Children's Liturgy, Sunday, February 28th 2010.

The SECOND SUNDAY of LENT.

We learnt last week that 'Lent' means Spring and is a time for 'spring-cleaning' our lives with God. We can take time to think about the things which we do wrong, then ask God for forgiveness. Of course, God loves us so much that we are forgiven as soon as we have done anything, but it is good for us to think about these things and say 'sorry', because we feel better...and it helps us to realise just how great is God's love. It will soon be Easter. During the final week of Lent, Holy Week, we will travel on Jesus' journey, when we will remember he died on the cross to show us how much God loves us...before he rose again on Easter Day.

We may want to say sorry, too, to the people we have hurt, or to do something kind to make up for it.

Last week, we met Mr. Never-sees-the-good-in-anything. We are helping him change. Last week, we gave him a fresh pair of eyes, so that he can see what a wonderful world he lives in. This week, we are giving him a new pair of ears.
He needs to really listen to people, not only so he can be near them, but also so they can be near him. He needs to listen out for what God wants him to do...with his ears... and in his heart as well!

Today, we have been listening carefully. We have listened to St. Luke's Gospel reading (Luke 9:28-36), which tells us about the 'TRANSFIGURATION'. Peter, James and John go up high on a mountain with Jesus, where they see him transfigured- he looks different, surrounded by light, accompanied by two Old Testament prophets, Moses and Elijah. Peter, James and John would know that God was saying something about new about Jesus. God was showing something of what Jesus really was; he was not just an ordinary person they had known for years. He had a different relationship with God and with people who had spoken importantly about God in the past.

We understand now that Jesus was sent by God; that Jesus was God, as well as being a man. Jesus came for a unique purpose: to show us God's love, and to die for us; but if we really look and listen to other people, we begin to realise that God is present in them, too. We can get to know God by loving others.

Today, we talked about how important it is to listen to our family, friends and teachers.

We played games which required excellent listening skills.
We played:

Reading rhymes to our friends, asking them to guess our final rhyming pattern;

Building towers or models from bricks, taking turns to give a friend instructions to build a model without showing them our own. When completed, looking to see if thy were the same;

Drawing a picture, telling our friend what we were drawing. They could copy from the verbal instructions without looking at the picture. Then we checked the differences at the end.

Dear God, may we really listen to others.May we learn to be wise, learn about the needs of others, learn how much we are loved, but most of all, may we truly hear your voice in our hearts.
Amen