Advent 2007

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Children's Liturgy Sunday December 2nd 2007

Fifth Sunday of Lent 2007
The First Sunday of ADVENT
Christmas is coming,
the church is glad to sing,
and let the Advent candles
brightly burn in a ring.

The first is for God's promise
to put the wrong things right,
and bring to earth's darkness
the hope of love and light.

The second for the prophets,
who said that Christ would come
with good news for many
and angry words for some.

The third is for the Baptist,
who cried," Prepare the way,
Be ready for Jesus,
both this and every day".

The fourth is for the Virgin,
who mothered God's own son,
and sang how God's justice
was meant for everyone.

Today we lit the first candle on the Advent wreath and sang this hymn.
During Advent, we are going to send our love and peace to each continent of the world.

In our liturgy, we heard about how people celebrate Christmas in other parts of Europe. We heard about traditions in some of the countries and how to say 'Merry Christmas' in different languages.
On our decorations, we wrote our prayers for the world this Christmas. We hung them on the tree in church.
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday 9th December 2007

1st july 2007
The SECOND SUNDAY in ADVENT

Yesterday , 8th December, was the Feast of the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, which occurs nine months before we celebrate the birthday of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. We call Mary IMMACULATE because we think of her as being without sin. We are all born into a world where there is sin. At some point in the history of the world somebody committed the first sin. The Bible puts the idea into a story -the story of Adam and Eve. Adama means 'from the soil' and we get the name Adam from that. We are all made of soil; we all eat the things that grow from the soil.


When we are born, we have done nothing wrong, but we say we are born into sin because sin already exists in the world. We have no blame ourselves. Then at some time in each of our lives, we do something wrong, knowing about it, for the first time.
When we think of Mary, though, because God chose her to give birth to Jesus, the Son of God, we know she must have been a good woman and she never committed a sin of her own. So we call her IMMACULATE.


On the 8th December, we think of the beginnings of her life in her mother's womb.

On our journey through Advent, this week, we looked at how people celebrate Christmas in South America,.

In Rio, Summer begins just before Christmas Eve. Our beach scene shows this.

In Columbia, as in most countries, Christmas is a time for family get-togethers- going to church and sharing a meal. Christmas day is the first day of celebrations , with lots of parades such as a Classic Car show, Cabellero Horse Parade and a Parade of Flowers.

We all need a little encouragement in life, especially when faced with uncertain times. Mary was encouraged to trust and not be afraid for the future. Lord, help us to trust in you and not be afraid , not to despair for our world. You will not leave it untended. Lord, help us to feel encouragement today. Amen.
FELIZ NAVIDAD to all.
We send our peace to America.
 
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday December 16th 2007.

1st july 2007
Father David returned from Zimbabwe a short time ago. He has spent some time with the Mother of Peace Community, where he helped to look after orphaned children. He told us they would rest against his legs as he fed them porridge. He told us how they love to say a little prayer, marking off the words on the fingers of each hand;
'God loves me very MUCH!
I love God very MUCH!'
(They delight in emphasising the word, 'MUCH'.
People greet each other with small hand claps, which we practised.
Pauline and Nyasha, her friend, told us how they would spend Christmas in Zimbabwe, where it would now be bright and sunny. They would be able to stay outside with their friends until 5 o'clock. They would light splendid bonfires and sit round talking to each other after exchanging presents. The older people would tell folk tales.
As some of us made a banner which said 'Happy Christmas' in the Shona language, others made paper palm leaves to decorate our African circle.
We made shakers out of empty pop bottles and cartons, filled with lentils and decorated with stickers or beads. We hung some on our Christmas tree back in church. We shook the shakers as we walked back into church, listening to David Essex singing 'Africa, you shine your light'.
Thank you, Father David, Pauline and Nyasha for sharing our liturgy.
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday 23rd December 2007

1st july 2007
The FOURTH Sunday in ADVENT.
Today we completed our world tour by sending our love and peace to the countries of Asia. We found out about Christmas customs and made decorations to go on to our Christmas tree. As people in China decorate trees with lanterns, we made paper lanterns. We also wrote prayers for the people of Asia on to our candle decorations.
 
Our World decorations are hanging on the pillars in church behind the altar. Here you can see Maggs and Steve hanging them. Our church is almost ready for Christmas. The flowers are beautiful- arranged by Mary, who can be seen in our 'Baffling Bell story' (see left column!) The crib is in place- all that is missing is the baby, Jesus.
 
We had our first Children's Liturgy Christmas party this Advent. Here is our special guest- more pictures will follow shortly!
 

24th December 2007 Christmas Eve Mass

1st july 2007
Children's Liturgy Christmas Mass.
Christ is among us
The candles in the ring
remind us that our Saviour
will light up everything.
At last Christmas is here! The children process into church, some of them dressed as characters from the Christmas story. They carry stars which bear the words, 'Happy Christmas' in different languages, so that we can remember all the countries we have been thinking about during Advent. Prayers will be said for all children of the world.
 
Children carry the figure of the baby, Jesus, to place him in the manger.
Father John explains to us why it is we make up our cribs in this way. We know that Mary and Joseph, the baby's foster-father, are in Bethlehem, where Jesus is born. Saint Luke writes about the shepherds visiting the Holy Family probably because one shepherd stands for Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation; one stands for Moses, the most important of the prophets; and one shepherd stands for David, the greatest Jewish king. Making them present at Jesus' birth reminds everyone that the baby comes to make sense of what has gone before in the history of the Jews.
It was Saint Francis who had the idea to create the first crib, so that everyone would remember the story. He decided to include the ox and the ass, because he liked animals. Also, he knew that in the book of Isaiah, the Bible tells us about the ox and ass praising God.
 
We say prayers for the Holy Land, especially for peace after the long struggle, between the Jewish and the Arab people who live there. The Jewish people call the Holy land Israel; the Arab peoples call the Holy land Palestine. We have been learning the words for peace in several languages. A Jewish person would say,'SHALOM'- and here is a poem for peace written by a child of the Holy Land:
MY SHALOM, MY PEACE.
My Shalom, my Peace, is hidden in every broad smile.
In every cheerful look-
My Shalom, my Peace.
It smiles at me, this Shalom of mine,
From the laughing blue eyes of a child,
From children playing in the streets,
It winks at me, my Shalom, my Peace,
And it is always round, this Shalom of mine,
Like Hope which to the heart is bound,
This Peace of mine everywhere, always will be found.

Margit Cohn, aged 15, Ashdod.
The children of Saint Joseph's send their love and peace to the Holy Land.
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday January 6th 2008

1st july 2007
The Feast of the EPIPHANY
'Epiphany' means a showing forth of something. Today we celebrate the 'showing' of the baby, Jesus, to the three Wise Men. They bring him presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh: gold, a gift fit for a king; frankincense which is offered to God, because , when it is burned, the smoke rises as if to Heaven; and myrrh, which is used like a cream on the bodies of those who have died. We remember that Jesus is our King; he is God's Son; and our Saviour, who dies on the Cross.
Three boys dressed as kings, or Wise Men, to process back into church.
We also remember that the most important 'gift' the Wise Men took to Jesus was their adoration. We wonder what we would take to him. We wrote our ideas in the form of letters, which we took to the manger.
What can I give him,
poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb;
if I were a wise man
I would do my part;
yet what can I give him-
give my heart.
(Christina Rossetti)
A reminder of our Christmas party- more pictures can be seen by clicking on the column on the left of the screen.
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday January 13th 2008

1st july 2007
Today, we re-enacted a baptism, to remind us what happens when a child is baptised and joins God's family. When we were baptised, we became part of the family of the church.
We coloured candles, which we are going to take home, so we will remember to find out the date on which we were baptised.
We all signed our names around the picture of one big candle.
 
Lord Jesus,
You were baptised and God said you were his Son.
Thank you for sharing your life with us in our own baptism.
Help us grow strong in faith and love, and be worthy of the name, Christian.
Amen

Here is a picture of Jesus being baptised by John the Baptist.
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday January 20th 2008

1st july 2007
In today's Gospel (John 1:29-34), we hear that, when John the Baptist met Jesus again, he saw a sign like a dove from heaven. This showed Jesus had come to baptise with the Spirit. The new baptism, brought by Jesus, would make it possible for everyone to be joined together in God's life.

Saint Paul says wonderful changes are possible, because everyone can share this life, if only we realise what is really important and do not argue with each other.
We cannot see the Spirit, but we can see the changes the Spirit can make.
We made doves, some small that we could take home, and some large, which had lots of textures, because we are all different and can find new life and show it in many different ways. We hung a large dove near the baptismal font.
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday January 27th 2008

1st july 2007
Today we heard the story of how Jesus called the first disciples to follow him. (Matthew 4: 12-23)
The brothers, Simon ( called Peter ) and Andrew were fishing in the lake of Galilee, when Jesus asked them to help him fish for people instead. They answered his call straight away, leaving their nets.
Soon after, Jesus saw two other brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, mending their nets with their father. As soon as Jesus asked them, they also left their nets to follow him, as he began his teaching around Galilee.

We thought about who we would like to follow- who in our lives sets a good example. We made fish, on which we wrote the name of someone who helps us follow the teachings of Jesus. We stuck our fish on to some blue material, to represent the sea.

Children's Liturgy Sunday February 3rd 2008

1st july 2007
Today, we heard the Gospel story (Matthew 5:1-12) of how Jesus told people to be truly happy. Happiness would follow when they realised that God was with them now, in their need and love for other people.
Some children sorted out pictures, to find examples of how some people think we can be made happy. They found examples of living happily in the way which Jesus taught us.
Other children drew pictures of the happiness they had found with the people in their lives.