27th Sunday Ordinary Time A

Children’s Liturgy Instructions

Welcome the children to their worship space.

 Ask them to get their carpet squares and sit down in a circle.

Introduce yourself and your helpers.

Introduce

            Say: Today is the 27^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

            Ask:  Last week’s symbol was a question mark.  We talked about how difficult it sometimes is to decide what is right and what is wrong.  We talked about how God is fair and knows what is in our hearts.  God wants us to show others love most of all.

Introduce symbol

Say:  Today’s symbol is grapes.  Can anyone tell something about grapes?  <let the children respond>  Grapes grow on vines, sometimes in vineyards like we have been discussing for the past few weeks.

Say:  In Biblical times, most people drank wine.  Wine is made from grapes.  So most people were familiar with the way grapes were grown in vineyards.  Just like Jesus used sheep and shepherds in the parables, grapes and vineyards were another teaching tool that Jesus used.

Ask: If Jesus came today, what kinds of things might he use to teach us?  <let the children respond – we would probably hear about cars, cell phones and computers, etc>  Any of these things might be possible!

Say:  Let’s look at today’s poster.  What does it say? <The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.>  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

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 today is from the Old Testament book of the prophet Isaiah.  (Isaiah 5:1-7). In this reading, the prophet Isaiah tells a story like Jesus did.  He tells about a friend of his and his vineyard.  Pretend that you are hearing the prophet Isaiah for the first time.  See if you can understand what he is trying to tell you.

                         

Have the reader read the reading.

Ask:  Did you hear what happened?  <let the children re-tell the story>  What do you think it means?  <that the Lord was not pleased with the behavior of the Jewish people>  It sounds like he was thinking of a punishment for the people who were sinning against God.

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

 The vineyard of the Lord is the house of Israel.          

Have reader read the psalm

Say: Today’s Gospel reading comes from the New Testament book of Matthew.  (Matt 21:33-43) In Matthew’s Gospel today, we hear Jesus tell another parable.  This one is about a man who owned a vineyard.  This man rented it out to some people.  Can anyone tell me what the word “RENT”  means?  <that the people were to farm it and use it like it was their own BUT they had to pay the owner in order to use it>  Listen to what happened to the vineyard and to the owner.  Think about what you think you might have done if you had been the owner.

 

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

Glory and praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Read the Gospel.

Ask:  What happened?  <let the children discuss>  Can anyone tell me what they would have done if they were the owner?  <discuss>  Jesus tells us that the kingdom of heaven (or eternal life) belongs to those who do God’s will.  If we want to be part of that kingdom, we need to behave the way God tells us to.

Hand out the large Offertory symbols (grapes) for the children to color and the smaller symbols (circle) for the children to put their names on for the poster.

Explain: We will color the grapes (don’t forget to put your name on the back!)  to show that we have learned about doing what God asks us to do.

Ask:  If you can, write one thing that you can do this week to obey God.

While they are coloring, go over the procedure for entering the church at the Offertory, how they approach the altar and put their symbols in the basket that the lead child will place at the altar.

Remind the children that the large symbol is to be offered in the Offertory procession to show the congregation what they have learned.  Remind them to put their names on the back and that they can retrieve the symbols after Mass.

Collect the smaller symbols to glue to the communal poster.  Remind the children to bring their parents back after Mass to see it.

Give out parent letters, coloring hand-outs and stickers as the children leave their worship space.

Cut out small ovals in light colors for the communal poster

Use this graphic to create the mid-sized banner symbol in "grape" colors and the full-size black-line coloring page for the Offertory gift

Parent Letter

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time  A

Dear Parents,

            Today is the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.  The children listened to simplified versions of two of the same readings you did: Isaiah 5:1-7 and Matthew 21:33-43.

Symbol: Grapes

To reinforce at home:

            Today we have readings that clearly tell us that God expects us to listen and obey.  In both Isaiah and Matthew, we hear about vineyards.  In Isaiah, the owner of the vineyard did everything he could to raise a good crop.  The harvest was poor.  The owner then declared that he would destroy the vineyard.

In Matthew, Jesus’ parable was about the owner of a vineyard who rented it out in exchange for a portion of the grape harvest.  The renters were dishonest and went to great lengths to cheat the owner of what they owed him.  The owner punished the renters and found some other people to take their place.  God wants us to keep our part of our baptismal promise – to be God’s child and to obey him. 

           

Activities to do at home:

            *Jesus used parables to teach us about God’s love.  His parables used things that his listeners were familiar with like sheep and vineyards.  Together with your child, make a list of things you think Jesus might use to tell parables to us.

            *Go to the grocery store and buy some grapes.  Spend a little time together with your child eating grapes and reviewing the parables that you have heard in the past few weeks.

Thank you for sharing your children!