Feast of the Ascension Cycle C
**Some dioceses replace the 7th Sunday of Easter with this feast instead of celebrating on Thursday***
Welcome children to their worship space.
Explain: Today is the Feast of the Ascension, the day we celebrate Jesus going back into heaven. We will hear how that happened from the Apostles.
Ask: Does anyone remember what Pentecost is? (the day we celebrate the birthday of the church, the time that the Holy Spirit came down from heaven to help all of us since Jesus is not here on earth as a human like us)
Ask: Does anyone remember what our symbol was for last week? <a heart> And what did it symbolize? <love>
Explain: We have heard about several things from the Apostles in the last few weeks that would help them (and us!) to build the church that Jesus wants for us. Can anyone remember what those things are? <Peace between each other, leaders who care for us, remembering that our strength comes from Jesus, reading the bible to understand his message of love, and we have learned about the love that Jesus wants us to have for each other>
Introduce symbol
Say: Today’s symbol is a cross with a globe on it. What do you think that this symbol might mean? <discuss> Let’s take it apart. What would the cross represent? <Jesus> And what about the globe? <a globe is the world – that represents all of us>
Say: Jesus’ life, death and resurrection were for us. His message of love is for everyone in the world. We will learn today what Jesus told everyone to do.
Say: Let’s look at today’s poster. What does it say? <God mounts the throne to shouts of joy.> This is our Responsorial Psalm for today. The Responsorial Psalms also come from Scripture, from the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament.
Introduce readings
Say: Let’s light the candle to show that we are ready to listen to the Word of God.
Say: Today’s first reading is from the New Testament book of the Acts of the Apostles. (Acts 1:8-11) This reading tells about what happened to Jesus! Jesus promised something to the Apostles. Listen carefully and see if you can hear what that promise was.
Have the reader read the first reading.
Ask: What is the promise that Jesus made to the Apostles? <He promised that the Holy Spirit would come to them and give them strength> Then what happened? <Jesus rose up into heaven> Do you think that the Holy Spirit will come and give you strength too?
Say: Now it is time for the Responsorial Psalm. Your part is to say:
God mounts the throne to shouts of joy.
Say: Today’s Gospel reading comes from the book of Mark. (Mark 16:15-20). Does anyone remember the names of the four men who wrote the Gospels? <Matthew, Mark, Luke and John> The reading today tells us what St. Mark wrote about what Jesus said to his friends before he rose into heaven. Pretend that you are one of the Apostles. Your friend, Jesus, that you saw murdered on the cross, has been appearing to you and your other friends for a few weeks. You all believe that he is really God. Now he tells you that he is going into heaven for good, that he won’t be back. Listen to what Jesus tells you before he leave.
Say: Now we will stand and get ready to hear the Gospel
(hold up card) Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Have the reader begin: “a reading from the holy gospel.....”
Read: Read the Gospel
Say: Let’s give each other the sign of peace that shows our love for each other.
Give each other the sign of peace and sit back down.
Ask: What did Jesus say to his friends? What did he tell them to do? <to go tell everyone about him> He said that everyone who believed would be saved. He told us all to go tell people about him.
Hand out the poster cut-outs of a cross so that the children can write their names on them for the poster.
Hand out the symbols to color. (The symbol is a heart with a globe). Have the older children write one thing they can do this week to tell someone about the love of Jesus.
Explain: Color this symbol of a heart with a globe and bring it to the altar (don’t forget to put your name on the back!) to show that we have learned about what Jesus told us to do before he went up into heaven.
If there is time, ask questions and go over the lessons one more time to help the children remember.
Give out stickers and hand-outs as they leave.
Parent Letter
Feast of the Ascension C
Dear Parents,
Today is the Feast of the Ascension. The children listened to a simplified version of the same readings you heard: Acts 1:8-11 and Mark 16:15-20.
To reinforce at home:
Today we talked about Jesus leaving the earth for the last time and ascending into heaven. We talked about how the Apostles must have felt throughout the whole time from Christ’s passion through his ascension into heaven. We talked about the feast of Pentecost that will be celebrated next week and how the Holy Spirit came to give us the wisdom and strength to continue Jesus’ work.
Activities to do at home:
*Find an appropriate moment during the week to share with your child a time when the Holy Spirit helped you to do something you didn’t think you could do.
*Choose a time to pray together before a time of decision-making (like before school or work) and make a commitment to do this every day this week. Help your child use his or her own words to ask the Holy Spirit to guide their actions.
Thank you for sharing your children!
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