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: WELCOMING HEARTS
There are many Gospels that touch upon the theme of “welcome;” Jesus teaches us to welcome the stranger, accept the outsider, and to welcome Him into our hearts. Children and families are familiar with the warmth and comfort that a welcoming heart can provide, both as beneficiaries and recipients.
OPENING SONG/PRAYER: JOHNNY APPLESEED
Words
and Music
By Kim Gannon and Walter Kent
GOSPEL PREVIEW
Have you ever felt unwelcome? Sometimes people tell you that you are too little to do something, or not cool enough, or not experienced enough. They can make you feel like you don’t belong. In today’s Gospel, Jesus welcomes a group of little children even though others may not have wanted them there. It’s a good reminder that Jesus always welcomes us and loves us, even if we are little, or feel like we are not enough. And we can be like Jesus and welcome others who might be feeling left out.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION:
Hallelujah- Your Word O Lord, be in my mind, and on my lips and in my heart.
GOSPEL:
Mark 9:36-37 Jesus Welcomes the Children
Then the people brought their little children to Jesus so he could put his hands on them and pray for them. His followers told them to stop, but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t stop them, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to people who are like these children.” After Jesus put his hands on the children, he left there.
Other Gospels:
• Mark 9
• Luke 9
• Luke 10
• Luke 15
• Matthew 5
• Matthew 10
• Matthew 22
• Matthew 25
• Matthew 28
• John 3
• John 13
GOSPEL REFLECTION:
Close your eyes and imagine walking into a new place. Maybe it’s your classroom on the first day of school. Maybe it’s the office of your brand new job. Maybe it’s a group of new friends at a party. How do you feel? Excited? Nervous? Shy? Open your eyes. Why do you think you might feel that way? Being new can make us feel kind of bad about ourselves sometimes. We might compare ourselves to other people- maybe they are faster or smarter or stronger than us. Maybe they have been in this job for longer and they know what they are doing. Maybe they don’t need us or want us around.
Close your eyes again. Imagine yourself in that
same new situation, feeling all those feelings. Now imagine someone smiles at you and welcomes you in. Imagine that they walk up to you and say hello, and offer you a place to sit. How do you feel now? Happy? Relieved? Comfortable? Open your eyes.
In today’s Gospel, people brought their children to see Jesus, and many people didn’t like that. They didn’t think the children should be there. But Jesus welcomed them in, and told them that they belonged.
Jesus is always the friend we can turn to if we feel nervous or shy. Jesus loves us so much, exactly as we are, even if we feel small, or weak, or unimportant. God made us, and God made us so special, and God is always welcoming us in.
CHILDREN’S BOOK: “ALL ARE WELCOME”
By Alexandra Penfold
Literary Connection:
I chose this book because it reminded me of how Jesus welcomed those little children. In this story we saw all different kinds of children. They came from different places, had different faces, and they were good at different things. But no matter how different they were, there was a special place for them at their school. They must have felt so happy to know that they were welcome at school. Jesus is sending us on a mission this week: to welcome others just like he welcomed the little children. If you notice that someone is feeling left out, or if you know of a person at work or in your group of friends who might be feeling “not good enough” take the time to welcome them in, and remind them that everyone has something special to bring to the table. Jesus welcomes and loves everyone, and we are called to do the same!
Other Books:
• “Ways to Welcome”- Linda Ashman
• “The Day You Begin” - Jacqueline Woodson
• “I’ll Walk with You”- Carol Lynn Pearson
• “Be Kind” - Pat Zietlow Miller
• “Everybody’s Welcome” - Patricia Hegarty
• “Strictly No Elephants” - Lisa Mantchev
• “The Big Umbrella”- Amy June Bates
THE CRAFT:
Many of you have seen a welcome mat outside a front door. Some of you may have one at your home. We invite you to make a welcome mat this week, as a reminder to welcome others into your heart just as Jesus welcomed the little children.
Take a rectangle of paper, and write or draw a welcoming message: maybe it says “peace” or “you are good enough” or “you are special.” Maybe it is a heart. Maybe it just says “Welcome.” Once you have decorated your welcome mat, place it outside your bedroom door. Each time you walk over it, be reminded of your promise to look for those that feel inadequate, and welcome them in.
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.)
