Easter 2007
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Children's Liturgy Sunday April 8th 2007
Easter Day |
| Stations of the Cross |
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Today,
some of the older children wrote the story of Jesus's death and resurrection
from the point of view of Saint John: " I am Saint John. I saw Jesus die on the cross. I felt so sad and sorry. Jesus asked me to look after Mary, his mother. She was in shock, but kept praying to God. We had to quickly put the body of Jesus into a tomb in the rock, because it would soon be the Sabbath. On the evening of the Sabbath, I went with Mary, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea to anoint the body of Jesus, to wrap him in bandages and to put a cloth round his head. On the morning of the next day, I went to the tomb with Peter. Mary of Magdala said the tomb was open. We felt very scared. Then we saw the stone at the door was rolled away. We were completely surprised. I ran forward fastest, but stopped at the door- Peter rushed in. He called me in. The body was gone. The bandages were lying flat on the rock. The cloth for the head was separate. I saw and I believed. Jesus had risen." |
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| The younger children made Easter hats, decorating them with flowers and words telling of Easter and all they had learnt during Lent. A special hat was made for Mrs. Be-done-by-as-you-did, who has changed so much during Lent that she has now become Mrs. Do-as-you-would-be-done-by. |
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Jesus,
you are risen from the dead. That is amazing! Thank you for being amazing. Thank you for rising from the dead. Alleluia, Amen. |
| The children who serve on the altar have worked very hard all week. For each of the Holy Week services and for the Vigil mass for Easter itself, they practised with Stuart and Dean guiding them, to make sure all would go smoothly. We say thank you to them- well done! Here are pictures of one of their rehearsals. You can see them pretending to bring the new light into the church from the flame of the large, Pascal (Easter) candle, which stands for the new life brought to the world through the Resurrection of Jesus. Everybody at the Vigil service lights their own candle from this new fire, so that the darkened chuch gradually grows light as on the first Easter Day- Jesus is the Light of the World. |
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Children's Liturgy Sunday April 15th 2007
| Divine
Mercy Sunday |
Thomas
believed Jesus was risen only when he saw for himself. Jesus said the
people who had not seen him but still believed were truly blessed. We have been thinking about how it is that we believe in Jesus and the New Life. We looked at the way the Bible tells us about him. Sometimes, it works like a poem. We thought about how poems work. We talked about how the teachings of Jesus have been passed down to us by the apostles, followers, people in the Church, saints and ordinary people. We thought about who were the ones who told us about him. Who do we notice because of the way they live? Who makes us want to believe? Then we thought about ourselves. What do we really think about Jesus? Here is our tree which stands for Jesus. |
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| On
the branches, we have written the names of the people who have passed
on to us all we know and believe. The leaves are ourselves, as we think about him. We have put on them our favourite Bible stories, our own prayers, or our thoughts and feelings when we want to be with Jesus. |
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Children's Liturgy Sunday April 22nd 2007
| The
Third Sunday of Easter |
In
today's liturgy, we heard how Jesus filled the fishermen's nets with
fish. Seven of the apostles had been fishing for some time, without catching anything, until Jesus appeared on the shore, telling them to cast their nets on the opposite side of the boat. Saint John tells us that they then caught ONE HUNDRED and FIFTY THREE fish! We saw last week that the Bible is often written in the style of a poem, where words and numbers have hidden or extra meaning. This story is full of numbers which have extra meaning. Here, if you divide the number of fish caught by the number of apostles present, they would each have 21 with six fish left over. In the times when the Bible was written, the middle-eastern peoples would realise that the number 6 did not fit, because they would look for the number 7, which had special meaning. Then they would realise that the seventh fish is also in the story; Saint John goes on to say that Jesus was already cooking a fish on a fire on the beach. 7 and 21 were numbers which told of something very important. |
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| Jesus
is encouraging the apostles to go out to the whole world to 'catch' people
by telling them about him. Saint Jerome says that 153 is the total number of kinds of fish known about at the time this Gospel was written. Jesus helps the apostles catch ALL fish...in other words he wants to be known to ALL peoples. |
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| We have made and decorated our own fish and written prayers thanking Jesus for all the times when he is there with us. |
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Children's Liturgy Sunday April 29th 2007
| JESUS
the GOOD SHEPHERD |
Today
in our liturgy, we learnt about Jesus's promise that he knows each one
of us and that he will always be there for us |
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| We made sheep masks and followed one child dressed as a shepherd as we returned into church. |
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Children's Liturgy Sunday May 6th 2007
| The
Fifth Sunday of Easter |
Today
our liturgy was led by Sister Maura, who lives in Australia, but is
visiting her family in the parish at the moment. Sister Maura told us
how to say Good Morning in the Aboriginal language and in Gaelic and
asked if we knew any other languages. Someone remembered "Buenos
dias" from their Spanish.We learnt how to make the sign of the
cross in Gaelic. In today's Gospel Jesus says, "Love one another as I have loved you". We thought about the ways in which we can show love. Sister Maura told us the story of a child who always took a comforting toy to school with them. One day, a new child arrived. She was very frightened and began to cry, at which the first child gave her their special toy to keep. That was a sign of great love. The other day, Sister Maura struggled to lift her mother's wheelchair on to the bus. The driver left his seat to help her- there was another way to show love. Sister Maura noticed a colourful card in a shop- it could have been a message from God to us all, because it said, " For the one I love, With all my love." She told us to look out for messages such as this all around us. |
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| We
also think about Mary during the month of May. Sister Maura set up a little altar to Mary with a blue cloth, because blue is a colour often associated with Mary. She also brought a white cloth which belonged to her Mum. This was made specially for the Queen's Silver Jubilee! Mary is often painted wearing blue and white. Sister Maura brought a picture of Mary holding the baby Jesus which is sometimes known as Our Lady of Ireland, or Mary of the Way. |
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Sister put a large rosary on the altar. We said a number of Hail Marys for different people: the helpers,our families and friends. 'Hail Mary, full of grace .The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen' Rosary beads have 5 groups of 10 beads close together, so people can remember to say 10 Hail Marys. In between each group is one bead on its own, to remind us to say an 'Our Father'. At each group of 'Hail Marys', we can think about someone or we can think about an event in Mary's life, which is called a 'Mystery'. Next week, we will look at the Mysteries...do you know what they are? |
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| Sister Maura lit a candle and explained that the flame points straight up, which reminds us our prayers are going straight to God. |
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| We said a prayer for a little girl called Maddy, who is missing from her holiday home. |
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Then we sang a song about God's love:
'God loves you, and I love you, |
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| Jesus, I feel your love for me. Help me to share it with everyone I meet. Amen. |
Children's Liturgy Sunday May 13th 2007
| The
Sixth Sunday of Easter |
On
Thursday this week, we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus, when he blessed
his friends, before he went back to God. The followers could not see
him any more, but they were not sad. They were joyful, because they
knew he was alive and would still be able to help them. |
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| The
Ascension is the second Glorious Mystery of the Rosary. Last week, we
looked at how we pray the Rosary. The groups of ten beads on a rosary
remind us of a particular event in the life of Mary or Jesus. We say ten
'Hail Marys' as we think of what happened or pray for someone we want
to help. Then we say an 'Our Father' and a 'Glory be'. We do all of this
five times for each Mystery. The five Glorious Mysteries are: The Resurrection; The Ascension; The Descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles; The Assumption of Mary; The Crowning of Mary in Heaven. Here is our pond. |
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It is full of little bugs. Every so often, one climbs a reed and the others cannot see where it has gone. |
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| They agree it would be a good idea if the next one to go comes back to tell the others what has happened. |
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| The next bug climbs a reed, but it finds it has become a beautiful, flying insect. When it tries to go back to tell the others, it hits the surface of the water and can't get in. But it doesn't mind, because it can still see its friends and carries on loving them. |
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| Because
it is so wonderful to be free in the air, it is happy. It is in a wonderful place. It knows its friends will one day be there, too. All is well. |
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We talked about people or pets we love who have died and are in Heaven. We made dragon flies for each one of them, with their names on, after we put little bugs in the pond to stand for us. The dragon flies are in Heaven. |
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| The youngest children made a pond with bugs and dragonflies from 'Play Doh'. |
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| We made extra dragon flies, so anyone in church today can write on the name of someone they love who has died and add them to our pond after mass. |
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| Here is someone's Dad adding a name. |
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Children's Liturgy Sunday May 20th 2007
| Ascension
Sunday |
We heard
the story of the last time that Jesus was seen by his friends. Then
he went back to his father. |
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We
praise the Lord, |
Children's Liturgy Sunday May 27th 2007
| PENTECOST |
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| We
need the candles we have made today, just as we need Jesus in our lives
to make us strong. We welcome the Holy Spirit into our hearts and minds, so that we are filled with the gifts of forgiveness, love and understanding. |
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Children's Liturgy Sunday June the 3rd 2007
| Holy
Trinity Sunday |
Trinity means three in
one. We believe in 'Three Persons in One God', we say in our Creed.
We talk about God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. This
is really three ways of thinking about God. The Holy Trinity is about
the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Of
course, this is all about love! Here is a poem called 'Trinity' written by a lady called Mary who lives in our parish. |
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| And here are the three parts separately: |
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| Saint Patrick is said to have explained the Trinity by using a shamrock leaf, which has three parts, but is still one leaf. |
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| God wants us to relate to him as we would relate to another person, so that we really know him and he is not a far-off idea in our heads. |
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| We can think of the Holy Spirit as the love flowing between the Father and the Son, which is also the energy of love that can come alive in us. |
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| Congratulations to NIAMH who made her FIRST HOLY COMMUNION today! |
Children's Liturgy Sunday June 10th 2007
| CORPUS
CHRISTI |
Corpus
Christi means the Body of Christ. We think about the wonderful gift
God gives to us every time we receive the Communion bread. He offers
himself to us at every mass, as the bread is consecrated and becomes
the Body of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we hardly notice, sometimes we might
receive it without really thinking about it; sometimes we might be angry
with God and not want it- but still God comes in the form of Jesus'
body. If we really think about it we rejoice and are full of wonder.
It can even feel quite frightening. |
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| In
today's Gospel, Jesus shared a meal with friends and with a huge crowd
of people. It was only possible because someone was happy to share their meal and because Jesus blessed the picnic lunch. |
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Children's Liturgy Sunday June 17th 2007
| FATHERS'
DAY |
Today
is Fathers' Day. We made cards for our Dads or Thank-you cards for someone
else who looks after us. |
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| In today's Gospel, Saint Luke tells us how Jesus forgave the weeping woman who was so sorrowful for all the wrong things she had done. We talk about how our fathers forgive us when we do wrong. |
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Children's Liturgy Sunday June 24th 2007
| The
Birthday of Saint JOHN the BAPTIST
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Happy
Birthday to Saint John the Baptist! We celebrate the birthdays of only three people in the church's year: the birth of Jesus, of Mary, his mother and the birth of John the Baptist. We first hear about John in the Gospel of Saint Luke. John's mother, Elizabeth, longed for a child, but thought she would never have children, as she was too old. Saint Luke tells us that the angel who told Mary she herself was going to have a baby, also told her that Elizabeth would have a son very soon. Elizabeth was related to Mary. Mary set out to visit Elizabeth and Saint Luke says that when she arrived, the baby inside Elizabeth jumped for joy on hearing Mary's voice. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, knowing that Mary has been blessed by God. When he grew up, John spent time living in the desert.Then he began preaching to the people, telling them not to do wrong any more. He knew he was preparing the way for someone greater than himself, someone sent by God to save the people. He baptised people in the river. One day, Jesus came to be baptised.. Saint Luke says that at that moment, the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus, in the shape of a dove and a voice was heard saying that Jesus was God's son. That moment was the beginning of Jesus's teaching, bringing people to God. John the Baptist had baptised people with water. His teaching told people not to sin. Now a new teaching had begun; Jesus told people to believe that God loved them. Because of Jesus, when we are baptised, we receive the Holy Spirit, which joins us to God. Because of this, Jesus tells his followers that John was the greatest person born, but in the kindom of God, everyone would be greater than John. That was a way of explaining that all those baptised in the new way would be joined to God. That means you and me! Aren't we Lucky! Here is a picture of John baptising Jesus- but does it remind you of the baby John leaping inside his mother as well? |
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| Have
you any pictures of your Baptism? We are usually baptised in church now.
Here is a child in our parish being baptised. She looks as though she
can see the jug of water which Fr. John is about to pour over her head.
Do you think she looks happy, or perhaps she is wondering if the water
is cold! If you were older when you were baptised, perhaps you can remember
it. Would you like to tell us about it? You do not have to log on to speak to us; just click on 'Leave comment' at the bottom of this page. |
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