Faith To Go Podcast: The Least Expected
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: Water Jug Relay
Supplies: bowl of water, pot, spoon, timer
Divide the children into teams and give each team a large bowl of water, a spoon, and a pot. Set a timer for the amount of time you want the game to last. Each team player will take his turn in spooning some water into the pot and then take the spoon back to the next player who will then go and spoon water into the pot. Continue until the timer runs out. The team with the most water in their pot is the winner!
Activity 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) Have you ever been to a wedding?
2) What happened at the wedding at Cana?
3) Why did Jesus think his time hadn’t come yet?
4) How was Jesus’ Miracle not expected?
5) How do you show hospitality?
Dinner Time: Hospitality
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-
Christ is born!
Praises to our Creator God,
who became flesh for us most fully in Jesus, the Incarnate Word
To become one of us, human, yet divine.
Christ is born!
My heart sings that the time of waiting is over.
The light has overcome the darkness as
The true gift from God has arrived.
Christ is born!
Praises to our Creator God, who is as close as the love that binds us,
one to another,
Filling us with awe and wonder at such miracles.
Christ is born!
Help us to live the joy of Jesus’ birth this and every day,
Knowing that the Spirit of Christ dwells in us
Guiding us to be his witnesses in all that we say and do
Throughout the year.
Christ is born!
Questions:
What does your family do to make people feel welcome in your home?
Have you ever been to a party where something didn’t go right?
Describe what happened.
How do you handle things when something goes wrong?
What ways do you try to make other people feel welcome?
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.
John 2:1-11
On the third day, Jesus and his mother Mary and the disciples went to a wedding in a village called Cana. The party was fun until they ran out of wine. Mary told Jesus the wine was gone, like she wanted him to do something about it. And Jesus said to her, “I don’t know that I should do anything at all about it, Mother. The time isn’t right.” His mother whispered to the servants, “Just do whatever he tells you.”
Jesus thought more about it. The Jewish people washed themselves from huge stone water pots. And standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the guys in charge of the win, “Fill those jars with water.”
And they filled them up to the very top. He said to them, “Now take a cup of it to the wedding host.” So they took it.
The host tasted it, and it wasn’t water anymore. It was wine! The servants knew what had happened, but the host wondered where this good wine had come from. “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then when everyone has had plenty to drink and they don’t care how good the wine is, then you serve the regular wine. But you have kept the best wine until now! No one does that!”
This was a sign that God was working through Jesus. It was the very first sign, and people could see it and even drink it! It revealed who Jesus was and his disciples believed in him.
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: