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Week of October 7, 2018: Hard Hearts (Ages 11-18)



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.


 

Reads: New Brunswick Anglican and Roman Catholic Bishops Unite in Child Development Campaign

Questions:

  1. What is this article about?

  2. Why is it important for these two different denominations to work together?

  3. How does that reflect what Jesus teaches us?

  4. What does the project hope to enable?

  5. How do both of the projects reflect the Gospel?

  6. Why is ministering to children important?

 

Views and Qs: I am a Missionary

Watch this video together and then use the discussion questions below to reflect as a family.


Discussion Questions:

  1. What do you think a missionary is?

  2. What does Rev. Stephanie Spellers think a missionary is?

  3. What is a way that you are sent for God’s mission?

  4. How do you share the Good News of Jesus in your daily interactions?

  5. How does this relate to having a welcoming church?

 

Feast and Faith: Stumbling

Prayer- God who traces my coming in and my going out,

Give me confidence and hope.

Keep me safe from darkness.

Bless those who cross my path.

Help me see your light in all people.

Discussion – In the Gospel today, we see people bringing children to Jesus so that ‘he might touch them’ but then the disciples were indignant about what he was doing.

Questions

  1. Why did Jesus speak sternly to the disciples in this Gospel?

  2. How did Jesus respond to them?

  3. What do you think Jesus meant?

  4. Why does the Kingdom of God belong to children and ‘such as these’?

  5. How can we love like children love?

Final nugget – Children have a way of having a trusting and open heart. That is something that Jesus wants us to be mindful of in our daily lives. We are called to not become jaded but to love more fiercely.

 

Stay and Pray: A Devotion for Families at the Close of the Day

Each week we feature a way for your family to reflect and pray together. For families with older children this is an at home liturgy for your family to participate in together. It is a daily devotion for families adapted from The Book of Common Prayer.

Before you begin, take a few moments to decide who will read the scripture reading and who will read the collect and closing. Read the Psalm and Lord's Prayer in unison.

After a moment of silence, begin with the Psalm.

Psalm 26

(Read in unison)

1 Give judgment for me, O Lord,

for I have lived with integrity; *

I have trusted in the Lord and have not faltered.

2 Test me, O Lord, and try me; *

examine my heart and my mind.

3 For your love is before my eyes; *

I have walked faithfully with you.

4 I have not sat with the worthless, *

nor do I consort with the deceitful.

5 I have hated the company of evildoers; *

I will not sit down with the wicked.

6 I will wash my hands in innocence, O Lord, *

that I may go in procession round your altar,

7 Singing aloud a song of thanksgiving *

and recounting all your wonderful deeds.

8 Lord, I love the house in which you dwell *

and the place where your glory abides.

9 Do not sweep me away with sinners, *

nor my life with those who thirst for blood,

10 Whose hands are full of evil plots, *

and their right hand full of bribes.

11 As for me, I will live with integrity; *

redeem me, O Lord, and have pity on me.

12 My foot stands on level ground; *

in the full assembly I will bless the Lord.

Mark 10:2-16

(read by assigned person)

Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

Prayers for Ourselves and For Others (take this time to each offer one person/event that you would like to hold in prayer as well as one thing you are thankful for)

Dear God, tonight I ask your prayers for.......

and I give you thanks for ..........

Amen

The Lord’s Prayer

(read in unison)

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those

who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen

The Collect

(read by assigned person)

Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Share some of your conversations in the comments below:

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