Guided meditation: The Feeding of the 5000
Location: In the Oratory
Resources required:
Script
CD player and CD
Jar of Smarties
Wipes
Emphasise that the pupils are entering a sacred place. Genuflect to the tabernacle, and ask the pupils to do the same. Seat the pupils on the chairs.
Guided Meditation: Feeding of the 5000:
(If you find you have lots of time spare for this session, you could have a discussion something like what follows:
Sharing a meal is a great way to spend time with family and friends. When do you share a meal with your family? What do you eat? What do you talk about? Today we are going to share a meal with Jesus and his disciples, and a crowd that he was teaching. Let’s go to meet Jesus)
Put on the meditation music on CD player. Explain that the group is going to experience a special form of prayer. They will use their imagination to enter a Gospel scene, and to meet Jesus. Get the children to sit in a comfortable position for meditation: back straight, feet on the floor, not crossed, hand in their laps.
Give the children the following instructions:
Close your eyes. Take a deep breath and relax.
(You can also use a relaxation technique, e.g.:
“Close your eyes….become aware of your own breathing…you don’t have to change your breathing…as you breathe in, imagine that you are breathing in light, freshness, happiness, maybe the smell of freshly cut grass, anything which makes you feel relaxed and happy…as you breathe out, imagine you are breathing out anything dark, unhappy or frustrating…give those things to God…and replace them with the freshness and happiness.”
Or:
“Close your eyes…take a deep breath…now feel your feet against the floor, and inside your shoes…feel yourself sitting on the chair… feel your back against the back of the chair…feel your arms and hands resting in your lap…feel your clothes resting lightly on your shoulders…feel you neck and your head.”)
Read the following meditation slowly and deliberately:
Imagine that you are in a boat on a large lake, called the Sea of Galilee with Jesus and his disciples. Look at the sky…It’s orange, red and yellow from the sun just beginning to rise…Isn’t it beautiful?...All of you start to row to a quiet place across the lake….
As you near the shore, you and the apostles notice that there is a large crowd waiting for Jesus…Peter turns to Jesus, “Look, Jesus! There must be hundreds of people!” Jesus silently watches the crowd gather.
The boat lands on the shore, and Jesus and his apostles start walking towards the waiting crowd…You help Peter pull the boat onto the beach…By the time you catch up with the others, Jesus is already walking among the people, blessing them and healing them…It’s only when Peter says, “It’s getting late, Jesus,” that you realize the day is almost over…you can see the colour of the clouds in the sky changing to orange and red because of the setting sun…Peter wants to send the crowd away to their villages to buy food, but Jesus says, “Give them something to eat yourselves”…Before Peter can respond, Jesus turns away to bless a child…You and the apostles go to see if anyone has brought any food with them.
A little later, you and the apostles are looking at the five loaves of bread and two fish in front of you…it seems so little…but Jesus says, “Invite the people to sit down on the grass, “ and you watch as 5 thousand people sit down in groups. Jesus blesses the bread and fish, and offers a prayer of thanksgiving to God…He turns to you, and hands you half a loaf of bread...”Pass this out to the people,” he tells you…
You take the bread from Jesus and begin to walk among the crowd…You break off chunks of bread and give some to every person…See people’s faces smiling, and each person thanking you and he or she holds up his hand to receive the bread…Andrew follows on with the fish, giving it out to everyone…
Soon the bread is gone…go back to Jesus and sit next to him…Jesus breaks off some bread and fish and gives it to you…it tastes so good.
Jesus looks at the five thousand people. He turns and says to you, “When you share God’s gifts, there is always enough to go around…Are you ready to share what you have with others?” Jesus looks you in the eye and waits for a response…I’ll leave you alone with Jesus so you can talk this over with him.(pause for 15 seconds or so)
It is time to leave Jesus now…Say goodbye to Jesus…walk away from him…turn and wave to him one last time…and now you can become aware that you are here in the chapel in Newmains, and in your own time you can open your eyes.
Discussion: You can ask the pupils if there was any part of the meditation which they remember in particular, an image that was strong (e.g. the sky, taste of the bread, feeling of being in a boat, being close to Jesus…)
Activity: Tell the pupils that they are now going to experience another unusual form of prayer. As they have just heard, Jesus fed 5000 people who were hungry. He continues to feed us today, in a spiritual way, and Jesus will feed them spiritually when they receive him in Holy Communion. It’s important that we are grateful for what we have, and that’s what this prayer is all about.
Take the jar of Smarties around, and invite the pupils to take a few Smarties: each Smartie will represent one thing which we want to give thanks to God for: perhaps our parents, our school, our First Communion, a talent we have, our friends etc. Remind them that they are not usually allowed to eat in church, but since they are a special class and they are praying, we’ll make an exception.
Pupils can either take a small handful at one time, or one at a time, and the jar can continue to circulate. Go round the group and invite the child to make a prayer, one at a time: “Thank you God for…”, and when they have made the prayer they can eat a Smartie. Keep going round the circle until their Smarties/prayers are finished.
You can go around with a wipe for each child, as their hands may be stained by the Smartie shell dye.
Finish with a prayer:
Lord Jesus, you once fed 5000 people, and you continue to feed us today. Help us always to be grateful for all we have. Amen.
Bring the pupils back down to the main room.
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