Gospel for May 10th, 2020, the Fifth Sunday of Easter
Jesus says, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.”
Gospel Reflection for Kids
In today’s gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that His father’s house has many dwelling places. And He says that He will go there to prepare a place for them. When they ask Jesus about how to get there, Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.”
The house that Jesus is talking about is like the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus often called the Temple His Father’s house.
Today, there is no longer a Temple in Jerusalem. But Jesus was really talking about preparing a place for us in the Church, and one day in heaven!
You see, in the Church, we can be with the Father while we are on Earth, and heaven is the place that we can be with Him after we leave Earth.
Gospel for May 3rd, 2020, the Fourth Sunday of Easter
Jesus tells us that He is the gate to the sheepfold, and whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd.
Gospel Reflection for Kids
In Today’s gospel, Jesus uses a story about the sheepfold. That’s the pen where the sheep are kept. Jesus says that people who do not enter the sheepfold through the gate are robbers. And whoever enters through the gate is a shepherd.
The Pharisees didn’t understand what Jesus meant, so He told them that He is the gate for the sheep.
Jesus was teaching everyone that He was the one that the Jewish people were waiting for. The Messiah.
Even though the Pharisees knew a lot of things, they could not forgive their sins and they couldn’t save people from death. But Jesus could.
If we remember to follow Jesus, then we can be saved, just like the people who followed Jesus back during the time when He was on earth.
Gospel for April 26th, 2020, the Third Sunday of Easter
The risen Jesus appears to His disciples on their way to Emmaus.
Gospel Reflection for Kids
In today’s Gospel, two of Jesus’ disciples are walking on a road to a place called Emmaus on the very first Easter.
Jesus came and started to talk to them, but they didn’t know it was Jesus.
Jesus began to teach them about the Bible and what the prophets said about Him. After this, He blessed the bread and gave it to them. Suddenly they were able to recognize that they were talking with Jesus the whole time! Then Jesus mysteriously disappeared.
This story reminds us of the Mass. At Mass, first we learn from the Bible, and then we eat the Eucharist. Just like how Jesus first taught His disciples about the Bible and then blessed the bread.
When Jesus disappeared, it was showing them that He is truly present in the Eucharist that He was giving them, just like He is truly present in the Eucharist at every Mass.
This week, we hear the story of Jesus’ resurrection on the very first Easter!
Gospel Reflection for Kids
In the Gospel for Easter, we hear the story of the Resurrection of Jesus.
Each of the Gospel writers tells the story a little different. We hear the story of St. Matthew during the Saturday night Easter Vigil. We hear the story from St. John on Easter Sunday in the morning.
There were guards watching Jesus’ tomb to make sure that no one would steal His body. And there was a big stone that was covering the tomb that was very hard to move.
But an Angel came and frightened the guards away and rolled away the stone. Jesus’ disciples came looking for Him. They went into the tomb, but didn’t find Him. All they could see left of Jesus was the cloth that He was buried in.
He had risen from the dead! And, Jesus is risen from the dead.
After rising from the dead on Easter all those years ago, Jesus continues to live forever. Jesus defeated death. He shows us that if we follow Him, we can live forever with Him in heaven.
This week, we hear the entire story of Jesus’ Passion and death as we prepare our hearts for Easter.
Gospel Reflection for Kids
In today’s Gospel, we hear the entire story of Jesus’ Passion.
The Passion of Christ is what we call it when Jesus suffered and died for our sins. He did this to save us from sin so that we can all go to heaven.
First, one of Jesus’ apostles, named Judas, does something very bad. He tells the chief priest that he will help them arrest Jesus if they give him money.
Next, Jesus celebrates the Last Supper with all of His twelve apostles. This is the very first Mass where bread and wine became Jesus’ body and blood.
After they eat, they go to a garden where Jesus prays to God the Father. He wants the Father to take away His suffering and death. But each time He asks, He says to the Father, “Your will be done, not Mine”.
Next, Jesus is arrested and questioned by the high priest. They tried to find a reason to put Jesus to death as a punishment even though He had done nothing wrong.
They decided to lie and say that Jesus committed blasphemy. Blasphemy is when you tell lies or say bad things about God. And they sentenced Him to death even though He never did that.
Before Jesus died, He suffered very much. People who were once nice to Him changed their minds and decided to be mean to Him instead.
Jesus was forced to carry His cross up a hill, and then He was hung on it until He died. All of these things took place on the holy days that we’ll celebrate later this week. Holy Thursday and Good Friday.
This was the only way that Jesus could rise from the dead in victory on Easter Sunday, which we will celebrate next week on Sunday.
After Jesus died and rose from the dead, many people all over the world started to believe in Him. And now we can all be forgiven for our sins and one day go to heaven.
This week, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead and many people come to believe in him.
Gospel Reflection for Kids
In today’s gospel, Jesus gets a message from his friends Mary and Martha that their brother Lazarus has died.
Jesus loves Lazarus very much and was very sad when He heard the news. But Jesus also knew that God the Father wanted to use the death of Lazarus to help bring people to believe in Jesus.
Martha tells Jesus that she knows that He could have saved Lazarus. She says, “I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God”.
But some of the people doubted Jesus and wondered why He was not able to stop Lazarus from dying. Then, Jesus performed a miracle! He raised Lazarus from the dead, and many of the people began to believe in Him.
This week, Jesus heals a man who was born blind. The Pharisees are not happy with Jesus, but the man Jesus heals comes to believe in Jesus.
Gospel Reflection for Kids
The Stations of the Cross are placed in most Churches to remind us of Jesus’ journey to the cross.
There is a tradition that every day, Our Lady would visit the different places that Jesus stopped during His passion. Over the years, other people would visit the Holy Land in Jerusalem and travel the same path that Jesus did when He carried His cross.
Not everyone can go to the Holy Land, though. So, instead, the Stations of the Cross were made, so everyone can meditate on Jesus’ passion and follow in his footsteps without actually going to the Holy Land.
There are the 14 Stations of the Cross:
Jesus is condemned to death
Jesus carries His cross
Jesus falls for the first time
Jesus meets His Mother
Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry His cross
Veronica wipes the face of Jesus
Jesus falls for the second time
Jesus consoles the women of Jerusalem
Jesus falls for the third time
Jesus is stripped of His garments
Jesus is nailed to the cross
Jesus dies on the cross
Jesus is taken down from the cross, and
Jesus is laid in the tomb
The Mass is a celebration of Jesus’ passion and death. When we are at Mass and see the Stations, we can remember that life is a journey.
We are called to walk with Jesus on this journey, and He walks beside us carrying His own cross.Jesus helps us when our lives are difficult or painful and we can help Him by offering Him our prayers and sacrifices.
This week, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at the well. He uses her to help spread God’s message.
Gospel Reflection for Kids
In today’s gospel Jesus meets a woman at a well and asks her for a drink of water. She was surprised that Jesus asked her for this. You see, the woman was a Samaritan and Jesus is a Jew. The Jewish people and the Samaritans did not get along with each other. But Jesus had a plan to use the woman to spread the message of God to her people.
Jesus taught her about worshiping God and told her that He is the Messiah. The one that God promised would come to save all people.
Jesus told her about the living water that He gives. He reminded us of Baptism. When we are baptised, water washes away our sin and gives us a new life with Jesus.
This week is the Transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus is showing His disciples what it will be like when He rises from the dead.
Gospel Reflection for Kids
In this week’s gospel Jesus is praying on a mountain with Peter, James, and John. While Jesus was praying, a miracle happened.
Suddenly Jesus’ face was shining like the sun, and His disciples could see all His heavenly glory! They saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus too!
Jesus was showing them what it would be like when He rose from the dead. Seeing this gave His disciples strength during the hard times when they had to see Jesus suffer and die.
That’s because they knew that Jesus would come back in glory. And we will too! One day, when we’re in heaven with Jesus.
When you have hard times during Lent, remember how great things will be when Easter comes and we celebrate Jesus rising from the dead.