Faith To Go Podcast: When Life Crumbles Around Us
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: Follow the Leader
The children will follow a leader around an obstacle course. If the lead child goes under an obstacle, the other children must do the same. If a child goes around an obstacle, then all the children will do the same. If there is an item on the ground or floor, the child could pick it up and put it down, or walk in a circle around the item, or whatever the leader would like and all the children must do the same. Choose different children to be the leader through all the obstacles. Encourage the children to use their imagination so that the followers will have to pay close attention and not get tricked.
Adapted from: Sermons4Kids
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) What happened in this video?
2) How did the person crash her vehicle?
3) Why was she scared of the other girl?
4) What assumptions did she make because of how different the girl looked?
5) How can it be hard to look past the first thing we see?
6) How does Jesus want us to treat other people that look different?
Dinner Time: Nifty Buildings
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 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.
Questions:
What is a cool building you see around our home or your school?
Why do you think it looks so cool?
What is the building for?
Do you think it’s easy to be distracted by outward appearances?
Do you ever judge if something is good or not by how it looks?
How can we try to look beyond what something looks like?
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 13:1-8
Jesus walked out of the temple and one of his disciples said, “Can you believe how big that temple is! Look at the size of those stones!” Jesus said, “You mean these buildings here? I’m telling you, soon these stones will not be left standing; all will be thrown down.” They got to the Mount of Olives where they could see the temple. When they were alone with him, Peter, James, John, and Andrew said, “When is this going to happen? What signs will there be?” Jesus said, “You’ll need to watch out because all kinds of people will pretend to know the time and place. Wars will begin. But that won’t be the end. That will be the beginning of the end. Nations will be fighting; there will be earthquakes and famines. Things will get worse before they get better. That will tell you something new is about to be born.”
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: