector, on the other hand, is treated as an outcast of society because they work for the Romans, who are foreigners and because they tend to collect more than their due.

The Lord be with you.

All:   And with your spirit.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St Luke

All:   Glory to you O Lord

 (Lk 18:9-14)

Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else.  “Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here.  I fast twice a week; I pay my Temple taxes on all I get.”  The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his chest and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”  This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not.  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.

This is the Gospel of the Lord

Dialogue

Have we all done good things at home?  For Mom and Dad.  When we do good things, will Mom and Dad do anything in return for us?  Have we ever had an arrangement with Dad so that he would buy us, say, a bicycle if we pass the exams?  Discuss how parents would ‘owe’ children things if they do good.  Extend the discussion to bargaining with God.  If we do certain good things, what does God owe us?

Discuss the parable again.  Discuss what the Pharisee and the tax collector were thinking.  Ask the children what the Pharisee thought he has done right (look at what he said) and what God owes him for it.  Ask the children what the tax collector thought he has done wrong and how he thinks God will deal with him (not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven).  Spend more time on the reading as there is a lot there that tells us what the Pharisee and the tax collector said.

So, does God owe anything to the Pharisee?  So it is with us: does God owe us anything for all the good things that we have done?  Contrast that with the answers that the children have given to the question at the beginning of the session.

What about the tax collector?  Was God happy with him?  If so, was God happy with him because of the bad things that he had done or was it because he humbled himself and acknowledged it?

Link it to what is expected of us.  Do we think we owe everything to God or that God owes us something.  The thing the Pharisee did wrong was to think that he earned his rights to heaven because of what he did by himself, not that God who has full rights to decide who is saved and who will not, has given him the grace to be saved.  The tax collector who knows he is totally useful without God’s mercy has something that God liked which the Pharisee did not – the awareness that he (the tax collector) is totally reliant on God.