Feast of Christ's Body and Blood Cycle C

Feast of Christ’s Body and Blood   Cycle C

Welcome children to their worship space.

Introduce

              Ask:  Does anyone remember what we celebrated last Sunday? <Trinity Sunday>  And what was is the Trinity, what does it mean?  <the Trinity is three persons in one God>

              Explain:  On Trinity Sunday, we celebrated our belief in three persons in our one God… God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

Ask:  Does anyone know what feast we celebrate today?  <the feast of Christ’s Body and Blood>  Why is Christ’s Body and Blood important to us? <discuss – affirm the children>

Explain:  Every week, we celebrate the Mass.  And at every Mass in the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we do exactly what Christ did at the Last Supper.  Do you remember what He said?  “Do this in memory of me…”  By sharing the Eucharist, we celebrate the Father who sent Jesus to us, we celebrate Jesus who taught us how to love, and we celebrate the Holy Spirit who remains with us and guides us today.  Every week in the Eucharist, we remember the God who loves us.     

Introduce symbol

Say:  Today’s symbol <hold up the symbol> is a host and chalice.   The host and chalice is what we use in our Eucharistic celebration.  Does everyone use the same kind of host and chalice for the Eucharist?  <no…. some churches use bread instead of hosts>  But we always use some sort of bread to eat and cup to drink from.

Say:  Let’s look at the poster.  What does it say? <You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek.>  This is our Responsorial Psalm for today.  The Responsorial Psalms also come from Scripture, from the Book of Psalms in the Old Testament. 

Explain:  Melchizedek was the high priest in the time of Abraham.

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 Hebrew Scriptures, the Book of Genesis. (Gen 14:18-20)   Do you think that Jesus was the first person to offer bread and wine to God?  <get the children to respond>  Let’s listen to this reading from the days of Abraham and find out.

Have the reader read the first reading.

Ask:  What did you learn here?  <give the children a chance to respond  (appropriate answers will be anything that actually shows that they listened)

Say: Abraham lived hundreds of years before Jesus during the time of the pharoahs in Egypt.  Melchizedek was offering bread and wine way back then.  When Jesus lived among the Jewish people, he was always respectful of their traditions – remember, Jesus was a Jew.  He came to us people to help us better understand the message of God’s love.  So, when he could, he used existing traditions to help people understand.

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

You are a priest forever in the line of Melchizedek.

Say:  Today’s Gospel reading comes from the book of St. Luke.  (Lk 9:11b-17)  Today’s reading is a story that many of you will remember.  It is about a miracle where Jesus did something to take care of a lot of people.  Let’s see how many of you have heard this one before.

Say:  Now we will get ready to hear the Gospel.  Please stand up.

Say together: Alleluia, Alleluia.

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

Read:  Read the Gospel

Ask:  What happened?  What exactly did Jesus do?  <discuss>  Can anyone tell me what hunger is? <response>  Does hunger have to be for food?

Say:    Being hungry means that a person really needs something, something very important.  Sometimes a person might be hungry for a friend…. Or a hug…. Can you think of something else a person might really need… that they might be hungry for?  <discuss>  If we let him, Jesus satisfies our hunger for love.

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Hand out the poster & Offertory symbols to color  (The symbol is a host and chalice).  Ask the children to write their names on the small poster symbol.

 

Explain: Color this symbol of the host and chalice and bring it to the altar (don’t forget to put your name on the back!)  to show that we have learned about Christ’s Body and Blood in the Eucharist.

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 graphic for the poster

 

Use this graphic for the banner symbol and the Offertory symbols

Parent Letter

Feast of Christ’s Body and Blood  C

Dear Parents,

            Today is the Feast of Christ’s Body and Blood.  The children listened to the same readings you did:  Genesis 14:18-20 and Luke 9:11b-17

To reinforce at home:

Today we are reminded about how Jesus gives us life through the signs of bread and wine.  We talked about different types of hunger that one might experience and how Jesus can satisfy our hunger.

Activities to do at home:

Go over the concept that without body or blood, there can be no life.  By the same token, the sacrifice of Christ’s body and blood ensured our eternal life.

Bake or buy a loaf of bread to share at your meal together.  By physically sharing bread with you at a meal, your child will have a better understanding of the significance of sharing the life-giving gift of Eucharist each Sunday.

Try getting some different types of bread from different countries to show that bread is an important food item in all cultures.  The concept of bread as a staple life-giving food is universal.

 

Thank you for sharing your children!