30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle C
Welcome children to their worship space.
Ask them to get their carpet squares and sit down in a circle.
Introduce yourself and your helpers.
Introduce
Ask: Can anyone tell me what we talked about last week? <show symbol of the telephone) The telephone symbolizes our talking to God. He is always listening but it is up to us to keep the line open to him.
Introduce symbol
Say: Today’s symbol is praying hands. We talked about always listening to God last week. What is another word for the communication between God and us? <praying> What are different ways to pray? <talking to God out loud, reading Scripture, coming to church to pray with other people> Do you think that God likes one kind of prayer best? <God likes all prayer that comes from us> Does he hear the quiet prayers in our hearts? <YES>
Say: Let’s look at today’s poster. What does it say? <The Lord hears the cry of the poor.> 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 this psalm mean? What is “the cry of the poor”? <a prayer> God hears all our prayers.
Introduce readings
We have two readings today.
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 Old Testament book of Sirach. (Sirach 38:12a-14, 16-17) We are going to hear about how God listens to our prayers and who he pays the most attention to. Let’s see if we can understand what is in the reading today.
Have the reader read the first reading.
Ask: Whose prayer does God listen to? <everybody’s> Whose prayer does he pay the closest attention to? <those people who have been mistreated and are vulnerable– in this reading, the widows & orphans> The reading today says that the prayers of the humble go right through to God. Do you remember what the word “humble” means? <to be humble means that you put yourself below others, you don’t put yourself first>
Say: Now it is time for the Responsorial Psalm. Your part is to say:
The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Say: Today’s Gospel reading comes from the book of Luke. (Lk 18:9-14). It is a special story about two people praying in the temple. One of them is called a Pharisee. Pharisees were some of the most important people in the time that Jesus lived. They did all the right things and followed all the rules of the church. The other person was called a Publican. Publicans were poor people who didn’t always know the right things to do. Let’s listen to the story about how they prayed and see if we understand what Jesus wants us to learn about prayer.
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: First, what were the differences in the way these two people prayed? <the Pharisee was proud and told God about all the good things he did, the Publican was ashamed and told God that he was sorry for being a sinner> Did you hear which one pleased God the most? <the Publican> And why was that? After all, the Pharisee was the one who followed all the rules the best. < the Publican did not make himself seem important, the Publican was truly sorry for what he did wrong>
Explain: The Pharisee was a human being, so he had to be a sinner just like the rest of us. God wants us to know that we sin and to be sorry for it. We are lucky enough to have a sacrament where we receive God’s forgiveness. Can anyone tell me what that sacrament is? <reconciliation>
Ask children to add their names to the cutouts (praying hands) 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 praying hands). Ask the older children to write one thing they can do this week to remember that will remind them to pray.
Explain: Color this symbol of the praying hands and bring it to the altar (don’t forget to put your name on the back!) to show that we have learned about praying honestly to God.
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.
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| Poster symbol |
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| Banner and Offertory Symbol |
Parent Letter
Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time C
Dear Parents,
Today is the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The children listened to simplified versions of two of the same readings you did: Sirach 38:12a-14, 16-17 and Luke 18:9-14.
Symbol: Praying Hands
To reinforce at home:
The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican is one we are all familiar with and one of the great testimonies to humility. The Pharisee was a great guy. He did all the right things. He had great manners and knew and kept all the laws. His problem was that he listed all the good things he did to God. His method of praying was to tell God what a great person he was. The Publican, on the other hand, wasn’t in the best social class. He did the best he could, but knew that he was not perfect. His prayer was to admit his faults and praise God.
We are all human and none of us is perfect. Today we talked about how God knows what is really deep down in our hearts.
Activities to do at home:
*Create some petitions to pray together as a family:
Dear God, we know that you are always listening when we talk to you. We believe that you love us and always answer us. Here are some things we’d like to pray for now.
<insert personal petition here>
response: Lord, hear our prayer
We thank you, God, for listening to our prayers, the ones spoken out loud and the ones written deep in our hearts. Amen.
Thank you for sharing your children!
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