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.

Second Sunday of Easter

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

After his death and resurrection, Jesus appears to the disciples and wishes them peace. How did they feel when they saw Jesus alive again? But one of the disciples wasn’t there when Jesus appeared. Can you remember who that was? And what did Thomas say? Did he believe the others when they told him they had seen Jesus?

Thomas said he would not believe that Jesus was risen from the dead unless he saw it for himself. Thomas wanted to see the holes in Jesus’ hand, made by the nails on the cross.

We are all a bit like Thomas sometimes. Can you tell me about a time you didn’t believe something someone told you, until you’d seen it for yourself?

In just the same way, it isn’t always easy for us to believe in God and Jesus. Even though we listen to the gospel and hear about God’s love for us from people at church, home and school, it can be difficult to keep believing when things go wrong or when we are sad or afraid.

But what does Jesus say to Thomas?

Jesus appears again to Thomas, shows Thomas the holes in his hands and wishes him peace. He tells Thomas to believe, and he proves that he is real. But he also says, “How happy are those who believe without seeing me!”

What do you think this means?

We are blessed by God, because we believe in Jesus even though we haven’t seen him like the disciples did. Even though it is difficult for us to believe sometimes, we try to remember that God always loves us.

When Jesus appears to the disciples, he says, “Peace be with you.” We know that our world is not always peaceful. People get angry, people fight in many different places and there is war in our world.

Because we believe in Jesus, we are called to share his peace with others. How do you think we can do that?

Perhaps by saying sorry when we have done something wrong, trying to make good choices, and by making the world a fairer and better place for all people to live in.

Unlike Thomas, we don’t need to see him to believe that Jesus is the risen Son of God. Let’s remember God’s love for us, even in the saddest and hardest times, and share the peace of Christ with each other all around the world.

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