Faith To Go Podcast: Healing is Scary
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: Vegetable Garden
Supplies: paper plate, construction paper, paint, yarn, scissors, glue
This week’s activity comes from nontoygifts.com.
We are making a garden with some veggies.
A garden is an incredible thing. You prepare the soil, you plant seeds, you keep weeds away, and water your seeds. Your sprouts will begin to grow and you will give them sunshine. This is how Jesus tends to us. He might not be physically present with us, but he gave us the Holy Spirit to help tend to us so that our faith can grow deep, wide, and tall.
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 if your family has ever moved. I wonder what it was like. (If you haven’t, how about changing schools or a class.)
2) I wonder what was something you were sad to leave.
3) I wonder what is something you were excited to experience.
4) I wonder how your family reacted to the move.
5) I wonder how the move made you stronger.
Dinner Time: Leaving
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-
Alleluia! You have risen! Alleluia!
It is a mystery.
You were nailed on a cross.
You died.
They put you in a tomb and sealed the door.
It is a mystery.
The tomb is now empty.
You are alive.
Death is nothing to you.
It is a mystery.
You have opened a door for me.
Continue to show me the way to God.
Help me remember the joy of this day.
Alleluia! You have risen. Alleluia!
Questions:
1. I wonder if you have ever had a friend move away.
2. I wonder how you felt about them leaving.
3. I wonder why your friend moved.
4. I wonder if you have ever called your friend or sent them a letter.
5. I wonder what things your friend taught you that you carry with you.
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 5:1-9
Everyone was in Jerusalem for a Jewish festival. Jesus was there and he walked by a pool of water by the Sheep Gate. People who couldn’t walk or see would lie around the water, waiting for a cure. Jesus came across a man there who had been lying there, sick, for thirty-eight years. Jesus said, “Do you want to get better? Do you want a better life for yourself?” The sick man said, “Yes, I do. But there’s no one to help me get to the place where I might be cured, down by the water. I try, but I’m so slow other people crowd me out.”
Jesus told him to stand up right then and there, pick up the bed he’d been lying on so no one would trip over it, and walk out of there. The minute Jesus said that, the man was made whole again. He picked up his bed and began to walk for the first time in thirty-eight years. And, by the way, that day was a Sabbath day.
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: