If your mum or dad asks you to help with a job, what do you say? Yes or No?
More importantly, what do you do?
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us about a father who asked his older son to help in his vineyard. The son at first said “no”, he didn’t want to. But then he changed his mind and went to work in the vineyard.
Later in the day, the father asked his second son to help in the vineyard. He said “yes, of course”… But then he went off and did something else instead.
Which son do you think did what his father asked?
The one who said he would help or the one who actually went and helped in the vineyard?
Jesus’ message for us today is that it doesn’t matter what you SAY, it matters what you DO.
What can you do to help others like God the Father asks us to?
Children’s Liturgy live: We aim to restart the Children’s Liturgy during Sunday morning Mass at St Alphonse on Sunday 4 October 2020. More details soon.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells a story about some workers who thought their boss treated them unfairly.
The boss gave some of them jobs to do first thing in the morning. Then he gave some more workers jobs to do later in the day. Finally, he gave some workers jobs to do just one hour before the end of the working day. And then he paid them all the same amount of money.
The ones who started first thing in the morning were very upset and complained that the boss was treating them unfairly.
But the boss told them that he had paid them what he had promised. If he was generous and paid the others the same amount, he said, that was up to him.
“In this way,” Jesus said, “those who are last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Sometimes things can seem unfair. But what if the workers who worked only one hour had not been given a job to do? They would have earned nothing and had to go home empty-handed. Would that have been fair?
Children’s Liturgy live: We aim to restart the Children’s Liturgy during Sunday morning Mass at St Alphonse on Sunday 4 October 2020. In the meantime, we will continue to post the Children’s Liturgy resources online every Sunday.
Peter came to Jesus and asked him, “How many times must I forgive someone who does me wrong, Lord? Should it be as many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “Not just seven times, Peter, but as many as seventy-seven times!”
Then Jesus told a parable about the kingdom of heaven: “There was once a king who had many servants. One servant owed the king a great deal of money, but he had nothing to pay him with. ‘I will sell you and your family as slaves and use the money to pay for your debts’, said the king. The servant fell to his knees and begged for another chance. ‘Somehow I will repay everything I owe’, he pleaded. The king was a kind and generous man and, taking pity on the servant, cancelled his debts and let him go. Later that day, the same servant met another man who owed him a small amount of money. When he could not pay what he owed, the servant had him thrown into jail. When the news reached the king, he sent for the unforgiving servant. ‘Could you not forgive someone just as I forgave you?’ he asked. Then he had the servant thrown into prison until he could pay back all that he owed the king.”
Jesus said, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat you unless you forgive others with all your heart.”
Every Sunday we remember to say sorry to God for whatever we have done wrong. And God forgives us:
When we doing something wrong to someone else, it is important to say sorry.
And when someone else says sorry to us, it is important to forgive them.
That is how we all stay friends and share in God’s love for all of us.
Children’s Liturgy live: We aim to restart the Children’s Liturgy during Sunday morning Mass at St Alphonse on Sunday 4 October 2020. In the meantime, we will continue to post the Children’s Liturgy resources online every Sunday.
“When two or three of you meet together in my name, then I will be there with you.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that it is really easy to pray to him. When just two or three of us get together to pray – even online! – Jesus is there with us.
Just as we should do our best to make up to our friends and family when we have an argument, we should take every chance to pray to Jesus. Because that effort is worth it and Jesus will answer our prayers.
A way to pray
The universal sign of asking for something is to hold out our open hands, hoping that what we need will be given us. This is something we all do every day without even thinking about it. It is a most appropriate gesture for prayer, where it is a sign of our need of God, our dependence on God, and our expectation that God will hear us and be generous to us.
Place your hands in your lap, open to receive.
Think how good God is and how God loves us.
Think of how Jesus fed people, forgave people, taught people, healed people and loved people.
Close your eyes and ask God for what you need.
Imagine God gently placing all good things into your open hands.
Now say the “Our Father”, with your hands still open, in the same way as we do in Church when we return from the Children’s Liturgy.
Children’s Liturgy live: We aim to restart the Children’s Liturgy during Sunday morning Mass at St Alphonse on Sunday 4 October 2020. In the meantime, we will continue to post the Children’s Liturgy resources online every Sunday.
In the Gospel today, Jesus tells his disciples that he will suffer and die. They don’t want this to happen. But Jesus says that, even if it is hard, it is the right thing to do, and it will be worth it in the end. Everyone who takes up their cross and follows God will be rewarded by the Father in Heaven.
Saint Oscar Romero was the Archbishop of San Salvador, a city in Latin America. In 1980 he was killed for the work he did to spread God’s Word and help the poor. In his country, it is traditional to paint crosses not only with the image of Jesus but also with pictures from everyday life. It shows how we can all take up our cross and be followers of God in everything we do.
You can colour in your own Romero Cross here. (Thanks to CAFOD for the image and the inspiration.)
