Chapter 1: Sunday is Special

Objectives:

• The Eucharist is one of life’s greatest blessings.

• Every day is a new day in our journey with God – and every day God has a message he is trying to share with us.

• Going to Mass on Sunday is a great way to show God we are grateful for all our blessings.

Opening Prayer:

Start by saying, “Let’s take a moment in silence to be still and quiet and open ourselves up to whatever God wants to lead us today.”

Have your child/children bless themselves and read the prayer:

God, our loving Father, thank you for all the ways you bless me. Help me to be aware that every person, place and adventure I experience is an opportunity to love you more. Fill me with a desire to change and to grow, and give me the grace to become the best-version-of-myself in every moment of every day. Amen.

Pages 46-47 are a review of what you have learned in this chapter. Give your child time to answer all of the questions and review the answers with them at the end. Suggest that they may have to look back in the chapter to find the answers to some of the trickier questions.

Read the closing prayer on page 50-51.

We all need to take a break from time to time to rest. Each night we rest by sleeping. And once a week, God wants us to take a special rest so that we can be filled with joy and share that joy with everyone who comes into our lives.

Sunday is the Sabbath. The Sabbath is a special day of rest and worship. There are lots of special days, but most of them happen just once a year, and some of them only happen once in your lifetime. One of the beautiful things about Sunday is it happens every week.

Discuss some ways you can make every Sunday a special day. Pick three of those ways to practice this week.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; he has come to his people to set them free. He has raised up for us a mighty savior, born of the house of his servant David. Through his holy prophets he promised of old, Amen.