5th Sunday of Easter Cycle C

5th  Sunday in Easter   Cycle C

Welcome children to their worship space.

Explain: Today is the Fifth Sunday of Easter.  Who remembers the name of the next feast we have been waiting for?  <Pentecost>  What are we learning about right now – in these weeks before Pentecost?  <about what  we need to build Jesus’ church on earth>

Ask:  Can anyone tell me some of the things we have learned from Scripture in the last few weeks?  <to have a church, all of us are needed to do the work, we need good leaders, and we need to tell others about Jesus and be leaders ourselves>

Introduce symbol

Say:  Today’s symbol <hold up the symbol> is a heart.  Can you tell me what we need that this heart might represent?  <love>  To build our church, where does the love come from?  <from God to us, from us to God, from us to each other>

Say:  Let’s look at the poster.  What does it say? <I will praise your name forever, my king and my God > This is our Responsorial Psalm for today.  The Responsorial Psalms also come from Scripture, from the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament.

Ask:  What does the word praise mean?  <to tell someone how great they are, or what wonderful things they do>  Why do you think we should praise God? <discuss>

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 Acts of the Apostles. (Acts 14:21–27)  Today we are going to hear about the two men we heard about last week.  Can anyone tell me who the two men were?  (Hint, if needed) – they traveled around telling people about Jesus.  <Paul and Barnabas>  We’ll hear again how they worked to spread the word of God.

Have the reader read the first reading.

Ask:  Did anything strike you about the reading?  How did they set up these groups of people?  <they gathered the people of an area – and selected a leader>  What else did they do?  <they prayed for the leaders>  We do the same thing today.  We pray for our leaders, too.  If you listen closely at Mass, you will hear Father say a prayer for the leaders of the church.

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

I will praise your name forever, my king and my God.

Say:  Today’s Gospel reading comes from the book of John.  (Jn 13:31a, 33-35). In this reading from John, Jesus gives the people he is talking to a new command.  Listen closely and see if you can figure out when this story took place.  A clue would be that one of the apostles is mentioned by name.

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

Ask:  Did you hear the name of the apostle?  <Judas>  This reading took place after Judas left from somewhere.  Where do you think it was?  Where was the last place that all the apostles, including Judas, were together?  <the Last Supper>

Say:  At this time, Jesus gave a new command.  What is a command?  <an order, something that we are supposed to do>  This special command is the most important one.  Does anyone remember what it is?  <to love one another as I have loved you>  To keep building Jesus’ church, we must love each cther.

Ask children to add their names to the cutouts (hearts) 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 heart). 

 

Explain: Color this symbol of the heart and bring it to the altar (don’t forget to put your name on the back!)  to show that we have learned about the command that Jesus left 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.

Parent Letter

Fifth Sunday of Easter  C

Dear Parents,

              Today is the Fifth Sunday of Easter.  The children listened to the same readings you did:  Acts 14:21-27, Revelations 21:1-4, and John 13:31a, 33-35.

To reinforce at home:

We chose a heart for today’s symbol to reflect love.  In the last few weeks, we have discussed some ideas that are necessary to build Christ’s new church, to continue his work – our hands to do his work, leaders to help us understand what to do, our own responsibility to follow and to lead in different situations – and today, we talk about love.  There is much love needed in our church – love from God to us, love from us to God and, sometimes hardest of all, love from each of us to the other.

Activities to do at home:

*Create a prayer that we may listen closely to the words Jesus left for us and help to build his church through our actions.

*Talk about some of the ways that you can show God’s love to others and choose one of them to do together this week

Thank you for sharing your children!