In today's Gospel Jesus teaches us how to love one another through action and sacrifice.
Come Holy Spirit, fill our hearts and our minds. Fill us with your peace, love, and understanding. Help us to hear God's message today and recognize His voice in our daily activities. Amen
When Judas had left them, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and God will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WF18f38H8Tg (Accredited to Catholic Kids Media)
(Teach the kids how to make a paper cup)
Say: Now that you know how to make a cup, maybe someday you'll be able to teach someone else and perhaps make one for a small child who doesn't know how to sip water from a drinking fountain. If I had only told you how to make a cup and hadn't shown you how, it would have been difficult for you to learn.
Say: That's why Jesus didn't just tell us how to love, he showed us. The Gospel this week tells us that before Jesus died, he told his friends to love one another the way he had shown them how to love. He had just washed his disciples' feet at the Last Supper. This is what Jesus said.
Ask: How had Jesus shown love to his disciples? (He washed their feet.) How did Jesus say that people would recognize his disciples? (by their love for one another) What did Jesus do after this Last Supper to show love? (He died on the cross.)
Say: When you followed the example and directions I gave, you were able to make a cup. When you follow Jesus' example and words, you become a disciple and are able to make a different, more loving world.
Pray together the Act of Love.
