Children’s Liturgy

Children’s Liturgy of the Word

The children of the parish are invited to celebrate the Liturgy of The Word with their own catechists at Sunday morning Mass. Offering the children a Liturgy of The Word, which is suited to their age and adapted to their stage of development, can become one of the key ways of helping them grow in faith.

The children gather in the church and begin the Mass with everyone else. After the Sign of the Cross and the Greeting, the Priest calls the children forward, presents them with a Bible and the adult leaders process with the children to the “upper room”. The children come back into church at the offertory, where they display what they have done and then some of them take part in the Offertory procession.
This is not a closed group – all primary school age children in the church are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Palm Sunday (Year C)

Gospel reflection: What do you remember about the gospel reading that we heard today?  

Today is a special day, when we hear two readings from Saint Luke’s Gospel. The second one is called the Passion and tells the story of how Jesus was arrested, tried, crucified, died and was buried.  But we also heard another gospel story at the beginning of Mass. Can you remember what happened in that reading? 

We heard how Jesus sent the disciples off to borrow a donkey, and to say that, “The Master needs it”, if they were asked where they were taking it. How do you think the disciples felt when everything happened just as Jesus said it would?  

Then Jesus entered into Jerusalem on this donkey, while the people shouted their praises to God. How do you think Jesus must have felt to hear the people shouting his praises and welcoming him into the city? Why do you think the disciples were so happy and joyful? Can you think of a time when someone important or special came to visit you at home or at school? How did you welcome them? Did you sing a song, wave flags, shout and cheer? 

What would you do to welcome Jesus if he arrived here today? Jesus is in all of us, so every time we meet someone and welcome them, we are welcoming Jesus. We are asked by God to treat all people as we would like to be treated.  Can you think of a time when you have not treated someone as you would like to be treated? Have you ever stopped people from joining in your game, or sharing in your toys or in your group? Is that very welcoming?  

So, this week how do you think we can make all the people we spend time with at home, at school and elsewhere feel welcome?  And because Jesus is part of every person, we need to also welcome people all over the world. We can hold all people in our hearts when we pray and do what we can to live our lives so that all people feel welcome.  

And just like the disciples we need to live as Jesus asks us to. This might sometimes mean being a bit different to others, as we try to share God’s love and make the world a fairer place for all people. But let’s try to do our best. And if anyone asks us why we are doing this we can say “The Master needs it.” Let’s try to welcome all people as we would welcome Jesus – with love, kindness and respect.   

Parents, grandparents and guardians, please feel free to share today’s Gospel with your children and grandchildren alongside the activities.

Look below for fun colouring pages and puzzles