Easter Sunday Cycle C

Welcome children to their worship space. 
 

            Explain: Today is Easter Sunday.  Does anyone remember what we celebrate on Easter Sunday?  What happened to Jesus?

            Ask: How do you think that Jesus’ friends felt when they saw the empty tomb?  <confused, sad>  Do you think that it was easy for them to believe that their friend, Jesus, had actually risen from the dead?

Introduce symbol

Say:  Today’s symbol <hold up the symbol> is a flower & butterfly. 

Ask:  Where does a flower come from?  A beautiful flower comes from a seed, something that looks dead.  And where does a butterfly come from?  A beautiful butterfly comes from a cocoon, something that looks dead too.  They are both brand new beautiful creatures that emerge from shriveled up and dead-looking.  God’s love makes us new and beautiful, too.

Say:  Let’s look at the poster.  What does it say? <This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad>  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 Words of God.

Say: Today’s first reading is from the New Testament book the Acts of the Apostles. (Acts 10:34a, 37 –43)  Today begins the Easter season.  The Old Testament readings that we usually have are replaced by readings from the Acts of the Apostles.  This particular letter is one that was written to tell others what had happened to Jesus.  Think about how Jesus’ close friends must have felt trying to explain what had happened. 

Have the reader read the first reading.

Ask:  How do you think you would have felt?  Your great friend was killed as a criminal, the police were looking for you and now, the body was missing.  Do you think that you might be afraid?

Say: Now it is time for the Responsorial Psalm.  Your part is to say:

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.

Say:  Today’s Gospel reading comes from the book of John.  (Jn 20:1-9) 

In today’s reading, we learn about how Jesus’ friends came to the tomb and found it was empty.  Do you think that they understood right away about Jesus’ resurrection?

Say:  Now we will get ready to hear the Gospel

(hold up card)  Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Have the reader begin: “a reading from the holy gospel.....”

Read:  Read the Gospel

Say:  During the next few weeks, we will hear how Jesus appeared several times to his friends and tried to explain what happened and what they were to do next.  We will learn about the building of the early Christian church.

Ask children to add their names to the cutouts (flowers) provided.  Remind the children that we are making a poster for each Sunday and that they will sign a cutout and glue it on when they are here.

Hand out the symbols to color. (The symbol is a flower).

 

Explain: Color this symbol of the flower and bring it to the altar (don’t forget to put your name on the back!)  to show that we have learned about the message of love and peace that Jesus brought to us.

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.

Use this flower graphic in light pastel colors for  the communal poster

 

Use this graphic both for the mid-size banner symbol (pipe cleaners for antennae!) and for the Offertory coloring page

Parent Letter

Feast of Easter  C

                                              

            Today your children heard simplified versions of two of the same readings you heard: Acts 10:34a, 37-43 and John 20:1-9.

           

To reinforce at home:

It’s here!  The celebration of the resurrection, the end of Lent!  We talked about the confusion of the Apostles when they found the tomb empty and their need to figure out what to do next.

Activities to do at home:

*Celebrate!  Enrich your family celebration by reading a children’s version of the Bible story about finding the empty tomb.

*Pretend that you and your child are apostles of Jesus.  Imagine that the Roman soldiers are looking for you, you are mourning your friend who was killed…. And you found his tomb to be empty.  How would you feel?

Thank you for sharing your children!