Ministry Ideas for Celebrating Lent and Easter with Teens, Families, and Parishes

Ministry Ideas for Celebrating Lent and Easter with Teens, Families, and Parishes
Author: Judy Dankert
Publisher: Saint Mary's Press
Total Pages: 110
Release: 2006
Genre: Church work with families
ISBN: 0884898717

Like all of us, adolescents have a deep hunger for God. They have a need to make sense out of life and a desire to make the world a better place. They are people of endless hope, and have the capacity for deep sadness and profound joy. Their hungers, needs, hopes, and moments of sadness and joy mirror the experiences of biblical characters we meet during Lent and the Easter season. To meet the challenge of making Lent and the Easter season meaningful, parish and youth ministry efforts need to be intentional about bringing alive the Scriptures for each Sunday and special commemoration of the season. Ministry Ideas for Celebrating Lent and Easter with Teens, Families, and Parishes is a resource manual that provides activities for gathered sessions with youth in parish settings, as well as ideas for meaningful ways to observe the season with families and friends at home and in the community. At the core of the manual are gathered sessions with youth that are lectionary based, using themes from the Scriptures. Some sessions are specific to a particular Sunday in one liturgical cycle. Others are more thematically inclusive and may be used with all cycles. In addition to the gathered sessions, supplementary activities for the season include a guided meditation, a service project, and discussion activities that may be used in a variety of ways throughout the season. Also included are two chapters designed specifically for families. Each chapter contains several activities that will help families share faith stories and create memories. These activities can be sent home or adapted for use in a gathered environment.

Celebrating Lent

Celebrating Lent
Author: Jude Winkler
Publisher: Catholic Book Publishing
Total Pages: 36
Release: 1994
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780899425023

Helps children understand this time of preparation for, Jesus' Resurrection. Full-color illustrations.

Sharing the Easter Faith with Children

Sharing the Easter Faith with Children
Author: Carolyn C. Brown
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2011-07-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1426719477

Sharing the Easter Faith with Children is theologically sound, biblically focused, educationally on target, and developmentally appropriate. Carolyn Brown writes clearly and helpfully, with conviction and passion for what to share and how to share one's faith with children. It should be required reading for every parent, educator, and pastor who wants to communicate and celebrate the Easter faith with children. Brown packs a lot of practical suggestions, insights, and activities into this very readable resource. I am confident children will mature in their understanding and affirmation of the Easter faith when they have been nurtured in families and congregations that take seriously what Brown offers. --Donald Griggs, author of Teaching Today’s Teachers to Teach It is easy to share the Christmas story and faith with children. The story is beautiful and lends itself well to pageants and other celebratory events for children. It is not so easy to share the Easter story and faith with children because the message and images are complex. Many parents have trouble articulating what Easter means to them personally much less answering their children’s questions. In many congregations children are featured in palm parades on Palm Sunday, but they are not specifically planned for at other Holy Week services. When schools schedule an Easter break, many families go away and thus unintentionally bypass the whole Easter message for years. This book explores what the Easter message can mean to children as they grow up. The author helps congregations and families share the Easter message with their children and include the children meaningfully in Lent, Holy Week and Easter observances. Included are materials for children from birth (in the church nursery) to age 12, and reproducible pages to create a booklet for parents. The first section of the book describes the particular parts of the Easter faith that are important to children at different ages and comments on the biblical Easter texts from a child’s point of view. The second part of the book works through the Lenten season, describing ways congregations can include children and providing program and worship plans, including: Lenten disciplines for children and their families Ash Wednesday Celebrating Palm Sunday or looking ahead on Passion Sunday Maundy Thursday: Recalling the Last Supper Keeping Good Friday The church-sponsored Easter Egg Hunt Easter Sunday Morning Another part of the book offers help to leaders who want to share the content with teachers, parents, or committees. Also included is a comprehensive list of related resources. This carefully researched and well-grounded, practical resource from a highly regarded Christian educator will strengthen your educational ministry with children and support parents as they shape the faith of their children.

The End of the Christian Life

The End of the Christian Life
Author: J. Todd Billings
Publisher: Brazos Press
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2020-09-15
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1493427547

We're all going to die. Yet in our medically advanced, technological age, many of us see death as a distant reality--something that happens only at the end of a long life or to other people. In The End of the Christian Life, Todd Billings urges Christians to resist that view. Instead, he calls us to embrace our mortality in our daily life and faith. This is the journey of genuine discipleship, Billings says: following the crucified and resurrected Lord in a world of distraction and false hopes. Drawing on his experience as a professor and father living with incurable cancer, Billings offers a personal yet deeply theological account of the gospel's expansive hope for small, mortal creatures. Artfully weaving rich theology with powerful narrative, Billings writes for church leaders and laypeople alike. Whether we are young or old, reeling from loss or clinging to our own prosperity, this book challenges us to walk a strange but wondrous path: in the midst of joy and lament, to receive mortal limits as a gift, an opportunity to give ourselves over to the Lord of life.

The Power of Forgiveness: Pope Francis on Reconciliation

The Power of Forgiveness: Pope Francis on Reconciliation
Author: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Publisher:
Total Pages: 133
Release: 2021-08-24
Genre:
ISBN: 9781601376831

The Power of Forgiveness, Pope Francis on Reconciliation calls the reader to explore the mercy of God, received in a profound way by turning toward God in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This heartfelt collection of the Pope's reflections on the need for repentance, awareness of sin, God's divine mercy, forgiveness of others, and confession and absolution, is a transformative read for Catholics of all vocational states!

The Mass for Children

The Mass for Children
Author: Jude Winkler
Publisher: Catholic Book Publishing
Total Pages: 36
Release: 2011-11
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9780899424897

A simple explanation of the Mass for children. Illustrated in full color.

Christ is Risen

Christ is Risen
Author: Theresa Cotter
Publisher: Franciscan Media
Total Pages: 256
Release: 1994
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780867162004

Christ Is Risen! is a daily companion on the pilgrimage through the Paschal Season--Lent to Triduum to Easter to Pentecost. It contains three offerings: meditations, projects and prayers.

Journey to the Cross

Journey to the Cross
Author: Paul David Tripp
Publisher: Crossway
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2020-12-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1433567709

Journey through Lent with Best-Selling Author Paul David Tripp "During our forty days together, may your mourning increase so that your joy may deepen." — Paul David Tripp Lent is a time in the yearly Christian calendar when we mourn our sin and let go of worldly things that keep our hearts from experiencing God more fully. But how do we reevaluate and recalibrate the values of our hearts to match those of our suffering Savior? In this forty-day Lenten devotional, best-selling author Paul David Tripp invites us to set aside time from the busyness of our lives to focus on the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus. Each of the short readings encourages us to abide in the abundant joy found in Christ as we encounter the Savior more fully and follow him more faithfully during this Lenten season.

What Am I Doing for Lent This Year?

What Am I Doing for Lent This Year?
Author: Paul Turner
Publisher: LiturgyTrainingPublications
Total Pages: 24
Release: 2000
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781568540931

Here is the retreat and catechesis parishes will love to give to everyone in the assembly, a serious booklet that presents Lent as a powerful opportunity for renewal. Individuals can conduct a self-assessment; make resolutions about prayer, fasting and almsgiving; translate resolutions into commitments; reflect on their process in a scripture journal; and prepare for the sacrament of reconciliation.