Children's Liturgy, Sunday, March 7th 2010.

The THIRD SUNDAY of LENT.
Today there was a CHILDREN'S MASS.

Some of our children provided the music, the prayers and readings, and the illustrations for our mass booklet were drawn by members of the Bell family: Shivani, Anjali and Geoff. Thank you to everyone who contributed!

The Sorry Prayers:
Dear God, we are sorry for the times when we know that we should be doing something but we don't do it. We are sometimes like trees that don't grow any fruit, because we are not following Jesus.
Amen

Dear God, we are sorry for the bad things we do sometimes. Help us during Lent to do things in a better way.
Amen

Dear God, we are sorry for doing wrong things. Please forgive us. Help us forgive those who are unkind to us.
Amen

As we prepare for Easter, we think about how much God loves us and we say sorry for the times we have turned away from his love by not being good.

Father John talked to us about the First Reading today- Exodus 3:1-8; 13-15.
Here is Anjali's picture-

God appears to Moses, who is a shepherd looking after his sheep in the desert, as a burning bush. The bush burns continuously, but the flames do not burn it up. God tells Moses to take off his shoes, because he is walking on holy ground. He tells Moses he has come to rescue the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
Moses is worried about trying to tell this to the Israelites and asks what name he should use for this God who has come for them.God says, "I AM WHO I AM"- that will be his name forever.

Father John asked us to think about the quality of love. It is never used up, no matter how fiercely we feel it; it is never worn out; it never ends. It is like the burning bush, which burns brightly, but does not burn away. "I AM WHO I AM" means the same thing..."I AM.....LOVE".

Father John asked us to think about the loving people we knew...they burn like bright flames in our lives, and their flames do not go out...they are a light for us which goes on and on.

So God loves us on and on. He finds us in the desert places of our lives and forgives us.

Here are the pictures for the other readings today:

Luke 13: 1-9 and 1Corinthians 10: 1-6; 10-12.
The Bidding Prayers were written and read by some of our First Communion chilldren:

We pray for those children all over the world, in Haiti, in Chile, in Zimbabwe, everywhere there are children who are sick, or hungry, or suffering and who have so much less than us. We pray that they are made strong by God's love and are helped by our support...Lord hear us.

We are preparing for our First Communion and we thank God for all the people who are helping us...Lord hear us.
And finally, our Thank You Prayers:

Dear God, thank you for all my friends and family. Thank you for blessing me in all ways. Thank you for giving me ears to listen to your voice,
Amen.

Dear God, thank you for my family and friends and for giving me a house to live in.
Amen

Dear God, thank you for everything you've given me. Please bless the people who aren't as lucky as me.
Amen