In the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Come, Holy Spirit and fill the hearts of your
faithful. Light the fire of your love in them.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created,
and you will renew the face of the earth. We ask
this through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and
reigns forever and ever. Amen.
Walk to the crocus:
We began with a walk to the church, to see
the crocus that we planted in October. The crocus will
return year after year during the season of Lent, and
they will multiply year after year. As the years pass,
there will be more and more crocus.
Liturgical Calendar: We are in the season of Lent now. This past
Sunday, priests wore purple chasubles. Lent is one of the
two purple seasons of the Church calendar. This is Father
Hammond at Mass on Sunday. This coming Sunday, we'll
still be in Lent, but priests will not be wearing purple
chasubles. They will be wearing PINK chasubles. They'll
call the color "rose," but it's pink.
BIBLE READINGS:
Every Sunday at Mass, there are three readings from the
Bible. The 1st reading is from the Old Testament. The 2nd
reading is from the New Testament (but not from one of
the gospels). The 3rd reading -- the one that is read by
a priest -- is from one of the four gospels: the book of
Matthew, the book of Mark, the book of Luke, or the book
of John. Usually, in this class, we read only the gospel
reading that the priest read on Sunday. But on this past
Sunday, the reading from the Old Testament was an
important one. It is one that educated people would have
heard, so we're going to read it, in addition to the
gospel reading. It is in your first children's bulletin for this class.
We've talked about Moses before. God gave Moses the Ten
Commandments, and Moses shared them with the people.
Moses lived about 1,300 years before Jesus, or maybe even
1,500 years before Jesus. No one is exactly sure, but
Moses lived many, many, many generations before Jesus.
The part of Moses' life that was read at church on Sunday
happened before God gave Moses the Ten Commandments. This
part of Moses' life happened when he was a young man.
There are two things you need to know to understand this
reading:
1st, a "pharaoh" was like a king in ancient
Egypt. He was very powerful.
And, 2nd, Moses was an Israelite. And Israelites were
held as slaves by the Egyptians.
Moses and the Burning Bush
While Moses
was tending a flock of sheep,
the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses within a
burning bush.
The bush was on fire, but it was not burning up.
God called to Moses from within the bush,
"Moses! Moses!"
What did
God then say to Moses?
"I am the God of your father,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob.
I have indeed seen the misery
of my people in Egypt.
I have heard them crying out
because of their slave drivers,
and I am concerned about their suffering.
So now, go.
I am sending you to Pharaoh
to bring my people the Israelites out of
Egypt."
Moses said
to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and
say to them, 'The God of your
fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me,
'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell
them?"
God told Moses, "I am who I am."
Moses went
to Egypt,
and God sent 12 plagues on the Egyptians.
The Pharoah finally let the Israelites go.
COLORING SHEET:
GOSPEL: The gospel reading on Sunday was from
the Gospel of Luke. It tells about a time when Jesus told
a parable to people, to try to teach them. A
"parable" is a little story that teaches about
how to be good and how to act. Jesus told many parables.
The lesson in this parable is that we should bear good
fruit, that we should act as Jesus would act and as Jesus
would want us to act. People call this, "the parable
of the fig tree." It is in your second children's bulletin for this class.
Repent and Bear Fruit
Jesus said, "REPENT."
A man had a
fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he went to
look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he
said to the man who took care of the vineyard,
'For three years now I've been coming to look for
fruit on this fig tree and have not found any.
Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?"
How did the
man in Jesus' parable respond?
"Sir, leave it alone for one more year, and
I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears
fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it
down."
SNACK: Remember our
prayer before meals?
Bless us, O Lord, and these gifts that we are about to
receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
[Oranges, apples, blueberries, but no figs. ]
TEXTBOOK: This week
we’ll do Lesson # 24. It begins on page 205. The
textbook lesson is called, "How are we called to
repentance today?" Let's turn to page 205.
CLOSING PRAYERS: Time
to say goodbye. :-) We'll begin with the Our Father.
Hail Mary, full of grace,
the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy
Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
Saint Michael the Archangel, please defend us in
battle.
Be our protection against the wickedness and
snares of the devil.
May God rebuke the devil, we humbly pray.
And do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by
the Power of God, cast into hell Satan and all
the evil spirits,
who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of
souls. Amen.
Statue of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, at de Chantal.
She founded the parochial school system in the USA. "If I had to advise
parents, I should tell them
to take great care about the people with whom their children
associate."
] 
