Advent 2008

Untitled Document
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday November 30th 2008

The FIRST SUNDAY of ADVENT
 
'Advent' means 'coming' or 'arrival'. There are four Sundays in Advent, the time of the year when we eagerly wait to welcome the birth of Jesus at Christmas.
There are lots of distractions in preparing for Christmas, especially in the giving and receiving of presents. One way to get ready for this wonderful event is to think about how we give ourselves to others, which is the most important kind of giving. If we were travelling to Bethlehem, all Jesus would want us to take is a heart full of love.
To help us remember this, we are making a different kind of crib this year. We are calling our Advent project 'The Second Nowell', because it will be made of things being used for the second time around. No doubt you have heard of the carol, 'The First Nowell'! ('Nowell' means a song.)
We asked people in the parish to help us collect materials we could use again, such as plastic bottles, cardboard boxes and waste pieces of cloth. We painted the bottles with left-over paint.
We made the big boxes into a stable. Then we made the bottles into models of us. We could be ourselves or any character from the Christmas story, or any animal coming to the manger.
We asked the people of the parish if they wanted to come with us to Bethlehem. If they wanted us to make a model of them, we asked them to give a small donation to the Mother of Peace Community in Zimbabwe, who care for children who have lost their parents because of the AIDS epidemic.
Father David Everitt, who spent some time in our parish, before going out to Zimbabwe to work with people who have leprosy and at Mother of Peace, says that there is great hunger. People in the surrounding area are walking for four or five days without food to ask for something to eat at the Community. Now there is a cholera epidemic in the country.
There are shortages of the most basic of goods, so a little help goes a long way.
If members of our parish give through our liturgy team, we give them a Christmas card explaining all of this.
Would you like to come to Bethlehem with us to help?
Mary is coming as Mary; Bob is coming as Joseph; Mandy wanted to come as an angel.
Father John was the first to arrive as himself- you can also see Lynn coming along as a camel.
Father David wanted to come as a lion, to remind everyone of Africa. Margaret wanted to arrive as a sheep. She often reads in church, so she kept her glasses on.
In this shot, you can see the unmistakeable figure of Maggs, complete with spiked red hair, arriving in the hayloft with a child who seems to have changed into Father Christmas!
And here you can see all the children who have made the journey so far- some didn't quite get dressed in time, but will no doubt be ready by next week.
We remember the people of the world who actually live on rubbish dumps, searching for food; and the children whose only toys are made from bits of scrap.
We pray for eveyone who would be delighted to find what we throw away every day. Amen.
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday December 7th 2008

The SECOND SUNDAY of ADVENT
 
 
"The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard will lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion cub will feed together
and a little child will lead them...
Like cattle, the lion will eat hay."

These words come from Isaiah 11, a reading that we heard earlier in Advent. The prophet tells how, in God's time, everyone will look after each other, work together and share, and there will be no more killing.
This is a picture which is being created in our crib, as the animals get together with the people, all waiting for the baby, Jesus. We even have a lion eating the hay.
We talked about what is happening in Zimbabwe at the moment, In Harare the hospitals are closed, because it is impossible for the doctors to work. The pay is not worth anything because the value of money has gone down so much. It costs the nurses more to travel to work than they receive in wages.
The water supplies are dirty. People are desperate, whilst there is a cholera epidemic.

We pray for all the countries of the world where there is suffering.
Meanwhile, in making our crib, we are raising money for Mother of Peace Community in Zimbabwe, who look after AIDS orphans.

As we take ourselves to Bethlehem, lots of people of the parish are asking to come to our crib, sometimes in very surprising forms.
Ant wanted to come as a pig!
Alison has come as music, complete with organ and the heavenly choir.
The ladies from the charity shop are coming as stars.
There are beautiful angels- here are Ann the angel and Angel the angel.
There is a sumptuous king, otherwise known as John, bringing riches for Jesus, and another king sent by Enya's Grandma.There is a Graceful angel. Dave (8th from right and looking a bit like a clown) has come as himself.
Cyril has come as a row of robins, whilst Manjit has come as Mmmmmmmanjit, the sheep.
In this picture, you can see Stuart, who has come as a donkey, with a cross on his back- makes a change from carrying it into church in the procession- and Harry, who is Amos the shepherd- he is standing next to Mary, with a lamb tucked under his arm- another present for Jesus.
As we all come together in lots of shapes and sizes to greet Jesus, we pray for our parish, too. May we all become more and more loving, ever more welcoming to each other and the World. Amen
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday December 14th 2008

The Third SUNDAY of ADVENT
Today was everyon'e final chance to take last- minute flights with us to the Holy Land.

We had some very strange passengers this week:
Somebody wanted to go as 'A Typical Man'!
Somebody wanted to go as Cinderella!
Somebody wanted to go as an astronaut.Here you can see them after arrival, next to June, who went as an angel. John said it would be the only time she would be one!
Somebody wanted to go as a shepherdess. As you can see, she is carrying twice as much as the male shepherds.
Michael went as a shepherd; David went as an ox; Ellen went as a robin;somebody wanted to go as a wise woman; Anita went as an angel- Harry says she is one!
The best recycling of all is the recycling of God's love, as God is sending love to us at Christmas in the little child, Jesus. We pray for all the peoples of the world as we send our love and hope to Zimbabwe. May we care about other people and the world we share. Amen
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday December 21st 2008

The Fourth Sunday in ADVENT and Christmas Eve Mass for Children 2008
Today the last departures for Bethlehem took off during our Sunday mass. Among the final guests who went with us to the manger were:
Jackson, who went as a musical King, playing the violin;
Matthew, who went as himself, playing the guitar for us as usual;
Mary and Mike, who went as a gardener with tools-note the hat- have you seen it before?
Michael and Olenka and family, who went as a shepherd with sheep;
Watch this space to see how much money the children have raised for Mother of Peace in Zimbabwe- you will be surprised, as we have been. We hoped to reach £50 but people have been very generous and we have much, much more. Someone asked for donations to be given instead of a birthday present; donations have been given as Christmas presents- and some people have just given .
 
Christmas Eve Mass for children-
at last baby Jesus arrived in our manger! He was carried in to church by two of our children.
Our Christmas Prayer.
Jesus, our Saviour, we thank you today
for loving us all
in a marvellous way!

For being our friend
and coming to earth
to lie in a manger
-such a wonderful
birth!

With Mary and Joseph,
the ox and the ass,
and the shepherds
outside
with the sheep on the grass.

At Christmas we
thank you
in the songs that we
sing
for all that you give
us
and the joys that
you bring!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday January 4th 2009

The Feast of the EPIPHANY
The word, epiphany, means a showing forth. Today, we think about the way the baby, Jesus, is shown to the world as God's Son, our King and Saviour. Saint Matthew ( 2: 1-12) explains this by telling us that three Wise Men came to visit Jesus after he was born in Bethlehem. Matthew writes about the visit in a way which reminds us of the words of the prophet, Isaiah, in the Old Testament (Isaiah 60: 1-6). Isaiah had a vision of all human beings at last being able to see God's perfect light.Everyone would be filled with joy. He talks about people coming from far away to bring gold and incense to Jerusalem. At the time, Jerusalem was only recently being rebuilt from ruins. Gold is a gift for a king and incense a gift for God, as it shows the way prayers rise to God in Heaven.
Matthew tells us the gifts are brought to Bethlehem, where Jesus has just been born. He adds a third gift, brought by the Wise Men- myrrh, a strange gift for a baby, as it is an ointment, used on the bodies of those who have died. It reminds us that one day, Jesus will die on the cross for us.

When we returned into church, we carried gift boxes which stood for the presents the Wise Men took.
We thought about what we ourselves would like to take for Jesus. We made cards to explain this and took the cards to the crib we created during Advent.
We also took our Christmas gift for the AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe who are looked after at the Mother of Peace Community. By sponsoring us to make crib figures from recycled materials, the people of our parish and beyond have helped us to raise over £580- the final figure is £586!
All the children present signed a giant cheque.
 

Children's Liturgy, Sunday January 11th 2009

The BAPTISM of OUR LORD
Baptism is a New Creation.
 
 
In the Book of Genesis, when the writer is imagining the beginning of Creation, the Spirit of God hovers over the waters. Out of shapeless chaos (the Hebrew word for this is Tohu Bohu), the world is formed.
Today we hear about the Spirit, in the shape of a dove, again hovering over water- this time at the baptism of Jesus.
Jesus is baptised by John the Baptist in the river Jordan (Mark 1:7-11). God's voice is heard, saying Jesus was the Son of God.

Baptism means "plunging". In the time of Jesus, people were plunged right under the water when they were baptised. They thought that, just as water made you clean, they could leave behind what they had done wrong and make a new start in life.
We know that water can also be dangerous- we could drown or be swept away by floods. When Jesus goes beneath the surface and rises up out of the river again, we are reminded that one day, he will die and rise to life again because he loves us- to give us New Life. We, too, can be with God in glory.

The most important thing to remember about water is that it gives life to everything; nothing would be alive without it. God has given us life forever. Today, when we are baptised, the water is usually poured over our heads, but it reminds everyone God gives us Love and Life. God gives us life when we begin to grow in our mother's womb and will never take away life and love, even after we die. We celebrate the New Life at baptism.
 
 
We saw pictures of Father John baptising one of us and we talked about the meaning of the water, the oils and candles and the promises that are made. We made water drop badges with the names given to us when we were bapitised.

The first thing to happen is that the priest welcomes the child and makes the sign of the cross on the child's forehead to show they belong to God.
At baptism, we begin the journey of learning to love and be with God. We begin to live and love as Jesus lived and loved.
To remind us that God created everything and will never take the New Life from us, we made Tohu Bohu bottles. In the New Creation God holds us, safe.
We experimented to find out which objects floated in water and we put these into our bottles, which were then filled with water.
 
We made figures which floated, out of pegs weighted at the base with "blutac".We could turn the bottles upside down, but the figures and all that was in the bottles would always come to the top.
If you look closely, you can see the words, "love" and "life", floating on the water.
Finally, on top of the bottles, we placed a dove to remind us of the Spirit of God.
 

Dear God,
Thank you for making me and wanting me to share your life forever.

Amen

Children's Liturgy Sunday, January 18th 2009.

January 18th 2009
In today's Gospel (John 1:35-42), Simon and his brother, Andrew, two fishermen, begin to follow Jesus.
We talked about ways in which we can follow Jesus and get to know him, so that we can love Jesus more deeply.
Sometimes, it is hard to follow in Jesus' footsteps- when we have to face difficulties in our lives.
It's at these times we look to Jesus to help us.
During the week, we received this letter to the children (and grown-ups) of St. Joseph's Liturgy.
Here are some of our children with the crib we made.
 

And here is another look at the wonderful gathering at the manger. Thank you everyone who supported us to enable to achieve the end result!

Children's Liturgy Sunday January 25th 2009

January 25th 2009
In today's Gospel (Mark 1: 14-20), Jesus begins to preach the Good News. He asks people to see and believe that the time of getting ready is over and now God will show what God's Kingdom will really mean.
Jesus asks Simon, Andrew, James and John, who are fishermen, to leave their nets and follow him, saying he will make them fishers of men. They will pass on to others God's plan for the world.
If you are a fish in God's net, what sort of fish will you be?
You could print off this picture and colour it- will it be brightly coloured, quiet, easily hidden, patterned?
We are all different, but we can serve God in our own ways.
Recently, Frankie has been to Malta with Father John's ecumenical pilgrimage. Ecumenical means belonging to all the Christian Churches in the world. Lots of different parishes from Humberstone were invited.
Frankie saw some very unusual fish in a market in Malta.
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday February 1st 2009

February 1st 2009
Today we heard how Jesus spent his time at the beginning of his ministry. He taught in the synagogues and healed people. In those days people sometimes thought that illness was caused by demons, which had to be cast out of the body.

Remember those recycled, plastic, painted bottles which we used to make our Christmas crib? Well, we had some left over, so our liturgy leaders asked the children to turn them into medicine bottles. We thought about the things we would like to put into them to make someone ill feel better.

There were a great number of suggested ingredients, some seeming more appropriate than others. Our prescriptions were read out to the congregation, who found some amusing:
sunshine;
fresh air;
exercise;
flowers;
love;
hugs;
kisses;
friendship;
grapes;
hot chocolate;
beer;
wine;
t.v.;
cup of tea;
breakfast in bed;
magazines and books;
chocolates;
smiles.

Children's Liturgy Sunday February 8th 2009

February 8th 2009
In today's Gospel (Mark1: 29-39), Jesus continues to heal the sick. Last week, we chose things to put in our medicine bottles to help make people better. This week, we thought how we could help others be well by letting them tell us how they feel.

We don't feel well if we don't feel safe. Sometimes, we make other people hide their true feelings by ganging up on them, making fun of them, making them feel silly or frightened. We make them put on a "brave front".We might make them feel they have to look like this-
when they feel like this-
 
We thought how we can let others be truly themselves, not what we want them to be.
We made "brave fronts" and "real" people using two sides of the same paper bag.
 
 

Dear God,
You made me and let me be;
please help me let other people be.
Amen

We also heard how Jesus often slipped away to spend some quiet time talking to God.

This week, we received a lovely thank you card from Linda Edwards, who is secretary in London to the Mother of Peace Community:
Dear Children and Parishioners of St. Joseph's Church, Leicester,

Thank you so very much for your kind donation of £586 to Mother of Peace. Father David sent me details of how you raised the money; I thought this was very imaginative and creative. The stories of how memories were evoked using recycled scraps of material were very moving and it sounds like it was a very successful project for your parish as a whole.

As Father David will have told you, this amount of money goes a very long way in Zimbabwe. Despite the difficulties in Zimbabwe, Mother of Peace is able to carry on with its work through the support it receives from its friends overseas. It is particularly wonderful when children are able to understand the needs of others and especially help other children.

We are hoping and praying for a brighter future for Zimbabwe in 2009.

Warm regards,
Linda Edwards. (Secretary)
These smiles look genuinely happy, don't they.

On Wednesday, we have a world day of prayer for the sick. It is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. As you may know, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, appeared to a young girl named Bernadette in Lourdes in 1858 and asked that the sick be taken there in processions. Here is a picture of a procession of the sick in Lourdes during Frankie's visit last Autumn, just before Pope Benedict 16th visited Lourdes. Sick people are honoured and treated as important in Lourdes, something we often forget in our busy everyday lives.
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday February 15th 2009

February 15th 2009


In our liturgy today, we listened to the Gospel - Mark1 :40-45- and heard how Jesus changed one man's life by curing him of leprosy.

We also listened to a story about the work of a priest called Damien, who worked to make life easier for people with leprosy in Hawaii.

On our hands, we have written the names of people who help us and how they help us.
We also wrote down ways we can help others.
 

Children's Liturgy Sunday February 22nd 2009

February 22nd 2009


In today's Gospel (Mark 2: 1-12), Jesus cures the paralysed man because of the faith of his friends.( Being paralysed means not being able to move a part of the body. This man could not walk.) But Jesus makes sure the man knows that God loves him, by telling him he is forgiven. In those times, people thought there was a connection between being ill and having done something wrong, so the man would immediately feel better to hear that God forgave him.

There is no room in the house to get near Jesus, so the man's friends take him on to the roof, make a hole and lower him down to Jesus inside.

We are sometimes paralysed - we stop ourselves realising just how much we are loved and how much joy we can share with other people. We hold on to worries and fears. This can stop us moving on in life and love.

Maybe we can be stretcher-bearers for our own hearts as we carry ourselves to God at Communion time. Our faith keeps us going to meet God.

Today we made daffodils out of Blu-Tac Yellow, to help raise money for the Marie Curie Cancer Care Charity. The daffodils will be used at an event in London.
 

We pray for everyone who is ill. We don't need to make the church burst by bringing them all to St. Joseph's. We can just take them in our minds to God's love.

Get Well Prayer.
May the Lord be close to you
with his healing touch;

May his love surround you
to revive your spirit;

May his goodness shine upon you
to brighten your day;

May his peace dwell within you
to give you comfort;

May his joy uplift you
to lighten your way.
Amen