Ash Wednesday Children's Homily

hello boys and girls it's father david here at saint a's today we're going to reflect on this coming wednesday's gospel which is ash wednesday and ash wednesday is this really cool day because it's the beginning of that really great season of lent it's a time that we prepare our hearts for jesus's resurrection for easter and as we prepare for easter there are three really important things that we need to do so the first thing we do is on ash wednesday we're going to go to church and here at saint age we have mass at 7 00 am 12 15 pm and 5 30 p.m but throughout the day any time during the day you can go over to the church and there'll be a priest in the narthex in the front entrance and then you can get ashes just like this put on your forehead and the priest will say something like remember you are dust and to dust you shall return or repent and believe in the gospel those are words to remind us that we're entering into this really great time of preparing our hearts for the coming of jesus at easter so boys and girls i'm gonna ask you to help me out here so i said there are three really important things that we're going to be doing during lent both individually and as a church the first thing that we're going to do right is called almsgiving right so i want you to take your hands i want you to put your hands out like this right just like that almsgiving right so almsgiving right is helping we're going to help those people who are in need right we help by giving what we can we also help by giving our time and our talents so some of you might get those little boxes during lent and you put your change in and then we send that money to help the poor right or maybe you're going to collect some food with your family to take to the soup kitchen right those are ways that we can give alms right so just like that give arms okay so the second thing we're going to do is during lent we're going to increase our prayers we're going to make those prayer hands i know a lot of you guys are really good with this already so make those prayer hands in prayer is another activity that we do during this great time that we can do more of right so you might come with your parents to do the stations of the cross or you might offer some extra prayers before bed right and we do these extra prayers that we can spend more time with the lord and that we can pray for others too so the first thing the first thing we're going to do during lent is give alms the second thing we're going to do is pray more okay and the third thing we're going to do the third thing we're going to do take your hand down put it over your heart right is we're going to fast we're going to fast and fasting is our way of showing our love for god by giving something up right during lent we don't eat meat on ash wednesday and we don't eat meat on fridays right we might be giving something up to show god that we're preparing our hearts for jesus's resurrection right we might be giving up on saying not nice things about people or teasing our brothers and sisters right there's all kinds of ways of of giving something up to show god that you're really preparing your heart for easter so some of the fun things that i've well know if it's fun but some of the things i've done in the past i've given up coffee that was really hard i've given up candy which was really hard too right all of these things to show jesus that we're really preparing our hearts for easter now in today's gospel jesus talks about those three things he talks about prayer he talks about fasting and he talks about almsgiving okay talks about all those three things so i want you to listen closely to hear what it is that he has to say the lord be with you and with your spirit a reading from the holy gospel according to matthew glory to you o lord when you do good things don't try to show off if you do you won't get a reward from your father in heaven when you give to the poor don't blow a loud horn that's what show-offs do in the meeting places and on the street corners because they're always looking for praise i can assure you that you have already had your reward when you give to the poor don't let anyone know about it then your gift will be in secret your father knows what is done in secret and he will reward you when you pray don't be like the show-offs who love to stand up and pray in the meeting places and on the street corners they do this just to look good i can assure you that they already have the reward when you pray go into your room alone and close the door pray to your father in private he knows what is done in private and he will reward you when you go without eating fasting don't try to look gloomy as those show-offs do when they go without eating i can assure you that they already have their reward instead comb your hair and wash your face then others won't know that you are going without eating but your father sees what is done in private and he will reward you the gospel of the lord prays to you lord jesus christ in our gospel today that we just heard jesus says that we don't need to do those three things to be show-offs he wants us to do them with joy and in secret because we love god god sees us and he knows the depths of our hearts and he knows that we do these things all those three things of prayer fasting and almsgiving to show him that we love him that we love him so during this lent i want you and your parents to really talk about how it is that you guys are going to make this lent awesome how it is that you're going to increase your prayer how you're going to increase your fasting and what you're going to do for the poor and giving alms so let us close with a prayer we're going to use those three gestures again those three three different ways of expressing what it is that we have to do during lent so in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen boys and girls let us show god just how much we love him as we prepare for that great season of easter so together let us promise him now in this prayer that we will give with joy that we will pray with joy and that we will fast with joy boys and girls may almighty god bless you the father and the son and the holy spirit amen i look forward to seeing you in church either on ash wednesday or this coming sunday god bless bye

Channel: Father David

Views: 427

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Id: _iqt8pHaIoQ

Length: 7min 21sec (441 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 15 2021