On Great and Holy Tuesday morning during the Presanctified Liturgy we hear a beautiful Gospel reading. Here is the story for your children.
Jesus told his disciples and friends a story: There were ten maidens, that means girls, who were waiting for a bridegroom to come to a wedding. Their job was to walk with him when he came, and light the way with oil lamps. They needed to have a lot of oil in their lamps, so that they would be ready. Five of them were wise and had enough oil in their lamps, they would not run out of oil. But the other five were foolish did not make sure to check their lamps, they did not have enough oil.
It got very late in the night. All of the girls fell asleep.
At midnight, the bridegroom came and everyone started saying: “He is here! Come and greet him!” The girls all woke up and started to light their lamps and get ready. The foolish ones said to the wise ones: “We ran out of oil, give us some of your oil!”
But there was not enough time for the wise girls to share their oil, and still have enough. The foolish girls ran out to buy some more from the store. But while they were gone, the bridegroom went with the wise girls to the wedding party. The door closed.
The foolish girls returned, and knocked on the door. They shouted: “Let us in!” But it was too late. The bridegroom said: “I do not know you.”
After Jesus finished telling the story, He said: “Always be attentive and watching, always be ready, for you do not know the day or the hour when the Son of Man is coming.”
Discussion
Who do you think the Bridegroom is?
Is Jesus the Son of Man, from the story?
How can we be ready for Jesus?
What are things that we can do to live a life with Jesus at the center?
What is forgiveness?
Do you think that forgiveness is important when you live a life with Jesus at the center? Why or why not?
Why is it important to be joyful when we meet the Son of Man, Jesus, and not be ashamed of what we do?
When Jesus Christ comes again, we have to be ready! We need to be like the five wise girls who brought enough oil for their lamps. Now, we won’t have oil lamps to wait for Christ, but we will have all of the actions, good and bad, that we have done in our lives. We can be ready to meet Christ by doing good things, that would make Him happy. We can also be very sorry, ask for forgiveness, when we do bad things. Things that make us feel bad inside, and things that make other people feel bad. Things that we know Christ would not want us to do. Like: yelling at our parents, our siblings, stealing, hitting, speaking with mean words, and not listening. Instead we use kind words, love our family, do kind things that make them happy, help those who are hurting, and always ask for forgiveness and forgive those that have done bad things to us.
We need to always remember that Christ wants us to be with Him. He never leaves us out if we really want to be with Him.
Craft: Dove Kite
We want to always remember the Christ is with us in every moment of every day. We always need to be attentive. But this can be difficult, especially for children. Well let us be honest, even for us adults it is hard to be attentive. One way I like to explain to Moses how he can be attentive and what skills that takes is to do a craft from the Draw Near Designs Calendar. It is called a “Dove Kite.”
Flying kites is something that Moses has really liked doing. But one time when we were at Kapi i Rodonit (Cape of Rodon) he was flying his kite by himself and it was a very windy day. Dn. Stpehanos and I were near, but we tried to let him be independent and we explained how important it was to be attentive to the kite and how the wind was moving it. In the next moment a big gust of wind came and Moses lost his kite in the trees. He was so sad! He kept saying over and over how he should have been more careful, been more attentive, and listened better. It is a moment he still talks about today. Luckily, Dn. Stephanos retrieved the kite after about an hour. Moses is still even more careful and attentive when he flies his kite. He remembers the lesson of when he lost it in the trees. I tried to explain to him that we always need to be attentive every day. We need to be ready to listen to Christ and have Him with us. Just like we pay attention to the wind and the kite when we fly it, so to do we need to pay attention to what we say and do so that we are always ready for Christ.
Dove Kite
Materials: 1 piece of white paper, crayons or markers, ruler, 1-1.5 meters of string or ribbon, stapler, hole puncher
Instructions:
Decorate the paper on both sides.
Fold the paper in half, like a book. Along the fold of the paper, measure and mark off 6 centimeters from the top (point A) and 9 centimeters from the top (point B).
Take the top two corners of the paper, flip them down, and staple them together at Point A.
Make a hold at Point B. Make sure to make the hole far enough from the fold that it won’t rip when you put the string through.
Tie a long piece of string through the hole.
Grab the end of the string and start running! Be attentive to not let your kite fly away!
Recipe
Peanut butter cookies
INGREDIENTS
2 cups (225 g) quick oats
2 (285 g, approx. 1.25 cups) ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup (125 g) peanut butter
Additional add ins: dark chocolate, craisins, peanuts, raisins
INSTRUCTIONS
Pre-heat oven to 350 F.
Mash the bananas in in a bowl with a fork until they form a paste.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
Drop 16 spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet, shaping each spoonful into a cookie shape.
Bake for 15 minutes. They should be firm and slightly browned when done.
We are still at the beginning of Holy Week. Let us instill in our children the importance of being attentive and listening to God. Try and remind them to make Christ the center of their days this week. May you have a blessed day filled with kindness, patience, and strength.
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