Christmas Eve Mass

This year our class was invited to participate in the Christmas Eve Mass as part of the Gospel. We had 10 kids from our class participate and a handful of siblings filled in the extra parts at the last minute.

Everyone did such a fabulous job and we had a great response from the congregation. People love to see the kids participating in the Mass.

A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to Luke.


In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustusthat the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment,when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.

And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David,to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

While they were there, the time came for her to have her child,and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,because there was no room for them in the inn.

And the great new star that had been following the couple stopped and came to rest over the place where the child was born.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock.The angel of the Lord appeared to thema nd the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them,

You have nothing to fear, I come to bring you good News.
You have nothing to fear, I bring tidings of great joy,
which shall be shared with by all people.
You have nothing to fear, You have nothing to fear.
This Day in the City of David a Child is born, a Savior, the Messiah and Lord.
Let this be a sign to you: the Babe will lie in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes

And suddenly there was with the angels a multitude of the heavenly hostpraising God and singing:

Glory to God in highest heaven, Glory to God in the Highest; And on earth, Peace to those whom he favors. You have nothing to fear; you have nothing to fear.
When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go, then to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place,which the Lord has made known to us.”

So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph,and the infant lying in the manger.When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child.All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds.

And Mary kept all these things,reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.
Here is a video of their part in the Gospel (or click here to go right to YouTube):

Great Job!

December 4 and Advent Mass

At class on December 4th we spent most of the class talking about Christmas. We discussed that it was coming up on the 2nd week of advent, but we would be talking about Christmas in class because it was our last class before the new year.

As always, we began the class with a prayer around our prayer table.

After that, we did a reading of the nativity story (you can see it on the video below)...

and then we colored pieces to the Nativity scene and glued them on a paper. We drew in Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus and retold the story as we did so.

After that, we discussed all of the people that are involved in making all of the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Masses possible at church. Everything from decorations to music to the priest and the altar servers. Each child thought of someone they wanted to write a thank you note to to let them know their hard work is appreciated. Everyone took a lot of time and put a lot of thought into their notes. Ms. Stephanie delivered them to the church mailboxes right after class.

Homework:

-Spend time working on your Reconciliation Book

-Attend Mass on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day

Did you know?

Because Christmas falls on a Saturday this year, there will be regular weekend Masses on Sunday. Attending Mass on Christmas Eve/Day doesn't "count" for Sunday! If you come to 9:15 on December 26th, you will see Ms. Stephanie there!

On December 11th we had our advent Religious Ed Mass. It was a great opportunity to gather all of the Religious Ed families together to celebrate Mass. Our class sang a song for the congregation in celebration of Jesus coming to us on Christmas. This song reminded us and everyone that Jesus is the light of our world.



Don't Forget!

To register your child for A Night in Bethlehem on December 21st 5:30-8:30! Click on the link to print off a registration form.

*Tip you can click on the videos to see them in a larger size on YouTube.