Hands-On Gospel The Hands-On Gospel 2024 Thought-Provoking Object Lessons on the Sunday Gospels

Reproducible eResource • Priced at only 50¢ per week!

Beginning with Advent 2023 and continuing through Christ the King 2024.

This resource offers a creative demonstration to accompany the week’s Gospel reading and kick-off conversation—perfect for Children’s Liturgy of the Word programs or any other Lectionary-based catechesis. The physical experiments and object demonstrations will captivate children and focus them on a key aspect of the Scripture reading. Also included are one symbol for each week that can be easily printed on stickers to serve as a reminder.

Jesus invites both catechists and parents to find a way to instill in our children the love of God. What better way than to prepare them for the message of the Gospel every Sunday. Mass is about sharing the message of Jesus with the whole community. Hands-On Gospel is about getting that message into the hands of our children.

In seeking how best to lead our children to God’s kingdom, we consider the environment in which our children develop and learn. What we find is an atmosphere of almost constant stimulation, particularly that provided by the all-pervasive media. As a result, learning tends to be increasingly experiential. Children embrace learning when they are discovering information and trying it out.

Hands-On Gospel responds to the need for an experiential approach to religious education. It provides fun and stimulating activities and experiences that are designed to correspond to the Gospel reading for each Sunday.

For the convenience of the catechist or parent, boldface type within the “Demonstration” sections is used to suggest questions or comments that may be paraphrased as desired. The Gospel readings from the Lectionary for Masses with Children are referenced at the top of each page. To further reinforce the Gospel message, a graphic symbol accompanies each Gospel passage. Reproducible pages of these symbols are also provided. These may be copied onto labels and given to the children to remind them of what they have learned.

We hope you will enjoy using Hands-On Gospel. May its activities bring the children to a greater appreciation of the Gospel message and offer them a glimpse of the kingdom of heaven that Jesus promises to all of us.