I love using this song when we are hearing the Gospels of Jesus starting his public ministry. The song covers many of the same miracles that the children hear about in the coming weeks, so I like to use this song during the same time period. They love the motions, too, but I did modify them from those used on the video. If you want to see how we do it, please just email me and I will video my daughters doing it and will send it to you! Check it out at the following: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=temJ4002wfM
On to the lesson...
As always, we continue to have an issue with children coming to PSR classes but not to Mass. It is not a problem unique to my church, I know. And it is not the fault of the children, who cannot drive themselves. However, many of them don't "get it" about why we go to Mass, so I decided to touch on it again this year in a slightly different way. I started with the introduction to Matthew Kelly's book Rediscovering Catholicism. If you haven't seen that book, find it! It's a GREAT read! What I did was re-write the story that he tells in the introduction to the book so that it would be appropriate for children. I am doing this lesson in two parts. The first week will be telling the story of Joshua, and next week I will be drawing the parallels for the children between this fictional story and Jesus/Mass. Stay tuned for that next week! Anyway, here is the story as I re-wrote it:
Once there was a boy named Joshua who lived with his Mom and Dad and baby sister Mary in a small town in Nebraska. They lived just like most of you do, with Mom and Dad going to work every day, Joshua going to school (he was a 5th grader), and baby Mary going to the babysitter’s house.
One Winter afternoon, Mom had just picked up Joshua from school and they both went into the babysitter’s house together to get Mary. The babysitter had the television news on, and seemed to be glued to watching what was on the screen.
“What’s going on?” asked Mom.
“It’s kind of scary,” answered Mrs. Norton, the babysitter. “It seems that there is a very weird and new virus that is spreading in Europe and Asia, and it is spreading quickly. What’s worse, though, is that everyone who comes down with the virus gets so sick that they die!”
“That is scary! It’s awful!” exclaimed Mom. “What causes the virus?”
“They don’t know,” answered Mrs. Norton. “But they don’t have a cure for it, and can’t seem to stop the spreading. They are looking like crazy to find a vaccine, but aren’t having much luck! Let’s just hope it doesn’t spread across to the United States!”
Two weeks later, that is exactly what happened. Travelers from Europe had unknowingly brought the virus with them as they traveled to countries all over the rest of the world, and now it was spreading literally everywhere. Schools were all closed. People were afraid to even go to the grocery store! When they came down with the disease, they didn’t even go to the doctor because there was nothing the doctor could do.
Finally, after another week of this, the most important doctors in the world came on TV and announced the following in every language:
“We think we know how to stop this terrible virus. If we can find the right person with the right blood type who does not have the disease, we can use that blood and make a vaccine that will prevent anyone else from getting the disease and will cure anyone who still comes down with it before getting the vaccine! We need every person who has not gotten sick to please visit your local hospital to have your blood tested. Because it will take a week or so to test the blood, we need you there as soon as possible. This is an emergency, and your help is needed immediately!”
Joshua’s Dad looked at his family and said, “Well, we are all virus-free, so we need to go right away to have our blood tested! Maybe a cure and vaccine is around the corner and this awful thing will stop!” So, they all piled into the family car, drove to the hospital, and got in the line to have their blood tested. It wasn’t hard at all: one tiny pin-prick on the finger was all that was needed, and the family was on their way home.
It was a week later, and Joshua’s family watched the news every single night to see if the person with the right blood type had been found. After seven days of no answer, they were starting to think it might not work. Suddenly, just before dinner, the family’s phone rang. Mom went to answer it.
“Hello? Yes? Mmmm hmmm… (gasp) WHAT? Joshua?” There was a long silence, then, as Mom listened, before finally saying in a voice almost a whisper, “Thank you. We will let you know.”
“What is it, Mom? Who was it? Why were you talking about me? What’s going on?”
“It was the hospital. They have found only one person in the entire world who has the right blood for this vaccine… and it’s you, Joshua.” Mom answered. “They’re not sure why, or how, but it seems that you have a super-power blood, and your blood can save the entire world! You’re the one, Joshua!!”
“Super power blood??!! AWESOMEEEE!!!” Joshua yelled! “So, I’m kinda like the Super Man against this really scary virus? That rocks! Let’s go! Let’s go give my blood!”
Mom and Dad looked at each other. Even little Mary stopped playing with her toys, sensing that something big was going on. Finally Dad said, “Joshua, you know that this is more than just a finger prick. This time you have to have lots of tubes of blood taken from your arm, and you’ll be in the hospital for a while. That means you’ll miss school, miss your Christmas parties, and it’s even possible that things could go wrong leaving you permanently sick, or even… well, Joshua, there is a small chance you might not even survive this!”
After a long pause, Joshua spoke up. “Mom, Dad… we have to take the chance. If I have some kind of super power that can save you guys and Mary, Grandma and Grandpa, all the kids in school, and everyone in the entire world, I have to try it!” Joshua’s parents didn’t agree with him right away. They didn’t want to take a chance with their only son, who they loved as much as life itself. What if something went wrong?
After a lot of discussion and a lot of praying about it, Joshua’s parents realized that he was right. It was the only option. He had to give his blood.
The next morning they called the hospital, and brought Joshua in. The doctors solemnly took Joshua back to his room, and the procedure began. While his parents watched by his side and waited, the doctors continued their work. It was a long, long day, and it got a little tense a few times … Joshua even fainted twice! But finally the doctors got what they needed, and they sent the super- blood samples to the world’s leading doctors and scientists, and within a short time, the vaccine and cure was created.
The word got out, and newspeople all over the world reported what Joshua and his family had done, the big chance they had taken for the good of the entire world. People from every country were praising this action, thanking Joshua’s parents by email, phone call, video, newspaper… you name it and people were celebrating! Joshua had saved their lives!
By the time Joshua was recovered and out of the hospital, people all around the world were able to go to their local doctor to get a shot to prevent the virus or to get a shot to cure the virus if it had started. Not one more person died, thanks to the very brave and wonderful thing that Joshua did.
After about a month, nobody was in danger anymore. Joshua’s bravery and his super blood had indeed saved everyone on the planet. Joshua’s father decided that he would like to throw a party in honor of what his son had done, so he planned a huge celebration. After all, so many people had been saved, EVERYONE would want to thank this young man and honor him!
Dad rented a huge party hall, sent out the word that the celebration of Joshua’s sacrifice would be held, made arrangements for food, balloons, music, everything!
Finally, the big day arrived. Joshua and his family got up bright and early to head to the party hall and wait to meet what was sure to be tons and tons of people. But the hour for the party celebrating Joshua’s bravery and generosity arrived, and here is what happened.
Only a small group of people showed up! That’s right, maybe 100 people, out of the millions of people whose lives had been saved!! Some people slept through it. Some didn’t bother to come because they had better things to do: soccer games, grocery shopping, playing video games or surfing the web on the internet. A few of the people who came just complained the whole time: this is BORING. Some yawned and closed their eyes to rest. All in all, people just seemed to have forgotten about Joshua and what he did to save their lives.
That’s where I am stopping the story. Today, I would like you to go back to your classes and to spend a few minutes talking about how Joshua and his parents probably felt about what happened at the party. What do you think about what happened? What would you have done if you had heard about the special celebration in honor of Joshua?
Next week, we are going to talk some more about this story, because there is definitely a “lesson” in the story. Maybe you even can guess it… but if you do, I’d like to you keep the lesson to yourself until we meet together next week.
Of course, there was a lot of desire to share right then and there, but I encouraged them to keep it in their small groups! I am excited to make the connection for them next week. Again, email me at jtruitt@stolivers.com if you would like anything!
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