DIY Children's Mass Booklet: Part 2

Are we ready to start this thing?? I hope I have allowed enough time for you to buy your binders and sheet protectors and to finish your cover page. And if you haven't done it yet, giddyup!

So once you have your binders, gather up your markers, crayons, pencils and even scrapbooking supplies or religious stickers you might have. The more stuff the kids can use to decorate and bedazzle, the better! As we did last time, save the images and then drag-drop them into word or pages. You can print them from there.

Prayers at the Foot of the Altar

Catechesis: You may want to read the full exchange between the priest and servers at the foot of the Altar so they can get the full text of what is being said - if, that is, you think they can follow. This will be largely dependent on their ages and attention span. You could also do what I did - a general explanation about the prayers, with descriptions of what it will look like. I did the talking while they worked on their Page 1 activity.

Page 1 Activity: The first page is very basic - just have the kids color the bubble words of the title and the choir image at the bottom. Then they can color around it, add stickers, or do whatever their little hearts desire, so long as they do not totally obscure the words or images. The point of this page is to open up the conversation about the prayers at the foot of the Altar. Again, save the image and drag-drop into Word or Pages to print. If you only want one, crop the image. As I mentioned in my last post, I am making them double because I suspect most of  us have several children and thus need several copies.

Page 2 Activity: The second page is slightly more involved. For the purposes of making it understandable to young children I have simplified the prayers for some of these pages. Those of reading and writing age can fill in the word bubbles with the following words, in this order and going clockwise (I think the phrases will fit better this way):

I will praise you upon the harp, O God

Judge me, O God

God, you are my strength

I will go into the Altar of God

Glory be to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit

Encourage them to unite their hearts to those prayers during Mass.

For the little ones, I have pre-filled them with bubble words that they can color. And of course they can feel free to bedazzle the page any way they'd like.

 Here is what Violet's (age 6) looked like when she was done:

Page 3 Activity: In this activity, your kids will envision and draw what they should look like while Father is praying at the foot of the Altar.  A guided conversation with you will help them understand what "behaving" means.  I'm thinking it'll be good for them to do a little mental rehearsal.

You can print out these angels and have the kids color, cut and paste it at the bottom of the page, for a little extra fun. You could also google "angel free clip art" to find something more suited to your taste. To size it correctly, drag-drop into Word or Pages and adjust the size there.

Page 4 Activity: Older kids can do this page for the Confiteor. The littles can skip the Confiteor, but I don't recommend skipping the above self-portrait, regardless of age!  You can print the Confiteor in Latin and/or English side by side and have them paste it in, or you can have them do some copy work - its up to you! You can find the prayer here with a basic explanation.

We did two of the four pages on two separate occasions. You could do one a day, or all of them at ago - its up to you! The point is to engage them and to catechize them on the Mass part so they know what is happening at each of the different parts.

Coming Up: The Kyrie and the Gloria