The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

AIM: To teach us to be humble. God does not like proud people. If we humble  ourselves, God will exalt us.  Jesus tells us a story of two people, one a pharisee and the other was a tax collector.  Jesus addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else. "Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector. The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, 'O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity -- greedy, dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted." First of all Who was a Pharisee? Pharisees were people from Jesus's times, who followed the Law of God very strictly. In fact  they followed them so strictly that they forgot the original purpose of the law. They were so caught up with "following the law" that they forgot to be human  good and kind.They thought they were very "holy" and were careful not to mix with anyone who may make them "unholy". They were also very proud and rarely cared for others. Who was a Tax Collector? Tax Collectors were Jews who used to work for the Roman Government. they used to collect taxes on behalf of the Romans. They were very unpopular with the Jewish people , because often the taxes were rather hard to come up with. Many tax collectors were also dishonest and would collect extra money in the name of taxes and kept the extra money for  themselves. This story is very simple, but what does it really mean?  Jesus clearly says that the prayer of the tax collector was more acceptable to God than the Pharisee!! But how can that be? The Pharisee used to follow God's law while the Tax collector was by nature not good!! What Jesus was telling us was that God hates pride. He does not like a boastful look. God can read our hearts and our minds. He knows what our thoughts are. We must not judge by outer signs or by what we see of a person from the outside. So even though visible a Pharisee was a good man, his heart was not good. While the Tax Collector seemed bad to others but in his heart he was God loving and God fearing.  The Moral of this Parable is  1) Be humble. God loves a humble heart.  2) Never judge a person by appearances. God can see his heart.

Prayer: 

Lord, help me to be a child- pure and kind. 

Help me to tell wrong from right. 

Make my heart like yours dear Lord - Big and good. 

Keep me from pride and vice. 

May I be close to You and Do what Your Heart tells me to do. 

Amen.

Action Song: 

Give me oil in my lamp. 

Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning, burning, burning

Give me oil in my lamp, I pray - Alleluia!!

Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning,burning, burning

Keep me burning 'til the break of day

Come on and Sing hosanna, sing hosanna

Sing hosanna to the King of Kings

Come on and Sing hosanna, sing hosanna

Sing hosanna to the King of Kings

Give me joy in my heart, keep me praising, praising, praising

Give me joy in my heart, I pray - Alleluia!

Give me joy in my heart, keep me praising, praising, praising

Keep me praising 'til the break of day

Come on and Sing hosanna, sing hosanna

Sing hosanna to the King of Kings

Come on and Sing hosanna, sing hosanna

Sing hosanna to the King of Kings

Parable of Dives and Lazarus

AIM: The aim in this parable is to make children sensitive to the sufferings of others, even though we enjoy many pleasures and good things. God wants us to share and care. Sharing is Caring.

















Jesus told a parable to his followers:

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' But Abraham said, " Remember  when you were alive- you had lot of luxuries and comforts while Lazarus suffered, but now in this life he is comforted but you are suffering" 

It is not wrong to have a comfortable life.It is not wrong to have food , a house , clothes. But anything, that is excess and without a care or thought for those who have nothing is not right. Like us, even the poor and suffering are God's children.  God gave us these comforts - but at the same time- we must remember that God gave us all this not for us to hoard for ourselves but to care for those who are less fortunate than us. 

Prayer: 

Dear God, I love you. I love you with my whole heart. Help me to love you more and more. 

Thank-you dear Lord for blessing me and my family. Help dear Lord to have a caring heart. 

Teach me love and compassion.Help me help those in need. 

Bless all  the children around the world today who need help and care. 

Amen. 

Action Song: 

 This little guiding Light of mine. 

This little Guiding light of mine, 

I'm gonna let it shine, 
This little Guiding light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine, 
This little Guiding light of mine, 
I'm gonna let it shine, 
Let it shine all the time, 
Let it shine.

Hide it under a bushel, oh no. 

I am gonna let it shine. 

Hide it under a bushel, oh no. 
I am gonna let it shine. 

Hide it under a bushel, oh no. 
I am gonna let it shine. 

Let it shine all the time, 
Let it shine.

The Good Samaritan

AIM: Our whole lives will be spent in actually putting into practice this Parable. We are to love our neighbors especially those who are most in need. We need to be sensitive to the needs , requirements of others - both materially and emotionally. As kids, we teach the children to recognize situations where they can help in any way they can. We also teach children to care.

This Parable begins by a young man asking Jesus a question, "Teacher, what must I do to have Eternal Life? " , he was asking Jesus what he could do to reach heaven and be with God and the Angels.

Jesus asked the man, "What does God's law tell you to do? "

This man was very well versed with the Scriptures of Jesus's time and had a ready answer.

He said , " Love the Lord your God with all your heart , with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbour as yourself"

Jesus replied, " You are right!! Do this and you will live in Heaven"

This young man was not convinced. He asked Jesus, " Who is my neighbour? "

Jesus decided to answer his next question with a parable.

Once there was a  Jewish man who was travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho. The road to Jerusalem was rocky with small hills all around. It normally took about 1-2 days to walk that distance. Since he was walking that distance he must have had some clothes, food, water and some money or valuables with him.
The man was probably enjoying his solitary walk and enjoying the views. All of a sudden a group of thieves jumped from nowhere and attacked this man. They attacked him and stole all his belongings before running away.

The poor man must have not been prepared for such an ambush and was lying, abandoned on the road - helpless.They not only stole his belongings , they even tore his clothes while hurting him. They made sure he would not be able to follow them by hurting him pretty bad. He was wounded and bleeding as well. The only way he could be saved was if some kind passerby helped him out. He was too weak to move and help himself.

In a little while a priest was passing by the same way. Thank God!! at least now, this Jewish man would get to safety and out of harms way. Well atleast that is what we would expect of him. sadly, the priest just continued to walk by and pretended he did not even see this helpless man!
A little while later, another man passed by. he was a Levite. Levites are people who used to work i God's temple and would sing praises to God. So yes, you could call them good and holy people after a priest.
So maybe the priest earlier was in a big hurry to attend a very important meeting and could not help this poor man, but now a Levite has come!! Good man that he is, surely he will help this poor man stranded helpless on the road!
But he too, saw this man and continued on the other side of the road - as though he did not exist!! How terrible - to be abandoned like that by the people you would have otherwise trusted!

In a little while a Samaritan man was passing by. You see, you must know that Samaritans and Jews were not exactly the best of friends in those days. In fact  they did not like each other at all! The Jews used to treat Samaritans quite bad - so they never ever really mingled at all. 

I do not expect the Samaritan would help a Jew!! After all, they were enemies! But the strangest thing happened. Humanity took over. The Samaritan saw not a Jew but a human being. He saw a man like him, wounded, hurt , helpless, bleeding and in need of quick help or he might die. 

He felt compassion. He stopped. He saw the extent of the hurt and began to bandage the man's wounds. He then kindly lifted this man and put him on his own donkey. He took him to an Inn (it was like what hotels are these days)In the Inn he cared for this Jewish man the whole night. 

The next day, he removed sufficient money, about 2 silver coins or 2 dinari and gave it to the Inn keeper. he asked the inn keeper to take good care of him and also promised to pay whatever extra money he might spend afterwards on this man. 

Jesus ended his parable by asking, " Which of these three men do you think was a neighbour to the man? " 

"The man who took pity on him" , answered the man. 

" Go and do the same" answered Jesus. 

Likewise, we too must care for others. We must ask Jesus to give us a kind heart and courage to help everyone, friends and others when they need our help. Only then can we be God's friends - and go to heaven.





Image Courtesy : Sermon4kids

PARABLE OF THE LOST COIN

AIM: To teach children how much God values us - and how much he wants us to be with Him always.
Teach them the value of saying sorry to God and being with Him at all times.

Revision:
What are Parables?
Parables are stories that Jesus told with examples to teach us special lessons. Parables were short and simple but had very good (read deep, moral and spiritual ) lessons behind them.

PARABLE OF THE LOST COIN: 

Images from here 

Bible Passage: Lk 15:8-10

Jesus was talking to a lot of people. He liked people and liked to listen to what they say. He enjoyed spending time with them and while He was at it, He loved talking to them about God,His Father in Heaven.
One day, while He was about His Father's work, some Pharisees and teachers of the law (Very interlligent people who studied a lot, taught others and followed laws very strictly) saw Him and started to grumble amongst themselves.
They wondered why Jesus, such a good man who never did anything wrong wanted to be with "sinners" or people who always disobeyed what God asked them to do.

Jesus wanted to tell them that God loved everyone, especially those who wanted to go far from God by disobeying them. He wanted to tell them that God eagerly waited His "lost " children's return and always kept looking for them.

He told them a story about a woman who had 10 silver coins.

In the time when Jesus lived, women used to wear a headband made of silver coins on their forehead. It was the "fashion" of those days. Like many women of her time, this lady too had a similar band. She was extremely fond of it, and never missed an opportunity to wear it. 

One day, as she was working, she noticed one coin missing. 

She was very upset. She could not rest till she found it. She began to search for it everywhere.

She swept her house.

 She searched every corner.

 She looked in different rooms.












She bent and searched the floor.

 As it grew darker, she lit a lamp and searched all over the place.
 High and low she searched, and could not rest.

Finally, in the end - she found her coin.

  What joy!! What happiness!

She found her lost coin!!She ran to tell her friends and neighbours about her find!!

She tells them , "Rejoice with me. I have found my lost coin" 

 And so it is with God our Father. Just like this woman did not rest till she found her lost coin and ultimately rejoiced when she found it, so are we precious to our Lord. He wont rest till he seeks us out and are re-united with Him.

Jesus went on to say, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of Angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Remember: 

God Loves You very Much.
He thought of you when He made the world.
How special you must be in God's eyes!!
God wants you near Him in your thoughts and in prayers.
He wants to love you and wants you to love Him.
When we wrong God by our actions, all we need to do is say "I'm Sorry, God" , that way God finds us even more easily.
All Angels in Heaven join God in celebration when we do that.


Action Song: 

Jesus Loves me.

Creation - God Made Everything

AIM:     God made everything. The aim of this lesson is to enforce the Creative Will and Purpose of God. 

Everything that God created is inherently good. God Blesses works of His hands. We are created in the image and likeness of God, Our Father. 

Creation Story according to Genesis
Reproduced from here

Kid's Animated Creation Video
 Reproduced from here

Isn't that simply Awesome? 
Our God is an Awesome God. 
Who can make such beauty? Such Magnificence? and all this for whom? 
For you - and for me - for us to love and care and take care of!!
So here is what we learnt : 

CREATION STORY : 

In the beginning there was Nothing - no earth , no people, no sky, no animals NOTHING!!

Can you imagine that? 

There was only empty space - it was dark - nothing!!!

But God had a magnificent plan - he wanted to MAKE something. He wanted to make Someone!! He wanted to make you and me!!!

So what do you think He did? 

Our God is so great and so loving - He thought of us and decided to make the world READY for us!! 

So here's what He did: 

DAY 1: 

And then God spoke in the darkness:  “Let there be light!”  

And right away there was light. 

God found it good and He divided the Light from the Darkness .

God gave them a name each. God called the Light time "Day" and the Dark time " Night" 

So that's how the very first Day and Night started!!

So the morning, evening , the night passed that was the FIRST DAY!!!

DAY 2: 

On the second day, God made the Land and then He made a Sky to hang above the Land. 

God stood back and took a look - He liked all that He saw and said, "It is Good" 

And so the second day was over.

DAY 3: 
God then got busy arranging the Land. He decided to separate the land and the water. 
He brought all the dry land together and called it Earth.Then he brought all the water together and called it Seas

When God finished this - He commanded the earth to bring forth grass, fruit yielding trees - and so he made lovely flowers of every kind roses, daffodils, tulips, apple trees, pear trees etc. 

And so the earth had flowers, grass and lots of tress!

God looked back and saw  that it was good. Morning came and Night came - that was the end of the third day!

DAY 4: 

The next day, God decided to make the Sun and the Moon.

Sun to rule over day time  

and moon to rule over night time. And it was done. The Sun and the Moon marked day and night as well as seasons. 

God looked on and saw it was all good. He was pleased with His work so far. 

So ended the fourth day. 

DAY 5: 

God decided He would not leave the sea alone and decided to make it even better. 

He wanted the water to have life - and so it was - Every kind of fish - big, small  started swimming in the seas!!

Splendid - don't you think? 

But that was not enough - God looked at the sky - saw it was empty and commanded it to have life as well. 

Lo and behold!! There were every type of bird- colourful and beautiful flying  in the sky!!!

The dusk fell over the water and the sky grew dark and that was the end of the fifth day.

DAY 6:

On Day 6, God decided to fill the land with animals - 

and animals there were of every colour, size and shape. 

there were horses, pigs, lions, tigers, bears, even rabbits and ants!!

After doing all that, God decided to add one last finishing touch - to complete it and make it better. 

He decided to make Man. 

And so a Man He made - He made Man in His own image and likeness!!

God saw all He made and said "It is Good" . 

DAY 7: 

On the seventh day, God rested. 

QUESTIONS TO PONDER 

1) Who made the Universe? 

Ans. God Made the Universe. 

2) Who made Everything? 

Ans. God made everything. 

3) Who made Man? 

Ans. God made man. 

4) Who made you? 

God made me. 

ACTION SONG: 

He's got the whole world in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands!

He's got the itty, bitty, baby in His hands,
He's got the itty, bitty baby in His hands,
He's got the itty, bitty baby in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands!

The Great Teacher

AIM:  To teach children that they can rely on an All Knowing God, and that Jesus is available t us at all times - whenever we pray. To introduce the concept of Bible Studies, the importance of Parables and an introduction to such life lessons.

There are various phases in a child's life wherein different people hold great importance to them.

Needless to say, the greatest influences in a child's life is the parent themselves. However, about the time a child begins school one of the most important person(s)  in their life invariably becomes their teacher. 

Teachers have an immense capacity and responsibility in these little minds. 

Like Spiderman says " With great Power comes Great responsibility" 

Hence, we as teachers try our best to be extra careful and encouraging to our kids. 

This section of my class began like this: 

( I began writing on the "White Board" . ) 

Teacher: Who does this all the time? 

Kids: TEACHER

Teacher : Good- do you like your teachers? 

Kids: YES!!

Teacher: Can you tell me some of your favourite Teacher's names? 

Teacher: Thats great!! Do you know you have ONE Great Teacher who can teach you every lesson in the world? 

He is Always Right!

Never has the wrong answer and can teach you so beautifully that you will understand verything He teaches immediately? 

He is so Great that he has taught me, your parents, your grandparents and everyone you can ever think of!!!

(Kids look on in awe!!) 

Teacher: Can anyone tell me who This Great Teacher is? 

(Silence) 

Teacher: This teacher did not teach in classrooms but wherever He met anyone who would listen. 

(Silence) 

Teacher: He taught in Temples or in a boat or in mountains and hills .......and He loved Children 

(recognition lights up a few faces. Some hands go up ) 

Kids: JESUS

Teacher: That is right - Jesus is the greatest teacher!!!

Do you know how he taught? He did not use notebooks, pens, Blackboards- so how did He teach? 

He taught us with stories!! Jesus loved to tell stories - His stories are called PARABLES!!

Parables are stories that Jesus told with examples to teach us special lessons. Parables were short and simple but had very good (read deep, moral and spiritual )  lessons behind them. 

We wound up with a short Prayer to The Greatest Teacher ever asking Him to help us Love Him more and more!!

My Resources

As Catechists we teach the Catechism as approved by the Catholic Church. 

All material taught by us has to be approved by The Church- most of the material has already been advised to us by our superiors. Additional material - if used - has to be approved by the Catholic Church. 

Below is some of the books i refer to for my Lessons. 

1) The Holy Bible  (NRSV Version)

    2) Kid's Bible (Illustrated) 

3) Picture Book of saints & 

4) More saints for you. 

 5) YouCAT - Youth catechism - 

basically our Catechism explained in a lingo that the younger generation can understand and appreciate.

 6) CCC - or Catechism of the catholic Church - HH Pope John Paul IInd

 7) CCCC - or Compendium of the Catholic Church

8) Word Quest for Standard 1. 

These are Bible Stories for Grade 1. Provided by our Vicariate. 

 9) The Catechism in Pictures - Our whole Catechism explained in lovely , lovely pictures

one of the pages in the book.