Children's Liturgy Sunday September 26th 2010.
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September 26th 2010. |
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| At the beginning of today's liturgy,
we welcomed Aro, Angel and Monica's Mum, who is our new helper.
We said a prayer for Eve, for Faith, who should have been helping, but
woke up to find water pouring through her ceiling, and for Gerard's
grandmother, who is poorly with food poisoning.
Please say a 'Hail Mary' for them.
We heard that in today's Gospel(Luke 16:19-31), Jesus told the Pharisees
a story about a rich man who dressed in fine clothes and feasted every
day with his friends. He was not concerned with the poor man, Lazarus,
who lay at his gate, covered with sores, and who would have been glad
to eat the scraps of food the rich man gave to his dogs.
The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham (the
great prophet). The rich man also died, but he then began to suffer,
having a great thirst. He could see Abraham and Lazarus in the distance.
He begged Abraham to let Lazarus dip his finger in water and go to him,
so he could lick it and soothe his thirst.
Abraham replied that the gap between the men was too wide and was now
fixed. The rich man begged Abraham to warn his brothers about what would
happen to them if they did not listen to the prophets. Abraham said
that they would not listen to him, no matter what he did, if they did
not listen to the prophets.
We talked about God's desire that we should care for each other, though
God would never do anything to hurt us. God just wants us to love each
other and realise that we are all equal. When we help someone, we find
a friend- and we find out who we, ourselves, really are.
We then talked about someone who found himself by helping other people-
JOHN BRADBURNE. (We remember that he was Father David's hero.)
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John Bradburne was born in 1921. He has been
called a 'pilgrim seeker'- most of his life was spent searching for his
true calling.
He was not born into a Catholic family, as his father was an Anglican
vicar, but he constantly sought a way to live for God.
As a young man, he joined the army with the Gurkhas.He was not keen on
fighting, and during battle, preferred to be watching birds.
Afterwards, he moved through Europe, the Holy Land and India, being interested
in religions all the while.
Back in England, now a Catholic, he tried to join several religious orders.
He even tried living in isolation on Dartmoor.
He joined the Third Order of Franciscans, devoted to the way of life -poverty
and caring for the poor, loving God's creation- set out by Saint Francis
of Assisi. |
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Then, one day, he received a letter from Fr.
John Dove, a priest living in what was Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in Africa,
inviting him to visit. So John Bradburne went out to Silveira house, a
mission which helped with local agriculture, whilst also trying to help
people find God.
He wanted to make sure he was left time to be alone, in order to pray
and write his poetry for God, so he spent some time living in the hen
house! (So on Sunday, we made hens- here they are on the production line!) |
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| And after we placed them on the altar. |
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| When lots of people were drawn to talk to him,
he prayed for a swarm of bees to come. They did arrive and lived under
his table. After that visitors were few and far between! (We made lots
of bees to remind us that God answered his prayer.) |
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One day, John heard about
the people at Mutemwa who had leprosy. He went to look after them, as
other locals were taking advantage of them, stealing from them and grazing
their animals on the colony land. Also, those who were supposed to look
after them were ordering them to cover their faces with bits of sacking.
John reminded them that God loved them and told them that in Heaven,
they would be the most beautiful of all.
It was here that John considered that he found himself, as he had always
felt himself to be a reject and now he lived with rejects, loving them
and treasuring them dearly. That was their gift to him- as in today's
Gospel, we can see that we find ourselves when we reach out to help:
we find a friend.
John would climb Mount Chigona to pray and wore out a path at the top,
walking round and round, saying the rosary.
It was a dangerous time, as there was a war in Rhodesia. He was often
warned to leave, but he would not. One day, he was captured by rebels,
who carried him off to a cave, They offered him a way out if he would
go home via Mozambique or Tanzania- but John would not leave his lepers.
So he was shot.
Finally, at his death, John's three wishes were fulfilled:
to live with lepers;
to die a martyr's death;
to be buried in the habit of a Franciscan.
Initially, he nearly missed out on the last of these, but at his funeral,
and after he had been dead for two weeks, someone saw three drops of
blood fall on the floor from the coffin. The undertaker was horrified,
as he thought everyone would say he hadn't done his job properly, so
he hurriedly removed the coffin. When they opened it they found that
John had not been placed in his Franciscan habit, which they did immediately-
so his last wish was fulfilled.
When we returned to church, we took our bees, hens and Saint Francis.
We all buzzed and the choir helped us. Father John wondered what was
happening! John Bradburne often wore a red bandana, so Alex turned her
Alice band around to look like John in the painting we also took to
show the congregation.
Dear God,
May we always remember what matters in life- not owning lots of things,
but caring about other people.
Help us find our own way of love;
Our own time with you;
Our own way to sing your praise.
Amen |
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