Breakfast With God is a flexible children’s faith formation program that creatively wraps prayer, song, a children’s story and craft, in a Gospel message.
This Breakfast With God Guide offers easy, step-by-step instructions for planning a Breakfast with God lesson in your home, classroom, parish or virtually on ZOOM. Each downloadable Guide focuses on a specific Gospel and Gospel theme.
The selected content and reflections have been produced by Catholic preschool teacher, Anne Krane and Fr. Quang Tran, S.J., hosts of the Breakfast With God Sunday morning program on ZOOM. This shared resource is a partnership between the Church in the 21st Century Center and the Roche Center for Catholic Education at Boston College.
WHY IT WORKS
EFFICIENT
Breakfast With God is turnkey and is perfect for the home, classroom, or parish. The virtual or in-person program can be administered in 30 minutes, or you can pick and choose segments from the overall programming model to fit your needs. (See pages 5 & 6)
HIGH-QUALITY
Breakfast With God is high-quality, interactive, faith-sharing programming for the whole family. Breakfast With God gives children vocabulary, accurate information about Catholicism and the Gospel message using language that is comfortable for them, and gives parents and teachers an example of faithsharing that they can emulate at home or in the classroom.
ACCESSIBLE
Breakfast With God provides an opportunity for children and families to interact. Children actively participate in answering questions, sharing prayer intentions and watching one another learn and make connections. Parents are given unintimidating catechesis that will make it more possible to continue the conversation with their children after the program is over.
COMMUNITY-ORIENTED
One of the central tenets of the Catholic faith is the belief that we are formed by communion and in community with one another. Breakfast With God connects families and classrooms searching for a space to reflect on their faith.
THE MODEL
WELCOME (2 minutes)
The host/s introduce themselves and welcome all participants to Breakfast With God.
OPENING SONG/PRAYER (1 minute)
Start with a “theme song” prayer that centers and refocuses participants on the reason to celebrate God.
GOSPEL PREVIEW (1 minute)
This is a sentence or two to prepare children for the Gospel message.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION (1 minute)
Sing a children’s Hallelujah that involves movement and helps children recenter themselves and get ready to hear the Good News.
GOSPEL (2 minutes)
Find a children’s version of the Gospel, but if there is not an appropriate children’s version available, read it directly from the scriptures.
GOSPEL REFLECTION (2–3 minutes)
Reflect on the Gospel in a way that is geared to children.
CHILDREN’S BOOK (2–3 minutes)
Read one short children’s book that connects with the Gospel.
LITERARY CONNECTION (2 minutes)
A simple sentence or two describing how the characters or themes in the book were similar to the messages given to us by Jesus in the Gospel.
CRAFT (1–2 minutes)
A simple craft instruction using things that would be easily found in a home or a classroom.
PRAYER INTENTION (5 minutes)
Have the children get their prayer hands ready, and ask them to share their prayer intentions. After each intention, we “flap” the prayers out into the world with our hands clasped and flapping our elbows up and down.
THE MODEL cont.
OUR FATHER (1
minute)
Close prayer time with the prayer that Jesus taught us.
SIGN OF PEACE (1
minute)
Send peace and love to one another by creating gestures that communicate the message of that week.
ANNOUNCEMENTS (1
minute)
This is an opportunity to announce other events going on in your parish, school, or community.
FINAL BLESSING (1
minute)
Say a prayer to close out your time together. Use a prayer that involves gestures and movement to help make the final blessing memorable.
CLOSING SONG (1
minute)
Children love a sending forth that is upbeat and leaves them feeling energized and ready to move.
GOSPEL THEME: SHARING
Sharing is something that we learn to do as children, but is something that we must continue to practice throughout our lives. We share our possessions, our time, and our talents, and our thoughts and hopes. Jesus teaches us that giving of ourselves is one of the most important ways that we can help our community.
OPENING SONG/PRAYER: JOHNNY APPLESEED
Words
and Music
By Kim Gannon and Walter Kent
GOSPEL PREVIEW
Today we hear about people donating money- or giving to people who need it. Some people were able to put in more than others, but one woman gave everything she had. Have you ever donated or given away something that was hard to do? Sometimes sharing what you have is really tricky, but in today’s Gospel, Jesus lets us know how important it is to share with others.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION:
Hallelujah- Your Word O Lord, be in my mind, and on my lips and in my heart.
GOSPEL:
Mark 12:41-44 The Widow’s Offering
Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Other Gospels:
• John 6:1-15
• Luke 6:38
• Luke 12:33
• Matthew 6:21
• Luke 21
• Matthew 6:1-4
• Matthew 10:8
• Matthew 25:44-45
• Luke 3:10
• Luke 10:27
• Matthew 5:16
• John 15:13
GOSPEL REFLECTION:
Close your eyes. Think about your favorite snack. Maybe it’s pretzels or some cheese and crackers. Maybe it’s brownies or cookies. Imagine you have a whole heap of them, just a huge bowl of snacks. Now imagine your sister or brother or friend came up and asked you for some. Would you give them some?
Now imagine you only have a tiny amount of the snack… maybe one brownie… one pretzel. Your friend comes and asks you if they can have some. Would you give them some now?
It’s harder to give when you don’t have a lot. In today’s Gospel, Jesus praises the woman who gives everything she had- and she didn’t have very
much. She probably really needed that money, but she gave it away. He points out that when you give when it is hardest for you to give, then you are really following what God wants us to do.
So what does that mean for us? It means that when we have something to share, whether it’s a snack, a toy, our time, or our money, we should always share with others. Jesus is calling us to give what we have to those who need it.
Who might need something from you this upcoming week? Let’s challenge ourselves to share like the widow in the story and share even when it’s most difficult!
CHILDREN’S BOOK: “STONE SOUP”
By Jon J Muth
Literary Connection:
I chose this story because all of the people in the town gave the little amounts that they had, and together they were able to feed the whole community and brought joy to a town in need. This is just like the woman in the Gospel, giving from her poverty and getting praised by Jesus. When the townspeople gave the little they had, even though it was hard, they got the biggest reward- coming together as a community.
Sometimes in the moment, it doesn’t feel fun to share; but after you share, it can feel so good. You are making other people happy, and you also are making God happy by making choices that please Jesus.
This is a great way to remind ourselves about the Gospel’s mission this week. We have to share something that is hard for us to share. This might be an actual object, like a toy or a snack- but it also might be something that’s harder to give. Like your time, your prayers, your patience, or your kind words. Let’s work hard this week to share these things with others.
Other Books:
• “Should I Share My Ice Cream”- Mo Willems
• “Llama Llama Time To Share”- Anna Dewdney
• “Peter’s Chair”-Ezra Jack Keats
• “The Boy Who Wouldn’t Share”- Mike Reiss
• “The Rainbow Fish”- Marcus Pfister
• “Love Monster And The Last Chocolate”- Rachel Bright
• “The Mitten”- Jan Brett
• “Mine. Yours.”- Marsha Diane Arnold
• “A Chair For My Mother”- Vera Willams
• “Thank You, Omu!”-Oge Mora
THE CRAFT:
Today we are going to make our own stone soup! On a piece of paper, draw a big bowl and cut it out. On another piece of paper, draw 4 different kinds of vegetables: a carrot, a potato, an onion, broccoli, whatever kinds of vegetables are your favorite. On each of these pictures write one thing that you would like to share this week.
As you go through the week, pay attention to when you share these things. As you complete your goals for sharing, you can add these vegetables to the soup bowl by taping or gluing them into your stone soup bowl. When you have filled the bowl with soup, you’ll know you have completed your Gospel mission for this week!
One thing we can share with others is our prayers!
PRAYER INTENTIONS
As we get our prayer hands together, pray for anyone who is feeling unwelcome, especially people in new jobs and new schools. Let’s flap our kindest and loving thoughts to them out into the world.
(Have the children share their own prayer intentions. For each prayer intention shared, have the children put their prayer hands together and then flap them up and down and then send them off to God. If you are doing the program through Zoom, children and parents can enter their prayer intentions on chat.)
OUR FATHER
Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.
SIGN OF PEACE
Send a peace sign, or a sign language I love you, give a welcoming wave, whatever gesture might serve as a reminder of the mission of the week.
FINAL BLESSING
Prayer of Saint Patrick
God we love you, we know you love us, Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me. Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Amen.
(Have the children repeat each line of the prayer.)
