"I Want To Be Jesus!"

When our children were small, we’d gather together once a week and pull out this book to play-act the Gospel reading for the coming Sunday.  We’d have fun deciding who would do which parts, coming up with quick costumes for the various characters who had parts in the Gospel reading.  The younger kids who couldn’t read would become dogs or cats, and those animals would get inserted into the storyline as we’d go along.  Think “and then the dog and cat ran up to Jesus and licked his hands.”  The funniest thing about doing the readings this way is that the kids really would shout, “I wanna be Jesus tonight!”

 

The greatest thing about spending the time doing this is that our kids actually learned something about the Gospel reading. Then, when they’d hear the words proclaimed on Sunday at Mass, they’d remember a little something about the story and would smile and nod to us that they were remembering it.

 

Years have passed, and now our only children still at home are ages 18, 15, and 13.  Instead of I Want to be Jesus!, we use the book, At Home with the Word.  This book includes all of the Sunday Mass readings for a given year, as well as commentary and questions. As a family, we try to read the readings every week after an evening meal to prepare for the upcoming Sunday Mass.  We don’t just read the Bible readings together, but instead we talk about what is happening in the reading and what the themes are in all the readings together.  Since this discussion usually takes a little time, the three kids - being typical teenagers - suddenly remember how much homework they have or that they need to practice music or do some other pressing project to try to get out of sharing the Word this way.  And so, week after week, we remind them about how important it is to prepare for the weekly Liturgy by listening to and talking about the three readings and psalm before we hear them at Mass.  They grimace and shake their heads and put their heads down on the kitchen table, but we do it anyway.

 

They come around slowly, often because something in the story peaks their interest and they ask a question about the culture at the time or why God seems to be angry or why Jesus is acting in a certain way.  But, the important thing is that they do come around.  It sometimes seems that it would be easier to just not do it “this” week so we don’t have to hear them complain.  But, we keep on working at it.  It’s a great thing when they turn and look at us during Mass and smile and nod because they understand what they are hearing and remember the story that we read together earlier in the week.  That makes it all worthwhile! It’s great for us as adults to prepare for Mass in this way, too.

 

Do you read the Lectionary readings with your family to prepare for Mass?  Could you share how you do it?

 

If you’d like to start reading the readings during the week before Mass with your family, I suggest you start by reading just the Gospel together and talking about what the story means.  You can find the weekly readings here at the USCCB website.  Enjoy the time together and make it as fun as you can!

 

Lenten Peace!

 

Danny G.