Faith To Go Podcast: The First Will Be Last
Hosted each week by the Faith Formation team at St. Paul's Cathedral in San Diego, David Tremaine, Maya Little-Sana and Jackie Pippin, the Faith To Go Podcast highlight themes from the Sunday Gospel reading for you to take into your conversations throughout the week.
Activity Time: First and Last Relay
Supplies: Space, Obstacles
Divide the children into teams. Each team can run a relay together in the designated area. The last one on each team to reach the other side will be the first ones to begin the next relay. Continue as you are able.
Jesus teaches us that the last are first. By this, he means that to be truly great, you have to have a servant heart. He wants us to serve others as our way of leading in the community.
Story Time: Gospel Reading and Reflection
Watch this video together and then use the discussion questions below to reflect as a family.
Discussion Questions:
1) I wonder what Jesus’ friends were talking about as they walked.
2) I wonder what Matthew had to say about it.
3) I wonder what it means to have ‘the last be first’.
4) I wonder what Jesus had just been teaching them.
5) I wonder why it is so important to welcome children.
Dinner Time: Disciples
Below is a prayer with which to start your meal and then discussion questions to explore this week’s topic with your family while you eat.
Prayer- God, you were present at the beginning. Be with me as I begin (a new school year, new job, new sport, new extracurricular). Comfort me when I am unsure of my new surroundings. Strengthen me when I stumble, and help me remember that your light shines in all places. All this I ask through you, my Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.
Amen.
Questions:
I wonder why Jesus didn’t want people to know he was in town.
I wonder what Jesus thought was really important.
I wonder what Jesus needed to teach his friends.
I wonder why Jesus needed to teach his friends so many things.
I wonder what is something you need to treat as important in your life.
Bedtime: Reflections for Children at the End of the Day
During your bedtime routine, invite your children into a time of reflection about their day, maybe by saying, "Did you know that God really wants to know what happened in your day today, and that God is always listening whenever you need to tell God something?" Then continue with these questions:
1) What are some things that happened today that you want to tell God about?
2) What is one happy thing that happened today? What is one sad thing that happened today?
3) Did you see God or feel God with you when those things were happening? Where did you see or feel God when those things happened today?
4) Read to your children this week’s scripture selection, then ask the questions that follows.
Mark 9:30-37
Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
Did the story remind you of anything that happened in your day today?
5) What are some things that you want to tell God that you are grateful for today?
Share some of your conversations in the comments below: