Sunday Connection

Gospel Reading
John 13:31-33a,34-35
Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment: love one another.

Making the Connection (Grades 1,2, and 3)

Help younger children to understand that when Jesus calls us to love others as he loves us, he is calling us to express our love in our words and actions.

Materials Needed

• a hat or basket; pictures of children found in magazines or online; on each picture, write a statement of need to which children can respond, such as, “I am Min. I forgot my snack,” “I am Maggie. I feel sad,” “I am Kate. I broke my favorite toy,” and “I am Miguel. My dog ran away.” Fold the pictures and put them in the hat or basket.

Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings

1. Show children the hat or basket, and pair older children with younger ones. Say: Let’s play a game. I’ll pass around the hat [basket], and you or your partner will choose a piece of paper out of it. Take a few moments to read the words and come up with ways you will help the child. Then, come up and show us your picture. Read aloud the words and tell us what you might say and do. After each pair’s turn, invite children to think of other words or actions that might be loving and helpful.
2. Say: All the words and actions you thought of as you played the games are ways we can show love. Ask: If we just felt love and didn’t do or say anything, would we be much help to the children? (No.) Say: When Jesus calls us to love, we are to show love through what we say and what we do. Let’s listen to today’s Gospel and hear what Jesus tells his disciples.
3. Read today’s Gospel, John 13:31–33a,34–35.
4. Say: What is Jesus’ new commandment? (“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you should also love one another.”) Say: We show we are Jesus’ disciples by loving one another. Jesus showed his love for us by dying on the Cross to save us from our sins. Loving like Jesus means being loving in our words and our actions, even when it might be hard.
5. Pray the Act of Love, inviting children to pray silently if they don’t know the prayer by heart.

Gospel Reading
John 13:31-33a,34-35
Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment: love one another.

Making the Connection (Grades 4, 5, and 6)

Children learn by example. Jesus not only talked about love, he gave us his life as an example to show us how to love.

Materials Needed

• Origami cup
• Water
• Several pieces of square paper

Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings

1. Show an origami cup and pour water into the cup to demonstrate that it can actually hold water. Then show a piece of square paper. Ask: Which would be easier: to tell you how to make this cup or to show you how? (to show)

2. Then show the children how to make an origami cup, demonstrating and helping them as you give the directions. Tell them to fold a square sheet of paper in half to form a triangle. Have them place the triangles on their desks with the fold facing them. Tell them to bring the left and right points of the triangle to the middle of the opposite sides and crease them. This will produce a five-sided figure with the bottom being shorter in length than the sides. Fold the top points down on the front and back to form the cup. Squeeze the sides of the figure to open the cup.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Invite one or more volunteers to read aloud today's Gospel, John 13:31-33a,34-35.

6. 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.)

7. 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.

8. Pray together the Act of Love.

Gospel Reading
John 13:31-33a,34-35
Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment: love one another.

Making the Connection (Grades 7 and 8)

Young people in junior high are very tuned in to the notion of being authentic. They can spot phoniness a mile away. For them, words must be backed up by actions. In today's Gospel, Jesus gives words about love that he backs up in his actions.

Materials Needed

• “Walking In Jesus' Footsteps” handout

Preparation for Sunday Scripture Readings

1. Invite the young people to think about phrases such as “walk the walk” and “talk the talk” or “following in another's footsteps.”

2. Say: Choose two occasions when you found it difficult to show love. Write about each occasion in one of the footprints on the handout. Pass out the handouts.

3. Say: Demands or requirements of Christian love; the kind of love Jesus modeled for us is difficult. It involves sacrifice. Jesus knew that the disciples would be called upon to follow his way of love even unto death.

4. 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. This is what we hear in today's Gospel reading.

5. Invite one or more volunteers to read aloud today's Gospel, John 13:31-33a,34-35.

6. Ask: How had Jesus shown love to his disciples at the Last Supper? (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.)

7. Say: We believe that the glory of God is seen when we follow Jesus' way of love.

8. Invite the young people to once again look at the situations written about. Say: Consider whether your actions were consistent with Jesus' way of love. What might you have done differently? What might you do differently the next time you face a similar situation? Write about this in each footprint.

9. Conclude by praying together the Act of Love.

Gospel Reading
John 13:31-33a,34-35
Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment: love one another.

Family Connection

Is love the first word your family members use to describe their interactions? Love is difficult. Jesus' sacrifice for us is an example of this. Yet because of love, the glory of God is fully revealed in Jesus. God's glory is revealed in us when we act as the Body of Christ, as individuals and as a community. In the love we have for one another—difficult, challenging, sacrificial love—we find Jesus.

Choose one or two occasions when your family was together during the week. Describe the family's interactions from an outsider's perspective. When is it less difficult to show love to family members? When is it more difficult? When love is difficult, what do we do?

Jesus didn't just tell us to love one another. He showed us how to love one another. In what ways did Jesus show us how to love? (in his acts of healing and forgiving; at the Last Supper as he washed his disciples' feet; in the gift of the Eucharist; through his death on the Cross)