All Hands On Deck - Learning How To Serve Others

Sunday February 10th was our eighteenth session together. This week we covered Unit 2, Chapter 11 "We Act On God's Word". In preparing for the session, I established the focus as ways we show our love for God by helping others. The lesson plan for the session includes the topics discussion, the activities worksheet, and craft activity.

Packing Light: If you just want the activity sheet for this session, you can find it here. It has a coloring activity, word search, word tumble, and matching activity.

When we met in the common area for the whole group activity, we started by joining with the First Graders in saying the Our Father, which they had worked hard to learn. Way to go First Grade!

Then we learned that each class was going to have a Prayer Bag that the children could take turns taking home to share with their families. The bag has prayer books, crucifix, holy water, cross to decorate and other stuff. Wow!

The first thing we did when we gathered in our classroom was to discuss the Mass. There were big changes to notice!

Did you notice anything different at Mass today?

"Father is wearing purple again! And who is that guy that was up there with him?" (said Rocking Horse)

You are right, he is wearing purple because it is Lent. The other man up there was a deacon. He is a friend of Father's and is visiting us this week. Was there anything else different?

"We sang the Our Father again, and the Holy, Holy - even though it was different. But I guess I missed the Gloria." (said Rocking Horse)

Oh no, you didn't miss it, we didn't sing it!

"Did we say it?" (said Sweet Pea Elephant)

Nope. We didn't say it either. During Lent we don't sing or say the Gloria. And you know what else? We don't sing or say the word "alleluia" either!/div>

(much amazement)

It's like we put them in a box and lock it up.

"Yeah, like we hide the key until Easter!" (said Fair Cheetah)

And so we talked a bit more about the happenings at Mass during Lent.

OK. Remember how we've been learning that the Bible is the Word of God and we listen to it at Mass? What happens after we hear the Gospel at Mass?

"Father talks for a while" (said Fair Cheetah)

... and after that?

(no takers)

And what does Father say at the end of Mass?

(again, no takers)

After the sermon, we hear what is called the petitions. We pray for our leaders, we pray for the sick, we pray for the parish...

"Oh yeah! Lord hear our prayer!" (said Rocking Horse)

And at the end of Mass, Father says 'The Mass has ended, go in peace to love and serve the Lord.' What do you think that means?

"That we can go!" (pretty much said in unison... duh!)

Well, yes... But he is saying that we need to SERVE the LORD! That means we can't just go away, we have to go and help others so we can show our love for God!

(much dramatics)

So then we read Isaiah 58:3-9 and Matthew 25:31-46. In both cases, whenever we read the part about "clothe the naked" there was a great uproar: "That's disgusting!" I had to calm them by adjusting it to explain that it could just mean the poor who don't have any money to buy any clothes.

Once we got past the clothing crisis, then there was great concern over "whatever you did for these least brothers of mine...". "Jesus didn't have any brothers!" Rocking Horse was quite emphatic on this matter! It took some convincing, but I think I was able to make the point that Jesus meant whenever we help others, we help Him. Tried to make the whole "Jesus is in all of us" point, which at least eased Sweet Pea Elephant's concerns.

(Maybe it would have been simpler if I just read the 'kiddie' version of the Bible verses, but then I would have missed all their wonderful questions and comments. And don't we all learn more by asking questions and solving problems than by sleeping through something that's easy for us?)

I went on to explain that we call these actions that Jesus taught us the "Seven Works of Mercy". I handed out the workbook pages, and Rocking Horse volunteered to read the section that talks about those works.

After she read the one about sheltering the homeless, Rocking Horse observed, "Well, it's not fair for people to be homeless. If someone lives in a gigantic house, it just isn't fair for someone else not to have any house at all." (she'll be ready for bear when we have the social justice discussion!).

We talked about how doing the works of mercy was being helpful to others. We talked about ways we could do some of those works: how we had brought food in at Thanksgiving time to give to the poor, how our moms save our clothes that are too small to give to others, how we visit our grandmas and friends when they don't feel good, how the priests go and visit people who are sick every day!

Then I described our craft for the day - that we were going to make a wreath out of the 7 Works of Mercy but tracing our hands and cutting them out and gluing them on. Construction paper! Tracing! Cutting! Gluing! Oh the joy! We got out our construction paper and scissors and got going!

Alas, I had forgotten my camera and even my cell phone and could not get pictures of all the wonderful designs the children created. But I did catch up with Rocking Horse on Monday and was able to snap a picture of her design. She had gone for the minimalist approach this time, choosing to use only white and green.




Time was so short it seemed... our session was over even as the children scrambled to finish the wreaths.

I handed out the worksheets, as well as the pages from the chapter in Blest Are We, and also the Family Time pages.

Side Trips: if you want more information, activities, and games...

• If you just have a bit of time, definitely go for the online activity for this chapter at Blest Are We
• If you have two-bits of time, check out the activities at MSSS Bible Lessons
• For more in-depth activities, check out some of the links in the lesson plan