Children Catholics

These are the Bowland Fells in Lancashire,

an area of England rich in Catholic history,

and whose Catholic identity remains strong.

It's OK.

In 2011, I spent several months in the parish of Chipping

at St Mary's Roman Catholic Primary School.

Six of the school's 33 pupils

were preparing for their first Holy Communion.

I filmed with the whole school

throughout the period of Lent and into the summer,

watching as the essence of Catholicism

was distilled into young hearts and minds.

Good morning, Pat-Joe, how are you this morning?

Right, who shall I start with today?

Bonjour, Jean.

-Bonjour, Madame.

-Comment ca va aujourd'hui, Jean?

-Ca va tres, tres bien.

-Tres, tres bien, bon.

-Bonjour, Isaac.

-Bonjour, Madame.

-Comment ca va aujourd'hui, Isaac?

Tres, tres...comme ci, comme ca.

-Bonjour, Victoria.

-Bonjour, Madame.

-Comment ca va aujourd'hui, Victoria?

-I've got a spot on my head.

-What have you been doing?

-Well, I don't know how I did it.

-It just turned up somehow.

-It just turned up?!

-Well, you'll have to try not to touch it today.

-Yes.

-OK?

-Bonjour, Luciano.

-Bonjour.

Comment ca va aujourd'hui, Luciano?

-Tres...comme ci, comme ca.

-Just comme ci, comme ca.

Can we start our prayers this morning with something to say

thank you to God for?

You think about all those wonderful things.

All the things that we have round here.

You can see that you can do. You can hear.

What do you think, Sam?

Good morning, God. Alleluia.

Thank you for that bird I saw flying across the garden,

what was a blue tit.

Amen.

Good morning, God.

When I was on my way to school,

I saw a blackbird,

and behind it, I saw some lambs.

Amen.

Amen. What a lot of wonderful things!

I confess to Almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters,

that I have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts

and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do.

And I ask the blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and saints,

and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord, our God.

May Almighty God have mercy on us.

Forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life.

Good, and the Lenten lunch is this coming Wednesday at 12 noon.

Put a full stop in there and not a comma.

Do you have much to do with the school?

Well, normally, Friday is the day when I'm invited to go in.

Yeah, I'm...school friendly.

Is it very different from the school you went to, when you were a little boy?

Oh, no, the priest used to pop in to us, both in the infants,

and then in the boys' school.

And Father Murphy and Father Nevin, I remember them coming in

and Father Murphy, he said he burst

the buttons on his overcoat if we all had gone to mass on the Sunday.

And we used to... Peter Pessagno and me, or Frank Gannon and me,

used to call for a certain boy, Raymond,

to get him out of bed on a Sunday

to make sure he wouldn't spoil... so that we'd have a full class.

But that didn't happen always.

Cos the priest used to come in regularly every week, yeah...

Well, that's usual, thank God, in our tradition of Catholic schools.

We are familiar with the Father.

Cos many kids don't have fathers.

You know, living with their mothers,

and it's nice to be called that title, and we honour it.

Yeah. So...

It's Christopher Robin sitting down

with Winnie the Pooh and Piglet.

Can you see that on the picture?

"Piglet said that the best place

"would be somewhere where a Heffalump was,

"and that he hadn't thought of that.

"As soon as he got home, he went to the larder,

"and he took down a very large pot of honey.

"It had honey, H-U-N-N-Y, written on it."

That was spelt wrong, wasn't it?

Honey's spelt H-O-N-E-Y.

PHONE RINGS

Oh, dear. It's the dentist. Can I just pause for a minute?

Hello? Father... Yeah.

I'm telling a Winnie The Pooh story in our school,

and I'm coming to you on Monday morning, aren't I?

11 o'clock, OK. To have me tushy...

Thank you. Bye-bye, now. Bye.

Ha-ha! They ring me if, just to check

that I won't miss the appointment.

So I can get some teeth fixed.

HE HUMS

67...

That's the Offertory hymn.

Oh, is there a join? And then there is...

295.

There we are. Good morning, everyone.

Good morning, good morning.

During Lent, we are listening

and following Jesus as he slowly goes to the cross.

He will die on the cross at the end of Lent, on Good Friday.

And we want, in some way,

to show Jesus, as he loved us

so much to die for us, we love Jesus.

And in a way, we want to die in a little way.

And as a mark of that resolution,

we're going to do today,

we're going to do what people in the old days used to do.

We're going to sprinkle ashes on our foreheads,

so that we, in Chipping, will say we're beginning Lent in a holy way.

Remember you are dust, and unto dust, you will return.

Remember you are dust, and unto dust, you will return.

Stay there.

Remember you are dust, and unto dust, you will return.

Come... Come this way.

Remember you are dust, and unto dust, you will return.

Come here.

Remember you are dust, and unto dust, you will return.

Remember you are dust, and unto dust, you will return.

Remember you are dust, and unto dust, you will return.

I think we're all right now.

I'll give Margaret...

Remember you are dust, and unto dust, you will return.

Remember you are dust, and unto dust, you will return.

Remember you are dust, and unto dust, you will return.

Right, now then, this morning...

What was all that about?

Thinking about ash.

Father puts it on everybody's foreheads, and he says,

'Remember, man,

'that thou art dust,

'and to dust you will return.' That means...

We were made from dust in the story of creation,

and when we die, we turn back to dust. But that's really hard for us.

That's for your grown-ups to think about.

So, we're getting ready for Lent.

Would you like to have a little talk about

what you think you could do extra in Lent?

-Isaac?

-Well, I'm going to clean up the whole house.

The whole house?

Well, I shall let your mum know.

The whole house! What do you think of that?

-Do you think he's going to do that, John?

-No!

Do you think he's going to manage the whole house?

No! 1,000 billion, trillion.

OK, children, children.

OK, Pat-Joe?

I'm going to give up all things of Ben 10,

because it's my favourite.

Ben 10 is my favourite character,

so I'm going to try and give it up.

-Everything?!

-Yeah!

Gosh, that's going to be hard, isn't it?

Sam, are you going to do something, or are you giving up?

I'll let Mum have a little relax and watch telly,

while I'm tidying up.

Wow! Now, that's a really good one.

So, he's helping, and letting Mum do something.

Go on, Annie, are you going to tell them what I've got to do?

I normally say a Hail Mary for safe journeys. You don't mind if I do?

Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners,

now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

It's Windy Street.

And John Procter is the only grocer shop we've got in Chipping.

And I met his brother, Dennis, last night, at the ceilidh.

That's interesting.

That's the house of the organist, Jack Moon. He lives there.

And he's played our organ for over 60 years.

This reminds me so much of six years in Kenya...

..visiting, not only the sick, but the well. The farmers in Kenya.

Good morning, Tom.

Here I am.

And hello, Dorothy.

This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.

Happy are those who are called to his supper.

Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word

and I shall be healed.

-Body of Christ.

-Amen.

-Body of Christ.

-Amen.

Let us pray.

Do you remember your own first Holy Communion?

Very vividly. 1943. St Anne's Ancoats in Manchester.

And I remember being quite excited, and...

Oh, one thing I do remember,

one of the girls, called Maureen Goodwin,

she arrived and burst into tears. And Sister Frances said,

"What's the matter, Maureen?"

She goes, "I swallowed some toothpaste water."

"Oh, Maureen, how could you?!"

Because those were the days when the fasting for Holy Communion

went from midnight, and this was 8:30 in the morning of Corpus Christi.

So, poor Maureen, she was all dressed in her whites and the veil,

and she had to wait till the next day.

-She couldn't take it?

-No, no. The rule was quite strict.

And, you know, fingers were wagged at her.

And then, also, after we went from the church,

I burst into tears.

And Miss Peat, who was the teacher, she said,

"What's the matter, Anthony?"

"Jesus is stuck to my mouth."

"Oh", she said. "Well, go in the corner, there,

"and put some saliva..."

And I didn't realise what saliva was. It was spit.

So I had to moisten my mouth, and then I swallowed Jesus.

And how does it happen here, preparation for Communion?

We've got a team of three catechists, teachers of religion.

They are mothers in the community -

Joanna, Caroline, and Rosalba.

I remember it was a very long time ago,

I wasn't allowed to take Communion, cos I'd not made my first Communion.

What you do when you go up? You do this with your hands, don't you?

And you get a blessing, don't you?

And sometimes, you feel a bit sad that you can't have Holy Communion.

Well, the countdown has started.

Because you are very soon going to have Holy Communion.

And you're going to be so pleased

you'll join the party that we have, in a very,

very special way,

every Sunday, and any day that you want to, really.

During Lent, we should favour the gifts of the Holy Spirit,

to be given to us to help us to live as followers of Jesus.

These gifts are wisdom, understanding, counsel,

fortitude, knowledge, piety, and the Fear of the Lord.

Shall we go through each one, so we're sure what it means?

Piety.

Piety is a bit like the opposite of not showing off.

You know when you wear something nice,

you've got a nice piece of jewellery,

and you want to show all your girlfriends, don't you?

And sometimes, you can show off a bit too much.

Yeah? Well, piety's all about being humble, it's the opposite.

PIANO INTRODUCTION

# Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St Clement's... #

# Hungry, hungry

# I am hungry... #

That was very, very good.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

What are all these words scattered about the page?

What do you think all those words have in common? Lily?

Lent?

Yes. Well, the title really gives it away, doesn't it?

Crucifixion.

Jesus dies on the cross.

Lent, Easter, and the Crucifixion is the central event of that, isn't it?

And we're going to take this sheet

and just take one word, if you like,

to be thinking about,

and try and think what that really means.

What it meant to Jesus, what it means to you.

If you can do that, that's one way of trying to have

some understanding of what Jesus did for us.

-OK, Lily.

-Can we write a poem to do with these words?

That's what I want you to do.

You can start to have a little think about that.

You could use the words here.

You could use your own.

Ideally, it's something to do with Lent, Easter, the cross. OK?

I think we could be saying Hosanna now. Couldn't we be singing Hosanna?

# Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna... #

All right. Can we just stop for one minute?

Has anybody spotted what's happened here?

-Bluebells!

-Bluebells!

Bluebells. It's wonderful! Aren't we lucky?

Thorns are jagged and sharp,

joined perfectly at both sides of your head.

Blood is pouring down.

Wow! What's that poem about?

Did you hear it? Julia?

Is it about when they put the crown of thorns on Jesus' head

when he was on the cross?

Yeah. I think it was just before he was on the cross, but yes.

Was that right, Lily? That was fantastic.

Read it again a bit slower, with everyone's pencils nice and still.

Will you listen? A little bit louder.

Thorns are jagged and sharp,

joined perfectly at both sides of your head.

Blood is pouring down.

Wow! That's very vivid. Have you got that picture in your head?

I have.

OK, now then, children, children, now, when we go into church,

we're going to have a look round the side of the church on the walls,

and we're looking for some special pictures.

And they might have numbers on them.

So, I want you to have a little look.

See if you can find them, first of all,

then can we work out which is which?

There you go. Now, go and look for the pictures. What can you see?

Remember, you are investigating.

Go and have a look.

Where did we say they were?

It's like a storyline.

"Jesus meets His afflicted Mother."

These are called

the Stations of the Cross.

That's the proper name for them.

And in Lent, people come round

and look at each one, and say a special prayer

at each one.

Pat-Joe, can you read the first one to us?

-"Jesus is condemned to death."

-"Jesus is condemned to death."

So, do you remember when we had the story of them

saying they were going to get him?

And they said, "What shall we do with him?"

And they said,

"Oh, take him away and crucify him."

So, all you people

who were waving those palms at him a few minutes ago

and saying "Jesus is our friend," now you're shouting, "crucify him.

"Crucify him." Can you do that?

ALL: Crucify him. Crucify him.

Here we are.

Last year, I put on little labels, so I would know which is which...

Our Lady.

Right, Sheila.

Got the little one here for the crucifix. I'll pin that there.

-So, when are you putting these on?

-Tomorrow afternoon.

These are the ones I can reach fairly easily on the lean-to step ladders.

The two of St Joseph and Our Lady that are high up,

we don't normally cover those.

And this is the horrible one.

"Jesus is nailed to the Cross."

I wonder, if I was going to do something like that to you,

or if anyone was going to do that,

-would you just lay there and let them?

-No.

I wonder why Jesus didn't run away?

I wonder why he didn't run away any time?

Maybe he was tired.

Maybe he was tired.

I think he knew that this had to be done. He was a very special person.

And you'll learn about that, children, when you get older,

and we'll talk about it to help you understand.

"Jesus dies on the Cross."

Who do you think's with him?

Who do think is standing next to him?

Who do you think it could be, Ellen?

-Mary?

-It's Mary, his mum.

And have you noticed the soldier?

Just to make sure Jesus was dead,

the soldier came with a sword

and stabbed him in the side.

Just to make sure.

That's a really, really important bit of the story.

You're going to hear more about that one, so don't forget that bit.

Nails in his hands.

Nails in his feet. Have a look at your hands.

Where would the nails go?

About here.

-Here. Here.

-Then you've got a great big sword cut now as well.

-That must hurt.

-That must've hurt, mustn't it?

Shall we go and look at the last two and see what happens at the end?

Can everybody see?

If you can't see, you can move into the benches a little bit.

Sacred Heart is under this one.

We have the statues

and the crucifix covered for two weeks before Good Friday.

So that our thoughts may be more focused on Jesus himself.

Even though we cover him up,

we want to make it more than just a physical view of Jesus.

We want to put the story of Jesus deeply in our hearts and our lives.

And Jesus will be revealed on Good Friday afternoon,

in our special service,

which used to be called, in old English, the Creeping to the Cross,

when we come up and kiss the feet of the unveiled crucifix,

which will be at the front of the altar on Good Friday afternoon.

# Do not be afraid

# For I have redeemed you

# I have called you by your name

# You are mine... #

What are we doing today that's really special?

What is really special that we're doing today? Luciano.

It's our Lenten lunch.

It's our Lenten lunch. Who's looking forward to the Lenten lunch?

OK, why are you all looking forward to Lenten lunch?

Sam, why are you looking forward to it?

Because it's a bit of a change from the other school dinners.

It's a bit of a change, OK. It's a little bit of a change.

-Ellen?

-Because we made it.

-Because we have made it.

-Pat-Joe?

-Because our parents might be coming, or might not.

Why do you think we've invited other people?

Because we want people to buy it so we can give the money to us,

and then we can give it to the poor people.

-See what's happening?

-CHILDREN: Wow!

-It looks like sick.

-It looks like sick!

Yeah, sloppy sick.

We've made the soup so that we can raise money.

So, would you like to...help?

I think help would be a good word, rather than pay.

-If you could use the word...

-Pay is a bit too strong.

It is a bit strong, isn't it, Pat-Joe?

So, could we use the word help?

-We could put, please.

-That would be a good one, please help.

-Please help the people that are poor.

-Please help the people.

I wonder if we could not maybe use the word poor.

-If we could use the word, people who haven't got...

-Much.

That's really good, Isaac.

Please help the people who haven't got...much.

I'll leave you to it. For one more minute.

OK, I'll go and see if I can sort out what's going on up there.

And the people that don't have much money or much clothes,

or much food.

Please help the trapped people.

The trapped people, because they can't play.

So they're kind of trapped.

They're trapped and in, like, like, some...

like, in a dungeon with nothing.

But not a jail. Not a jail.

I must, erm, take a snap or two.

Lovely!

And when you press that, it stopped.

Give me one of them fivers.

Give me that, and take these.

Wow, we took a load of money.

We give you thanks, Almighty God, for all your gifts and benefits.

For you live and reign forever and ever. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now, enjoy the warm weather outside. It's lovely.

I don't think the ducks would come

if the herons had been attacking their little ones.

-All right, now?

-Yeah.

OK, we'll go in that little chapel.

The pelican is a symbol of the Eucharist,

because when the pelican can't get fish or proper food

to feed its young, it is known to have pecked its breast.

And the little chicks, the Pelican chicks,

take the blood of the mother pelican.

And so it's been used often, in the Catholic Church,

as a symbol of Christ giving his precious blood

for us in Holy Communion.

And there's a little painting of that symbol up there.

Some non-Catholics, they seem to have a great halt

when we talk about the Eucharist.

We believe that Christ is really present

under both bread and wine,

and that in Communion, we receive Christ whole and entire

in his divinity when we receive either,

in the form of bread or in the form of wine.

But the symbolism of that is made more...

..obvious when we receive under both kinds,

which, in many churches, we do nowadays.

But some people say, "No, I can't go that far.

"If I'm disposed to receive Christ,

"Christ comes to me in a wondrous way."

Whether we are disposed or not, Christ comes to us,

if we take him as food in our bodies.

But it's not symbolic for you?

Oh, it's not symbolic to us, no.

Do you think children can understand that, can feel that?

Did I, at six years and a half?

Yes, because there's an awesomeness

that the teacher and the family

can bring to a child

that helps that faith to develop.

And basically, it's faith.

You either believe it or you don't, and faith is a gift.

So we pray for the gift of faith.

OK, Lily, would you be able to read the first two lines, please?

"These two sacraments complete our invitation to the church,

"which begins with our baptism."

That's right, now what do you think those two words are?

-Yes?

-Confirmation and Communion.

Yes. When we're baptised, do we get baptised every week?

How many times do we get baptised in our life?

-Yes, Shannon.

-One.

Just once. What about Communion?

Do we go up to Communion just once?

Does it, just on your first Holy Communion day?

And that's it?

Never again?

No?

-Yes.

-When you come to church.

-Yes, right, yes.

You can go up every week. You can go up more than once a week.

So, it's a sacrament that you can take over and over again.

So, let's have a look at this first page.

Emily... Would you start us reading?

What about the title at the very top of it?

We are the body of Christ.

That's right. We've just been talking about that, haven't we?

We are the body of Christ.

Why do you think being the body of Christ is very important?

-Lily.

-Because we are Catholic?

Yeah. And what does Jesus and God want us to do?

Being the body of Christ is OK, but there must be a purpose to that.

Why do you think he wants us to be the body of Christ?

-To be happy?

-Yeah, to be happy, yeah.

-Anything else? Amelia.

-To follow him.

To follow him, and to follow his teachings.

And maybe to spread it out to other people.

You know, we are the next disciples.

This is the Lamb of God,

who takes away the sins of the world.

Happy are those who are called to his supper.

Lord, I am not worthy to receive you,

but only say the word and I shall be healed.

INAUDIBLE BLESSING

All right?

Children love to play amongst the graves. It's nice.

Hello!

Don't, don't fall.

That's Grandma.

And that's wonderful.

We've got Grandma and Grandad, Father and Mother, and Son and Daughter.

And they are in Key Stage 1.

It's to them that I read the Winnie the Pooh stories.

But they come up for a blessing. They're, they're lovely.

How do? Morning.

Hard at it? So am I.

Good morning.

Body of Christ. Amen.

Has everybody got their little bead?

If you want to hold your bead

and have a little think about what you're going to say.

Good morning, God.

I'm happy for myself because I'm building a train track on my own,

and I usually need my dad to help me. Amen.

Amen. Wow! Well done, Dylan. You're next, John.

Good morning, God.

Please help my telly to get fixed

because I like watching telly

and I miss watching Simpsons. Amen.

Amen.

Good morning, God. I like my mum cos she makes me laugh. Amen.

Amen.

Good morning, God.

Thank you for the lovely curlew that I saw flying over Sam's farm

this morning.

-It made me smile. Amen.

-ALL: Amen.

Now, who's going to read?

You read beautifully the other day. Let's, let... A little one.

"Next, the tempter showed him all the kingdoms and the worlds

"and their splendour.

"'I'll give you all these, he said, if you fall at my feet and worship me.'

"Then Jesus replied,

"'Be off, for Scripture says

"'you must worship the Lord, your God, and serve him alone.'

"Then the tempter left him,

"and the angels appeared and looked after Jesus."

And looked after Jesus.

Who is the tempter?

-The devil.

-The devil. Has he got any other name?

-Satan.

And does he have any other name? It begins with an L.

-Yeah?

-Lucifer.

-Lucifer.

The bearer of light.

That was his name in heaven before he fell from God's favour.

He said, "I was brighter than God."

He had the big sin of pride.

And where did the devil get cast into?

-Yeah?

-Hell.

-Hell.

Ooh! Is it a nice place, hell?

-No.

-What do you think of hell?

-Red.

-Yeah?

-Well, you can't exactly imagine how bad it would be.

-Yeah.

The worst thing you can ever have,

even in this life,

is when someone dear to you dies.

It's called the pain of loss. Katia?

I just think it as the devil with just a fire.

Yeah, well, often, a pain of loss...

A pain is like a fire inside you.

And so, even Jesus talks about hellfire,

and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

We use human words to try and describe it.

And we say Hell must be like that, wherever it is.

Right, off you go and stretch your legs, just for a moment,

then we'll call you back.

..We saw them singing...

-What sort of sounds do they make?

-They make like this. Ooh!

That's the one.

And once, my mum found, like, a blackbird egg and it cracked,

but it didn't come out, because something must have eaten it.

What colour was it? Did she say what colour it was?

-It was like green with black spots on.

-That's the one. A bluey green.

-Yeah.

-Maybe the little bird had come out.

You might not have seen the little bird come out.

And, do you know, a little blackbird is as big as its mummy and daddy.

It's just like them, except it's more fluffy.

So you keep your eyes open for that.

Cos I've got one in my garden,

and the mummy is feeding it at the moment.

I've got a playhouse, and there's, like, a nest

that's like a bird hutch.

And there are some blue tits nesting in there.

-Have you got blue tits in your little box?

-Yeah.

-You are lucky.

-I haven't got any in mine this year.

-No.

You'll have to play very quietly by, in your house, then.

I've got, I've got, a little play area.

Well, you look after your blue tits.

-Will you do that?

-Yeah.

-Good boy.

OK, Annie, do you want to come and pop that...?

Shall we keep it in our classroom?

Would God ever forgive Satan, or not?

-It's a good question.

-Would God ever let Satan back into heaven?

-Because we say God is all merciful. Is he, though?

-It's just a question.

Does his mercy extend to the being

that has caused so much trouble

to God's creation from the word go?

It's only for God to say yes or no to that.

God forgives us if we are really sincere in saying to God,

I am very sorry, and I won't offend you again.

That's a hard thing to do, but you've got to mean it. Yeah?

Did Satan say sorry?

I don't know whether Satan could say sorry.

We don't have to think too much about Satan,

otherwise, he might say, "This person's interested in me.

"I think I'll go and have a little rest in him, or her."

Yeah?

What happens if you don't love God,

but you start to believe in the Devil?

-What happens then?

-Ooh...

Well, there are stories that people sell their souls to the Devil.

Lord above, I wouldn't dream of doing it,

but if people, those, there are people that find...

..happiness, if you can call it that, in having devil worship.

But it's not recommended for anyone to go into that area.

Because the Devil is very crafty.

The Devil tempts you in little ways, doesn't he?

Until you realise when you've nearly said it,

or you've done it, "What am I doing?

"No!"

He's very subtle, isn't he?

Yeah.

Yeah, all right?

Do you think that a big part of the priestly role is to form

the next generation of Catholics, the children in the junior school?

Yes. It's all part...

And with the parents in this, we are in loco parentis -

in the place of the parents - when we are teaching children.

And we teach the children, as the parents do, all that is good in life.

And the children are asking lots of questions. Why am I priest?

And why I wear this funny collar, and why... There's all sorts.

Why haven't I got a wife?

And things like this.

They're fascinated by the priest.

Has the whole scandal, the child abuse scandal,

and things, contaminated things, or is it very isolated?

Erm...

It's...

It's been taken on board.

It amazes me that this has happened.

Because, you know, from my own feeling,

Lord above, I've got no intention, either for boys or girls,

to go and interfere with them.

I don't know.

The Devil attacks in ways where he knows it will injure.

And it's for us human beings to try and work out

how we can do better

than our poor brother priests, or sisters,

that have failed in this way, I just can't imagine it.

So...

I'm on the good team, and they're on the bad team,

who are on the grass chasing us.

And if the bad team takes us, we're on the bad team.

One, two, three. What're you doing?

..Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Hey, Pat-Joe, I've got a sharks video, with sharks.

I've got Blue Planet videos, with every kind of things in the sea.

Even every single thing in the sea.

My one only shows about sharks.

Sharks are the dangerous-est animals in the sea.

Except for killer whales. They're more dangerous.

-No.

-No?

-No. Did you know...?

Those massive whales.

No. Blue whales only eat krill. I'll tell you what's the...

Stingray.

Yeah, the stingray.

Pat-Joe, have you ever seen a spider crab?

They live at the bottom of the ocean.

What happens if the thing bites you?

-I know.

-You die?

You'll die, and, you'll die,

and you'll die,

and then you will turn into a spider crab.

It's true, isn't it, Sam?

-Yes.

-True or false, Jamie?

-True.

# This is the wood of the Cross

# On which hung the Saviour of the World

# Come let us worship!

# This is the wood of the Cross

# On which hung the Saviour of the World

# Come let us worship! #

It's Holy Saturday. Lent is finished.

Will you have a gin and tonic?

Or will you have one of my mixtures?

It'll put me to sleep.

-Pardon?

-You're going to put me to sleep.

-Not at all.

You're going to be eating.

-A mild pink gin, I'll give you.

-Sounds delicious, thank you.

Ha-ha-ha!

I've got a pink gin for both of you,

and I want to go back and get the crisps.

-You're a star.

-There we are.

-Thank you.

-It's not an over amount of gin,

-but it's got Angostura bitters in.

-Oh, wow! Thank you very much.

-Happy Easter.

-Happy Easter. Thank you.

-Happy Easter, Father.

-I'm just going to get mine.

-OK.

Good morning and welcome, everybody.

It's lovely to see you on this nice Easter morning.

I'm going to start by doing the sign of the Cross, OK?

So, in the name of the Father,

and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And we're just going to wait for a few minutes,

and just close your eyes, and just think of anything that you

may have done this week that might have made anybody sad.

Anything you've done that you feel you shouldn't have done,

and just very quietly, in our own way,

we're going to say we're sorry to God.

Just for a few minutes.

We're going to ask you, in a moment, to stand

and we'll say our baptismal promises.

I'll come round with the water, blessed last night,

and sprinkle you with it.

I hope I don't get you in the eyes.

Close your eyes. Please stand.

We're going to go on an Easter egg hunt.

So I have a basket.

Now, we can't eat before Mass, obviously, before Holy Communion,

we don't have anything to eat,

because we're getting ready to receive the body of Jesus.

The choir.

The organist. There we are.

Thank you.

Right, everybody, we're going to go in. Can somebody take the eggs?

-Where's the eggs?

-The eggs ought to be inside.

-Right.

-One of the kids can take them.

One of the kids can take them in.

CHORAL SINGING

CHURCH BELL TOLLS

Happy Easter.

You can take a little one as well.

Happy Easter. There we are.

Happy Easter.

Happy Easter.

# One, two

# Three, four, five

# Jesus is alive

# Six, seven, eight, nine, ten

# He will come again... #

-It was a baby bird. A baby bird in there.

-The baby is dead.

-A baby dead bird.

-Yeah.

So, that's why you dig a grave.

-Any, any, blood...

-Is that his tomb?

-Yep.

-It's his grave.

This, this will be the gravestone of our little birdie friend.

-Why put that on there?

-I think they go to birdie heaven.

They go to heaven. Normal heaven.

They go to birdie heaven.

No, there's no such thing as birdie heaven.

We do this so Father in heaven knows there's a dead bird.

Who would like to try

Holy bread and Holy wine,

before next week, just a little sneak preview? Yeah?

You'd all like to, yeah?

The bread and the wine I have got today hasn't been blessed by Father.

So, it is just bread and wine.

It's going to taste the same next week,

but it's going to be very, very different.

Do you know what I'm saying?

Because something has happened to that, in the Holy Mass.

-What? You tell me.

-He's blessed it.

-He's blessed it.

Father makes something special happen.

So that we, as Catholics,

believe that we are actually receiving Jesus.

That Jesus is coming into us to guide us, to strengthen us,

to love us.

It's a fantastic feeling.

When we go to Communion, we'll go up for the bread.

Now, you do have, you don't have to take the wine,

but I'd like you to try it, because it's the whole thing, isn't it?

Amelia, do you want to come?

Amelia, how are you going to take...? You're going to do it with your hand?

OK, good girl.

-Right, the body of Christ.

-And you say...?

-Amen.

-That's it.

OK.

It's thicker, isn't it, than you think? Yeah?

-And then, they'll say, the blood of Christ.

-Amen.

Just a tiny little sip.

-That's it.

-Well done. That's fantastic. Really good.

-Do you want to come?

-Right, yes.

-Do you want to try it? Well done. The body of Christ.

-Amen.

Do you want to try the wine as well?

Oh, wow. We're going for it.

The blood of Christ.

Well done.

I liked, er...

OK, children, let's bring ourselves into the presence of God.

Let's join our hands.

And, today, obviously, we've got our thoughts with our

Holy Communion children, so, dear God, please help the children

who are soon to make their first Holy Communion to prepare,

with reverence, and with prayer, and with joy.

Amen.

How will it be different to when you practised?

When it's not blessed,

it's, kind of like, not, cos...

It's hard, isn't it? It really is hard. It is a mystery.

And there are people who are twice as old as you,

three times as old as you, four times as old as you,

five times as old as you,

who perhaps still couldn't put it into words.

It is a mystery.

And it is something that it takes our whole life to really...

Perhaps we never really know, properly,

understand what we're doing.

But what did Jesus say?

-Eat this bread, because it's part of my body.

-Good. "This is my body."

That's what he said.

And we know that's why he died for us, and rose again.

How are you all? Nice to see you. Great. Isn't it lovely?

You all look lovely. You look very smart.

Wait till the music starts.

# Give me joy in my heart Keep me praising

# Give me joy in my heart, I pray

# Give me joy in my heart... #

CHURCH BELL TOLLS

Body of Christ. Amen.

Body of Christ.

Body of Christ.

Body of Christ.

So, what are we going to have?

Ooh, look at that lovely cake!

Oh, and the chocolate cross! Lovely.

Right.

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