Advent 2009
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Children's Liturgy Sunday, November 29th 2009.
November 29th 2009. |
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'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. It is important to remember what Jesus' birth really means, especially when we can get caught up in lots of other Christmas customs such as the giving of presents and parties. Jesus came to show us that God loves us. We can enjoy this by loving other people. We might like to remember that some do not have all the things we take for granted to make our lives comfortable. |
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Click Here to download a larger version of the Advent Calendar Above you can see an Advent calendar which explains to families how
they might like to save money during Advent in order to give a gift
to the people of Africa. The calendar was produced by INTERCARE, a
medical aid organisation. You can read more about them by logging
on to www.intercare.org.uk |
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| Our own 'Wishing Tree' project will raise money
for Mother of Peace Community in Zimbabwe. Please click on 'Mother of
Peace' at the side of this page to find out more about them. We have placed a beautiful tree in the narthex of our church and we are going to decorate it week by week. We have three themes. This week, we are making candles on the theme, 'Light a candle for...' |
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| We hope people will feel we will join their prayers for their loved ones. |
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| We have also set up again our 'Second Nowell' crib, which we made last Advent from recycled materials. You can visit the crib in the St. Joseph chapel of our church. People have already asked us to make extra figures, so they can take more friends and family to Bethlehem via our crib! They are making donations for Mother of Peace, too. |
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Children's Liturgy Sunday December 6th 2009.
The Second SUNDAY of ADVENT. The CHILDREN'S MASS |
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Today all of our readings,
prayers and music were given by our children. The picture above was given to Fr. John a few years ago as a Christmas card. Today, it was at the top of our order of service sheets. You might spot the children further down this page, in different costumes- or the costumes on somebody else. Sorry for the quality of the shots, but there was something wrong with Frankie's camera! |
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The people of the parish are asking for prayers via our Christmas
wishing tree. So far, we have raised £60 for Mother of Peace. |
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| Our children have formed a band and played
for the first time at church today, with some adults helping, all lead
by Alison. So far, we have three child recorder players/percussionists, an oboe player, a cellist and adults who help, playing the recorder and clarinet. The choir sat behind us to support us. A great time was had by all. |
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| We are also still receiving requests for members of the parish to travel to Bethlehem via our crib. |
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| We have produced some Christmas cards from the pictures of the crib last year. |
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Dear God, Help us to give you hearts full of love this Christmas. Amen |
Children's Liturgy Sunday December 13th 2009.
The THIRD SUNDAY of ADVENT. |
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| To Make Our ANGELS:
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| Next Saturday, we will hold our Christmas party- watch out for pictures soon! |
Children's Liturgy Sunday December 20th 2009.
The FOURTH SUNDAY of ADVENT. |
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| Today more angels have come to our
crib. Stephanie has sent Jeremy and Jessica as angels. So far, we have raised just over £100 for the children in Zimbabwe. |
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| Today we also made stars for our Christmas Wishing Tree. We talked about the Bible story of the three Wise Men who were guided to Bethlehem by the star, which led them to the place where Jesus was born. The older children wrote on their 3D stars the dedications from the people of the parish who have asked for prayers and wishes for the future. The younger children thought about the people in their lives who are stars in the way they guide them, inspire them and make them feel safe. They wrote the names of these people on their stars. |
Dear
God, Thank you for the people in our lives who help us find our way, by always being there when we need them and by being people we can look up to. Amen |
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| Father John told everyone that yesterday,
he had come to our Christmas party. Besides Father John, we had another visitor. |
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| But it was Father John who stayed for tea! |
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| We played games which showed we were full of energy. |
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| And we had good appetites. There were small children- |
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| And tall children! |
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| Who all looked happy. |
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| Now Christmas is very near, we remember the most important thing of all. We wait to celebrate the birth of Jesus, who came to earth to show us just how much God loves us. |
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Children's Liturgy, Sunday January 3rd 2010.
EPIPHANY of the LORD. |
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| Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.
The word, epiphany, means a showing forth. 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 that 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 had just been born. He adds a third gift, brought by the Wise Men- myrrh, a strange gift for a baby, as it is anointment used on the bodies of those who have died. It reminds us that one day, Jesus will die on the Cross to show us how much God loves us. The music in church today was provided by our children's band. Somebody had a violin for Christmas! |
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| As Father John processed into church, he
was led by three children dressed as Wise Men- Louie, Raine and Courtenay-
who brought gifts to place in the manger, next to baby Jesus. We played
and sang 'Come, come, come to the manger'. |
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The three
Wise Men read the 'Sorry' prayers. Lord, we are sorry for the times when we didn't show love. Please help us to always show love through acts of kindness and caring for others. Amen Lord, help us to think before we say things. Sometimes we may have hurt someone by unkind words. Amen. Lord, may we be like the Wise Men, who were guided to you by a star. Give us the wisdom to seek you, light to guide us to you, courage to search until we find you, graciousness to worship you and generosity to lay our gifts before you, our King and God forever. Amen |
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| Father John brought the children on to the
altar to talk to them. He told us about a boy and girl he once knew, a
long while ago, who one day asked their parents if they could give gifts
at Christmas. They had been thinking about just how kind everyone was
to them at Christmas, wondering how they could return this kindness, as
they didn't have money to buy presents. They were told not to worry about
having a lot of money, as the most important thing about any present is
the love with which it was given. They could have just enough to buy tiny
things to give, which could be lovingly wrapped and everyone would understand. The tiny presents were bought and wrapped and given. The people who received the presents knew that the gifts had come from a real love. The children had thought up the idea of giving . They had wanted to be part of the love and giving of Christmas. This was something their parents never forgot. The girl and boy are grown up now, but we are all in the position of children as we come before the baby, Jesus-God- at Christmas. We are given the gift of his coming. We know we will be given the gift of his dying- what can we give in return. Anything we do will be tiny....but that is all that matters- that we want to give, to join in the spirit of love which is Christmas. We give our hearts. |
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| Our bidding prayers were: We pray for peace in our world, that there may be no more fighting. We think of our troops and their families through their worries and fear. Lor hear us.... We pray for our parish of St. Joseph's. May it continue to be a happy and friendly place to be. We thank all the people who work hard in our parish to keep the community spirit alive. Lord hear us..... Finally, we pray for our brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe, in Mother of Peace Community. May the money we have raised again this Christmas help to improve their lives. We pray for their strength and courage. Lord hear us..... At the end of mass, Grace read her 'Thank you' prayer. |
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Children's Liturgy, Sunday January 10th 2010
The Baptism of Our Lord. |
| 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 could make a new start in life. |
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| Today we heard the Gospel story(Luke 3:15-16,
21-22), which tells how Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist in the
river Jordan. People were beginning to think that John was the one who
was coming to save them, as God had promised. John told them that, whilst
he baptised with water, the promised one would baptise them with the Holy
Spirit and fire. When John baptised Jesus, Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven was heard saying, "You are my Son, this day I have begotten you". |
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| We know that water can also be dangerous- we
could drown. When Jesus goes beneath the surface and rises up 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 could live without it. God has given us life forever. Today, when we are baptised, usually, water is poured over our heads, but it reminds us 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 love and life, even after we die. We celebrate the New Life at baptism. We made paper doves with our names written on them- the names given to us at baptism. |
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| Father John told everyone that people often think that baptism is to take away what we do wrong, but really it is to let us share in God's life- it does wipe away what we do wrong as well, but that is not the main, wonderful thing about it. |
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Children's Liturgy, Sunday January 17th 2010
Today we heard how Jesus changed water
into wine at a wedding feast in Cana. (John 2:1-12.) This is the first of Jesus' miracles which St. John tells us about. |
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| We tried making something new by mixing the ingredients in a different way. We used ordinary icing sugar, glycerine, food colouring and decorations to make our own sweets! |
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| We decorated plates on which to present the sweets, to give them to the people of our choice. |
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| St. John calls the miracle a sign. He seems
to want us to notice the number six- six water jars. The number SEVEN
was special to the Jews and if they read what he wrote, they would be
wondering why he says there are six. Where is the SEVENTH jar? We know
what happened to Jesus and who he really was. He makes all of our lives
different, because he came to show us God's love. Our lives are different
because of him, just as the water was different- wine- after Jesus changed
it. Of course, Jesus is the seventh container- he contains God's love-
he is God. God isn't concerned with us just being 'pure'- good- he loves us. |
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Children's Liturgy Sunday, January 24th 2010
In today's Gospel (Luke !:1-4, 4:14-21), we hear Jesus
telling people why he has come- to bring "Good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives and new sight to the blind; to free
the oppressed..." |
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| We wrote our own articles, first of all about
the poor: Who are the poor today? What would we like to do to help? Do we, ourselves, ever feel poor? When do we feel rich? What would we like to give and receive in our lives? We thanked God for the things we have. |
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| We thought about ways of not being free: |
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| We thought of ways of not seeing clearly: Who do we know who cannot see? Does this mean being blind literally, or are there other ways of not seeing? When do we feel we cannot see? How can we see more clearly and how can we help other people see? We said we were sorry for the times we didn't see. |
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| Jesus says he comes to help people who get
pushed around: Who do we know of in this position? When do we feel pushed around? Why is this? Do we ever try to push others around? What can we do when we feel pushed? How can we help others who feel pushed around? We said we were sorry for times we have done the pushing. |
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| The younger children made television screens to tell their good news. |
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| When we went back into church, we pretended to be newspaper sellers, shouting,"Read all about it!" Some children wore caps. It was very exciting and a little scary being allowed to shout in church! |
Children's Liturgy Sunday February 14th 2010.
| We listened to the Gospel for
today - Luke 6:17, 20-26. Jesus knew that people often look for happiness
in the wrong places. He even suggests that we might be happier if we were
poor, hungry, crying and disliked by others. When we are poor, it might be easier for us to trust in God to supply everything we need, instead of depending on our own wealth. When we are crying, we can trust in God to comfort us and ease our pain. When we think we have no friends, we have a friend in Jesus. Jesus is a friend who will never leave us. |
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| Our picture reminds us that it does not matter
where you live in the world, or how much money you have, it is your family,
friends and community that unite you. Thank you, God for all our family and friends. Amen |
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| We made Valentine cards to say thank you to our friends and families. |
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| This week, Frankie was in Malta, on pilgrimage with Father John. One day, they went in a little boat to St. Paul's Island, where St. Paul was shipwrecked. It is a very small island, with nothing on it except for the statue of St. Paul erected by the people of the Maltese islands. |
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| The shipwreck happened in A.D. 60, so this
year is the 1950th anniversary. St. Paul was originally a leading Pharisee who wanted to see Jesus' followers arrested. He was travelling on the road to Damascus, when he was blinded by a great light. After being lead by the hand into Damascus, he was visited by Ananias, a Christian, who prayed over him. Paul received back his sight and was baptised there and then. Now he began to preach that Jesus was Lord. He studied for three years in the Arabian desert, then returned home to Tarsus, after which he visited Peter in Jerusalem, and started his first missionary journey to Cyprus and Turkey. Paul was known as "Apostle to the Gentiles", as he realised Jesus' message was to all people, not just the Jews.His three missionary journeys included eleven sea voyages, a total of 3,500 miles at sea. Paul had to escape many times from towns where he preached. He was often beaten or stoned. Eventually, he returned to Jerusalem to help the needy church there, even though he knew that he might die. He was, in fact, imprisoned for two years, before being taken to Rome as a prisoner. In a storm, he was shipwrecked off Malta. You can read of this event in Acts of the Apostles 27-28. It says that the Maltese people were very kind and lit a big bonfire to warm those who had been shipwrecked, as it was cold and rainy. Paul helped with the fire, when he was attacked by a snake, which he shook off from his wrist. The people were amazed he did not die. Paul stayed in Malta over the winter. He converted the people to Christianity. Eventually, he was taken to Rome where he was kept under arrest; but he still preached to all who would listen. On 10th of February each year, Malta celebrates the shipwreck that brought Christianity to them. Father John celebrated mass on the small island of St. Paul. You can see how the shipwreck was not difficult for the pilgrims to imagine! It was a very windy day, so the altar table had to be weighted down with rocks! |
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| Here is a picture of the cave in Rabat, where it is said St. Paul stayed during his winter on Malta. |
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| Frankie agreed that the people of Malta were very kind. |
