As Christians, we believe that God, with divine wisdom, embraced the world. That embrace shaped itself into the incarnation of Jesus. We believe that Jesus reveals God and shows us God's loving care. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus extended God's love to all people, many of whom, at the time, were thought to be beyond the mercy of God. See Family Time for additional background and family activities. English Spanish Chapter 12 |  Chapter 13 |  Chapter 14 |  Chapter 15 |  Chapter 16 |  Chapter 17 |  Chapter 18
		Jesus Comes to Us Learning Goals This chapter will help your child • appreciate the signs of God's love for them. • discover that Jesus is the greatest sign of God's love. • recognize that all of Jesus' actions were signs of God's love. • begin to understand that children can be signs of love like Jesus. • celebrate his or herself as a sign of God's love. Background Christians believe that there is more to life than meets the eye, that life abounds in mystery and meaning. Because of this belief, we Christians are a symbol-making people. Through signs and symbols, we encounter very real things that lie just below the thin layer of every day: love, beauty, truth, and God. As we strive to know the mystery and meaning of God, we look to signs and symbols, the most perfect of which is Jesus himself. Jesus is the greatest sign of God's love. His actions and his words remind us of God's great love for us. These actions and words then are signs, reminders of something or someone beyond themselves. Jesus' actions and words point to the God of love. About Your Child Little children understand signs. They know that when their parents hug them, the hug is a sign of love. They know that when you smile at them, your smile is a sign of your love and delight in them. They know signs of love and dislike, and of acceptance and rejection. As you share these lessons with your child, be sure to also share your own feelings and belief in Jesus. Take time to answer questions and accept your child's ideas in an affirming way. By doing this, you teach well, and you accept the mission given to you, to be a sign of God's unending and embracing love. Back to top
		We Are God's Children Learning Goals This chapter will help your child • discover that Jesus loves all children. • discover that people everywhere are God's children and that they are alike and different. • understand that we are all children of God and that God's children have fun together. • better appreciate him or herself as a child of God. • celebrate being one of God's children. Background As Christians, we believe that God bestows the priceless gift of love upon us from our very conception. This belief leads us to another: that God asks us to return love by loving others. In the language of theology, we call ourselves graced. We also call ourselves children of God. About Your Child Children are not loved or lovable because they do loving things. The reality is often just the opposite. They do loving things because they have first been loved. Only through being loved do children know that they are good and lovable. Your child needs concrete examples of the power of love in his or her own life. Love teaches a child to grow in love, to sustain love, to return love for love, and even to return love for hate. Children also need to know that love cannot be bought or earned, it is pure gift. Recognizing their worth in God's eyes enables children to open themselves more and more to the great Good News that God has plans for them - that God wants them to be like Jesus, who welcomes all into God's kingdom. Back to top
		Jesus Gathers His Friends Learning Goals This chapter will help your child • understand that Jesus is a friend who welcomes new friends. • deepen an awareness of Jesus' friendship. • understand that friends of Jesus gather on Sunday to give thanks to God. • better appreciate that he or she is a friend of Jesus who gathers to thank God. • celebrate friendship with Jesus. Background If something is worth doing, we generally find that the event is more fun, more worthwhile, and more do-able if we do it with someone else. Whether we eat, sing, talk, worship, or live, we want to be with others. This chapter introduces readiness activities for the concept that the Church is people - Jesus' friends gathered together to share God's love and to extend this love to others. The children learn that a church is a building - a place where holy people (people filled with God's love) meet together to hear Jesus' stories and to worship together. About Your Child Kindergarten children are beginning to realize the importance of friendship with people beyond their families. Hopefully, you and your child have the opportunity to worship together frequently. This helps your child understand that all the people with whom you worship are friends of Jesus. We call these friends the Church. Children begin to appreciate that today's friends of Jesus gather to give thanks for God's love. We rejoice in this love when we gather together at a special celebration called the Mass. Back to top
		Jesus Tells Stories Learning Goals This chapter will help your child • discover that the Bible is God's special storybook. • understand that Jesus told stories to reveal God's love. • recognize that we listen to stories of God's love at Mass. • appreciate that the stories of Jesus reveal God's love. • celebrate the love of God revealed in the stories of Jesus. Background What fantastic words are "Once upon a time...!" With such words, we announce whole new worlds, introduce new ideas, and discover new meanings. Why? Because these words herald the universe of stories, and almost nothing captures the human heart, fires the human imagination, or inspires the human spirit as much as a story well told. In Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, we find the master storyteller. In the stories Jesus told and in the stories told about him, we discover that God's favorite story is a love story between ourselves and God. Down through the years, the Church has passed on the stories of Jesus so that we might take them to heart and make them our own stories. The Church wants us to become even closer to our loving God. About Your Child Your child has an inborn love of stories. Throughout the weeks of your child's kindergarten experience, you have probably shared many stories together. Thus, you are on your way to enriching your child's life and will continue to do so with a whole new selection of stories including those found in the Bible, God's own storybook. Back to top
		Jesus Gives Thanks Learning Goals This chapter will help your child • begin to understand that prayer flows from thankfulness for God's love. • discover that Jesus teaches how to thank God for love. • realize that Mass is a prayer of thanks for God's love. • deepen an understanding that it is in prayer that we thank God for love. • discover that Jesus teaches us to thank God for love in Jesus' name. Background The God we, as Christians, believe in loves us enough to take on our humanity and enter into our world. This makes all things signs of divine love; calls us children and friends; helps us fashion our lives like well-told stories filled with passion and power; does all things without our necessarily asking for them or earning them. In simple language, our response to God's love is called "thanks" and is expressed in prayer. About Your Child From your own family and from teachers, your child learns prayers and shares prayer together. By teaching that prayer is a thank-you to God for love, you share an important Christian message: We Christians pray our thanks in Jesus' name, for Jesus, the beloved Son of God, is our dear friend. When the friends of Jesus gather, they give thanks, or "eucharist," in the name of Jesus. Back to top
		Jesus Celebrates Learning Goals This chapter will help your child • recognize that Christians are a "celebrating" people. • discover that Jesus celebrated God's love and invites us to do the same. • understand that Jesus is with us when we gather at Mass to celebrate God's love. • deepen an awareness of God's love and Jesus' presence. • celebrate God's love and Jesus' presence. Background As children grow, they are sometimes bewildered. "What are these funny things?" the young child wonders, wiggling her fingers. Discovery transforms bewilderment into wonder. "Look at my fingers," says the three-year-old. "Watch what wonderful things I can do with them!" Jesus came to help us shed the chrysalis of bewilderment and spread our wings of wonder. He came to point out the extraordinary wonder in the ordinary events of life and to call us to celebrate that wonder. In celebrations we revel in the wonder of a God who invites us to accept a great and unconditional love. God wants only our happiness, and this is cause for great rejoicing, for celebration without end. About Your Child Children love to celebrate and they remember times of celebration better than anything else. In this chapter you have the opportunity to celebrate with your child the great Good News that God loves your child and that Jesus is present in that love. This is particularly true of the Christian community's prime celebration, the Eucharist or Mass. Keep your explanation of the celebration very simple. When discussing the Mass, point out that Jesus promises to be with Christians when we gather to celebrate this special meal. Back to top
		Jesus Lives God's Love Learning Goals This chapter will help your child • recognize that when we help and care, we live God's love. • discover that we show love for Jesus by living God's love for others. • recognize that the Mass helps Christians celebrate and live God's love as Jesus did. • better appreciate that people like us live God's love just as Jesus did. • celebrate an ability to love and care as Jesus did. Background The way we pray forms our faith. Indeed, it is an ancient dictum of the Church that "praying shapes believing." That is why, as Christians, we can say that we believe what we pray. Our prayer, whether alone or in community, shapes all else. Our prayer makes doctrine and faith personal. That is, our prayer helps us put doctrine and faith into action. Thanksgiving is at the heart of Christian prayer. And thanksgiving is not something that can happen apart from other people. Thanksgiving - Eucharist - happens only when people wonder at the awesome presence of God who loves unconditionally and freely and forever. We pray, overcome by the pure joy of love. About Your Child In this chapter you have the opportunity to help your child to find God simply by helping others as Jesus did. Help your child discover God who is Love by caring for one another. As the years pass, your child will deepen an awareness of this fundamental truth. Your child will begin to appreciate that the language of prayer is more than mere syllables and words recited in rote. The language of prayer is words put into action. Prayer is and always will be a way of being. Back to top