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.

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gospel reflection: What do you remember from today’s reading?

A man asks Jesus who his neighbour is. Who should he be loving and caring for? So Jesus tells a parable – a special story – to explain. A man is travelling to Jericho when he meets some robbers who beat him up, take all his money and then leave him injured on the side of the road.

A priest and a Levite (the Levites helped the priests in the Temple) see the wounded man, deliberately cross over the road and walk on by. Do you think this is the right choice for these important people to make? Why/why not?What would you do if you came across someone who was hurt, unwell or sad?

Then Jesus says that a Samaritan (the Jewish people and the Samaritans didn’t get along) saw the man on the ground. He felt sorry for the injured man and went to help him. What did the Samaritan do for the man on the ground? Why do you think the Samaritan wanted to help the injured man?

Imagine you are the man who is hurt and lying on the ground and the Samaritan is helping you. What would you think and feel? You might be very surprised because Samaritans and Jews didn’t usually talk to each other or help each other. Next, the Samaritan takes the man to an inn to rest, he pays the innkeeper and promises to return to pay any more expenses.

When he has finished the story, Jesus asks who the better neighbour is. The priest, the Levite or the Samaritan? What do you think the answer is and why? What does this story tell us about how we should treat people? Jesus is saying that everyone is our neighbour, no matter where they come from, or where in the world they live.

At the end of the story Jesus tells the man who asked the question about who our neighbour is to go and do the same as the Samaritan. This is what we are all called to do – to try and help one another. We are all God’s children. We are all neighbours to each other and so no one should be without the support they need in difficult times. It doesn’t matter where they live, what colour they are or what religion they belong to.

Our gospel story today shows us that everyone is our neighbour in Christ. How will you show your love for your neighbours both here and around the world in the coming week? What will you do?

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