St. Faustina: Prophet of Mercy

In the year 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Sister Faustina Kowalska. This humble and simple Polish nun became the first Saint of the New Millennium. Her life and witness have led millions to discover the power of God’s merciful love. (Parents, this video has some subtitles, so be prepared to read to younger children.)

Doubting Thomas
In this four-minute video, meet Thomas, the doubting disciple. See if Thomas believes some amazing animal facts, and find out how Thomas went from doubting Jesus to making a great statement of belief!

You may enjoy playing the Doubting Thomas game (see Faith-Based Games) before you watch this video. It prepares children to think about what they believe and don't believe with some fun trivia questions.

God's Story: Palm Sunday


This children's video explains the story of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem.

 

Holy Week in 3 Minutes


Your whole family can get a review of Holy Week in a mere three minutes!

Time-Lapse: Watch Flowers Bloom Before Your Eyes









This video is just for fun. It's the Easter season. It's springtime. Enjoy watching some flowers bloom!

Publisher RCL Benziger has provided a Word Search full of terms related to Our Lady, just in time for May. Click on the picture to download it.

Here's a fun coloring page for youngsters from publisher RCL Benziger. Click on the picture to download it.

April 19, the second Sunday of Easter, is Divine Mercy Sunday. Are you curious about the origins and meanings of this celebration? The two websites linked below provide a good overview. Also, be sure to check out the video on St. Faustina included under Family Videos.

Divine Mercy Sunday
Since the year 2000, the universal Church has concluded the Octave of Easter by celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday. This great solemnity calls the faithful to rejoice in the merciful love of God as it is most profoundly manifested in the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ.

But what exactly is the Divine Mercy? Where did this devotion to the Divine Mercy begin? Is this a new feast day in the Church?

Everything You Need to Know about the Divine Mercy Devotion
The Divine Mercy devotion is a modern devotion to the attribute of God's infinite mercy that was promulgated by St. Faustina Kowalska in Poland, and later to the the Universal Church by Pope St. John Paul II ("The Mercy Pope").

This devotion is multifaceted and has many different components: it involves a divinely inspired painting of Jesus with attached promises for its veneration, vocal prayers (the Divine Mercy chaplet and Divine Mercy Novena), a book (The Diary of Faustina Kowalska), a Holy Hour (3 o'clock), and a solemn feast day with attached indulgences (Divine Mercy Sunday).

Sit down with your family and have everyone write down as many ideas as they can for prayers and positive actions on slips of paper. Examples include “Pray for our grandparents,” “Pray for soldiers,” “Pray the Hail Mary together as a family,” “Thank God for five things,” “Listen to a song about Jesus,” “Show extra love to a pet,” “Let my brother pick the game we play,” etc. Put all the slips of paper in a bowl. At breakfast, have everyone pick a slip of paper. At dinner, have everyone report back on how they completed the action on the paper and how it made them feel.

Doubting Thomas Game

This game is a good set-up for watching the Doubting Thomas video (see Family Videos above). Put an “I Believe It!” sign on one side of the room and an “I Doubt it!” sign on the other.  The leader reads each question and then the kids run to the side they picked in response to the question. Sometimes it's hard to know what to believe. Put yourself in the place of Thomas; do you think you would believe, or would you want proof?


Draw Your Sword

The name for this game comes from Hebrews 4:12: “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.”

Print out and cut up the Bible citations into individual slips of paper or, if you want to be more fancy, write each citation on a plastic knife with a Sharpie (“sword”). Many of the citations connect to the theme of the Armor of God. (You don’t have to use them all.)

Arm each child with a Bible. Have one child draw out a citation and race to see who can find it first. The first one to read the verse gets to pull out the next citation. If you want, you can have the children keep track of who finds the most citations first, but that’s not really the point.  :-)

This game idea came from www.looktohimandberadiant.com.


I Believe – Word by Word

Here’s a game that helps children learn our Creed.

Print out the Creed, which separates each word of the prayer into its own row and column.

Color various-shaped groups of words. (For younger kids, make larger groups of words. This is harder than it looks.)

Cut out on the lines in between the differently colored area.

Put all the pieces in a bag, shake them up, and have the kids try to unscramble them and assemble the prayer. (It may be handy to have a copy of the Creed nearby to check.)

This game idea came from www.looktohimandberadiant.com.

Holy Week Jeopardy Game
Just click on the link to play.


Lent Trivia
Click on the link to see the questions.