Faith To Go Podcast: Salt and Fire
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: Needle in a Haystack
Supplies: Salt
Put a tiny amount of salt (1/8 teaspoon) in a pile somewhere in a room. Have your children try to locate the salt. You can tell them if they're getting "hot" or "cold" as they go through the room.
Salt is something that can add delicious flavor or accent to things, but it can also be hard to find at times. It's important to search ourselves and find what about each of us helps bring flavor to the world around us.
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 it means to stumble.
2) I wonder if you have ever stumbled before.
3) I wonder what it feels like when you fall.
4) I wonder how Jesus would feel if you made someone else stumble.
5) I wonder what we can do to help others, so they don’t stumble.
Dinner Time: Unity
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 what Jesus means when he says, “whoever is not against us is for us”.
I wonder who Jesus wants us to love.
I wonder how you can love others even when you don’t agree with them.
I wonder why it is hard to love people that you don’t agree with.
I wonder who is someone that isn’t against you that you can love more this week.
I wonder how you can love them more this week
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 9:38-50
John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
“For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
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: