October 2, 2011 SESSION SUPPLEMENT OCIC Year 1

Transcription

1 October 2, 2011 SESSION SUPPLEMENT OCIC Year 1 Session Title: Q3 : What is the Meaning of the Mass Session Materials: (Will be provided for you) Mini-vestments in liturgical colors Bell Holy Water Incense and Censor Chalice, Paten, Host Your Role at Mass Movie LITURGICAL YEAR / FEAST DAYS CATHOLIC TRADITION 27 th Sunday in Ordinary Time / Respect Life Sunday 10/4 St. Francis of Assisi 10/7 Our Lady of the Rosary View weekly readings: Learn more about the Saints: /Saints/byname.asp SESSION OVERVIEW 9:00 9:20 Breaking Open the Word Using the Celebrating the Lectionary Catechetical Guide, discuss the week s readings and the relevance to our lives. 9:20 10:10 Foundational Session Journey of Faith Prior to the session read the Journey of Faith Leader s Guide for Q3 and review the Q3 leaflet. This week s session is on the Meaning of the Mass and time permitting, we will start to explore its parts. We will continue to look at the parts of the Mass over the next two weeks as we prepare for our Mass Class presentation to the younger grade levels. Refer to the following pages for the plan and activities for the session The children may take home the Q3 leaflet What is the Meaning of the Mass at the end of the session.

2 THE MEANING OF THE MASS OPENING ACTIVITY: 1) When the children come in, have the 5 th grade mentors pair up in twos (you may have a few threesomes). Give each of the groups one of the Sense cards. Ask them to think about Mass and what they experience with that particular sense. 2) For the OCIC students have them take a card with the word Mass at the top. Ask them to think about a time they were at Mass and to write things they remember. They can also write down things they like about Mass and things they wonder about the Mass. (It is important to remember that these children may not have much Mass experience. One of the most important points of this session is to understand the beauty of the Mass and what the blessings we Catholics receive from attending Mass. This is not the time to talk about the sin of not attending Mass these children have no control over that.) If any of the OCIC children as What is Mass? you can ask them if they have been to our church on Christmas or Easter and ask what they remember about that. 9:05 9:25 BREAKING OPEN THE WORD 9:25-10:10 FOUNDATIONAL SESSION Note: There are two lessons here choose the one that you feel will reach your class in the best way. Lesson 1: We just finished reading the Gospel - The gospels are all contained in the Bible and we are going to talk about the Bible in the next few weeks. Every week though, Catholics join together to hear a part of the Gospel proclaimed and to receive Jesus in his Body and Blood. What do we call this coming together? (Mass) If asked here is the history of the word "Mass" - The word comes from the Latin words "Ite, missa est" which means "Go, it is sent". As Catholics today we use the word Mass to define when Catholics join together to hear the Word of God and receive Jesus in the Sacrifice of the Eucharist. At the end of the Mass we are called to GO - BE CHRIST TO OTHERS. Today we are going to explore why the Mass is so important in our faith. God created us, the Holy Spirit is God's life and love within us and when we love others we welcome Jesus into our lives.

3 The Mass is the most important way we remember Jesus Ask if anyone gathers together with their family for celebrations. (A good tie-in this time of year is Thanksgiving.) Tell a story of a family gathering. Incorporate in the story the words : Please Thank You I m Sorry I Love You There will be large signs with these words for you to show the children while you tell the story. As you emphasize each word (component), place that sign on the chalk rail. o Depending on your class, it may be interesting and engaging to use the 5 th grade mentors to help. Give three mentors one of the cards. You can start the story by saying something such as: o I was very excited for this Thanksgiving. Everyone from our family was coming. My cousins in Kansas, my grandmother was flying in from California. It has been a long time since we have been together o You then pass the story to one of the children holding one of the cards and they continue the story in their own way, but they have to use the words on their card. There is one last card in order to finish the story. This card says I Love You. After the last person finishes their part of the story, place the I Love You card on the chalk rail. Ask the class (especially the OCIC children) if they can finish the story to end with I Love You At Mass, our Catholic family comes together. We come from all over the area. Some people we know well, others we don t. We come to Mass to deepen our relationship with God the most important relationship we have. It is only through our relationship with God, that we can develop loving relationships with others. During the Mass we communicate with God and with our family. We have to opportunity to ask God for help with certain things going on in our life. We can talk to Him about things we did that were not kind or loving and ask His forgiveness and guidance to be more like Jesus in the week ahead. We can thank Him for the blessings we received We get to tell Him how much we love Him and all through the Mass we experience how He loves us. God wants us to be a part of the Mass. We, as members have a very important part in the Mass. God and the Catholic Church gave us the beautiful gift of the Mass.

4 OR Lesson 2: MASS A FEAST FOR THE SENSES Lesson plan Discuss how our senses work together to help us experience things (Take responses and examples from the children). Examples: o Instructions come with words and pictures sometimes it s easier to SEE how to do something instead of HEARING how to do it (other people may be the opposite) o We both see and taste foods. Some foods make us hungry just by seeing them (ice cram, cupcakes) SEEING We see many things at Mass. People, crucifix, candles. Some of what we see helps us know what is happening that day in the life of the church Discuss Liturgical colors (take the vestments out of the box): o GREEN Ordinary Time Most commonly used color During Ordinary Time we hear about Jesus life and the lessons He taught us (Refer briefly to this week s readings) o RED Days we focus on the Holy Spirit, suffering of Jesus (Good Friday, Palm Sunday) o WHITE Joy, celebration, Resurrection. We see white on Christmas, Easter, Mary s feast days, Weddings o PURPLE Sorrow, mourning, penance. We use purple during the seasons of Advent and Lent as these are times when we look at our lives and strive to be more Christ-like. HEARING Word of God o Briefly discuss the significance of the three readings: First reading (Old Testament) Second Reading (New Testament) Gospel (Usually ties in with the First Reading) Note: Reinforce what Old Testament and New Testament are Songs o Why we sing at Mass Helps to reinforce God s word. It is a communal celebration What would a birthday be like without singing Happy Birthday In the Gospel accounts of the Last Supper, the apostles joined together in song Songs and chants have always been a powerful form of communal prayer Bells o Helps us to focus on the gift of the Eucharist The transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ

5 SMELLS Candles are lit show the candles from the box o These candles have been used on the altar. o Pass the candles around they have a distinct smell o Incense has seeped into these candles (Show the small incenser) o They are also beeswax candles o Only certain candles can be used during Mass cannot be smoky or cause altar cloths to be stained o We need to use real candles not electric candles to respectful of the full symbolism of light. TOUCH Holy Water o We bless ourselves with Holy Water before and after the Mass. o What does water symbolize? Cleansing Part of Mass involves looking back on our days and renewing our desire to be more Christ like This is called the Penitential Rite and occurs at the beginning of the Mass. Refreshing Water refreshes us When we leave Mass after hearing the word of God and being part of Communion we leave with a renewed spirit. o Open the holy water bottle and review the sign of the cross and reinforce doing this when you come into and leave the church. Contact with other people o Sign of peace We realize we are all connected and are to love each other as God has commanded us to do. o Shaking hands and other gestures of comfort and kindness remind us of this role o Hands in prayer We pray for ourselves and others during Mass TASTE The Eucharist (take out the chalice and paten) o The Eucharist and the belief that during the Mass the breaded and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Jesus is a core of our faith. o Other Christians view this as symbolic o We will be exploring this in much more details over the next two years. o It is not a magic moment o It requires the presence of the priest, the Triune God (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) o It still tastes like bread and wine, but it is different in substance At 9:40 go to the Lobby to watch Your Role at Mass

6 TIME PERMITTING Explore the parts of the Mass. This is a good introduction into the next two weeks while we prepare for the Mass presentations. It is also a good way to discuss the changes to the Roman Missal. We will have a teacher guide to What s New About the Mass for you to reference over the next few weeks. Unscrambling the Parts of the Mass Game Directions 1. Place the 5 blue category cards (the main parts of the mass) up on the board next to each other in order. 2. Mix up index cards which contain different specific parts and words of the mass and place face down. 3. Pair a mentor and an OCIC child. Have each pair take turns, picking out a random index card. Have the student place the card(with a little tape) under the correct part of the mass in the correct order.