THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

Children, many years ago there lived a very great King in Israel. His name was King David.
  King David did many wonderful things which showed he had much courage. He was deeply loved by God.
  David was wonderful at playing the harp, and people came from miles around to listen to him as he strummed the harp and sang with a beautiful voice.
  King David also made mistakes in his life. But even though he made mistakes, he never forgot the one great truth; that God loves him. And King David truly loved God.

  King David wrote magnificent prayers called the Psalms. This prayers were put to music, and any time David wanted to talk to God, well, he could just take up his harp and play and sing.

  The Psalms were given to us from a wonderful book from Israel called the Torah. It is a sacred book, and the Word of God.
  One of the Psalms King David wrote was the beautiful Psalm, 'The Lord is my Shepherd.'
This Psalm tells us that God will always take care of us, night and day, at all times - just like the devoted shepherd of the sheep does.
  If ever you need strength, comfort or courage in your life, why not pray this Psalm?

It is very easy to pray this Psalm. You can just read it, while thinking on the words in the Psalm.
  While you are doing this, open your heart to God. Sometimes God will have a special message for you, and you will feel or hear God's Voice in your heart or your head.
  Remember God is your Heavenly Father, and loves you very  much.
Even if things can be difficult at times here on earth, He will never leave you without help.

  King David wrote about the Good Shepherd. Many years later one of his descendents, Jesus, was born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem.
  Jesus is known at the Good Shepherd of us all. As Son of God, He searches for each of us to make sure we find the right path to Heaven.
  We know Jesus is the Good Shepherd as He told us so, in the beautiful Gospel John Chapter 10, verse 11.
  Jesus also told us he would lay down His Life for us. Jesus gave His life for us on the cross so that we could be free to enter Heaven to be with God and with Mary and Joseph, and with Him.
  How great is Jesus.
Let us thank Jesus every day for being our Great and Good Shepherd.

  Here is the wonderful Psalm 23 written by the great King David;

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD
PSALM 23

'The Lord is my Shepherd,
 There is nothing I shall want.
 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
 He restores my soul.
 He guides me in the path of righteousness,
 for His Name's sake.

 Even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death,
 I fear no evil, for You are with me;
 Your rod and Your staff,  they comfort me.

 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies,
 You have anointed my head with oil,
 My cup overflows.
 Surely goodness and kindness will follow me all the days of my  life,
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.'

Image by Rev Catheirne

NOAH AND THE ARK OF WOOD

DEAR CHILDREN, THERE IS A WONDERFUL STORY IN THE BIBLE ABOUT THE TIME WHEN GOD SAVED US ALL FROM DROWNING.

  You see, God looked at this beautiful world He had made, and He got very worried. People, little boys and girls, cute babies and many animals lived on earth.
  But a terrible danger was coming and only God knew about it.
God is so clever, He knows about everything.
  God saw there was a problem deep inside the earth and under all the seas.
  There was going to be a big leak of water through the tectonic earth plates under the seas, a tsunami on the earth and lots of rain.
  Oh my.
God was so concerned, He contacted a really good and kind man called Noah.
  He called, 'Noah, Noah!'
Noah was surprised, but He was glad to hear God's Voice.

  God told Noah He was worried about the Flood to come, and the danger everybody was in.
  God explained to Noah how to build a huge boat of wood called an Ark.
  He asked him to take a mummy and daddy animal of every kind, and keep them safe in the Ark so they could be saved from dying out. And of course God asked Noah to take his family on to the Ark to keep them safe too.

Noah was glad to help, and he and his family built the Ark.
  The day came when Noah and his family carefully put the animals in the ark.
  There were little dogs yapping: and bunny rabbits with fluffy ears and cute paws.
  There were roaring lions with big manes, and grey waddling hippopotami.
  Butterflies and bees, storks and hornbills, monkeys and kittens that purred.
  Why there was every kind of animal, bird, reptile and insect you could think of.

Well, God was so kind, when He heard the rain and floods coming, He quickly closed the door of the Ark so everybody could be safe inside.
  God was so sad when all the other people and animals died in the Flood.
  But He was also so happy He had managed to keep people and animals safe in the Ark.
  Isn't God good?
If He had not been so clever and caring, then none of us would be alive today.
  Which would be very sad.

So when you pray tonight before you go to bed, why not thank God for saving Noah and all in the Ark.
  Thank God for your family, and for your pets.

Why not colour in the picture? Or draw your own.
  See how many animals you can draw or colour in.
Can you name any of the animals Noah must have put in the Ark?

Noah's Ark Bible Coloring Pages
http://www.coloring.ws/noah.htm

Noah's Ark Animal Parade 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmk2Kd5QNw0

With thanks to Coloring.ws and Youtube
Image by Rev Catherine

SAINT PETER

Peter was the first leader of the Christian Church.
Jesus called this wonderful fisherman, because He knew Peter was an honest and true man: he was also powerful.
Jesus knew Peter would become as strong as a rock, and told us that Peter would be the great leader of the Church.

Jesus told Peter to teach the Word of God to all people.
Jesus was tender and loving to all babies, girls, boys and grown up people.
He thought they were like little baby lambs and sheep who need a lot of care.
Jesus told Peter to look after little children and grown ups as carefully and tenderly as a shepherd looks after lambs and sheep.

Peter loved Jesus very much.
He got excited when he saw Jesus showing the signs and wonders of God by miraculously walking on water.
When Peter called to Jesus, Jesus laughed and told him to walk to Him on the water.
Peter jumped on to the water of the lake and began to walk!
What excitement! How unusual!

But then Peter became scared because there was a strong wind and the waves were very high, and he began to sink.
Jesus reached out His kindly Hand and pulled Peter out of the waves.

Just like this, we sometimes get scared too when things in our life can be a little difficult.
When that happens, just do what Peter did and call out to Jesus, "Lord, save me!"
And have no doubt, Jesus will always help you.

Little children, always love Jesus with all your heart, mind and soul.
He will never forget you, and will help you through all of your life.

Always love and honour St Peter as the great saint appointed by God to be the head of the Church.

Why not color in the beautiful picture of Peter calling out to Jesus? You can find it at this link;

http://www.supercoloring.com/pages/peter-walks-on-the-water-by-james-tissot 

You can watch a video about Jesus walking on water at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2t3-S6eSUU

With thanks to Supercoloring.com and Youtube

CHILDREN, IT IS IMPORTANT TO READ THE BIBLE

Children, it is very important to read the Bible.
Ask your mommy, daddy or guardian to help you get your own children's Bible.
It is wonderful to read the holy Word of God.

The Bible is made up of the Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Old Testament tells the story of how God made the world, the history of Israel and the great predictions made by the holy prophets.

The books in the New Testament tell the story of how Jesus the Son of God was born, lived, and gave His Life for us so we can get to Heaven.

It is so good to learn about the great Word of God.
Little children, read your Bible every day.

The Bible helps us to learn how to become holy.
The four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John explain to us how Jesus lived and thought.
We can all become wonderful people by trying to live the same way as Jesus lived: obeying the Ten Commandments of God, smiling at people, loving them, being kind, not telling lies, not killing, not hurting, not being cruel, not laughing at others, not stealing, not being disrespectful toward other people's marriages, homes, families, jobs or possessions.

To be a good Christian means to make an effort to become like Jesus: in other words, to become Christ-like.

Jesus forgave other people when they made mistakes, even bad ones. 
Jesus did not judge other people. 
Jesus did not want other people to be killed. 
The Son of God respected all life.

Jesus loved babies and children, and all people. Jesus loved animals, being born as the Son of God in the comfort of the presence of gentle animals who never hurt Him at all.
Let us be like our great Son of God: wonderful, kind and caring.

Have great fun becoming the saint God wants you to be. The Word of God will help you to learn about the wonderful Plan of God and the life of His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, when you carefully and happily read your Bible. 

MARY OF NAZARETH VISITS ELIZABETH

When God sent Angel Gabriel to Mary to ask her if she would be Jesus' Mother, He also asked Gabriel to tell her that He had made a very great miracle.
He was giving Mary's cousin Elizabeth her own little baby under her heart too.

This was unexpected, because Cousin Elizabeth was an older lady.
She did not expect to have a baby anymore.
God heard her prayers for a little one of her own.
And God did an even greater thing; He granted Elizabeth and her holy husband Zachariah - who was a respected Priest at the Jerusalem Temple - a baby boy prophet.
Not only a lovely baby; but a PROPHET!
A Prophet who had been foretold by Isaiah.

Isaiah, the great Prophet many many years before had written that God told him that He was going to send a great prophet to make everything ready for the great Son of God to come.
Now God had chosen Jesus' own cousin for this great task.

Can you imagine the excitement? Can you imagine the joy?
Two ladies having their little ones who were going to change the whole world.
How great is God! And how wonderful are Mary, Joseph, Elizabeth, Zachariah and all their families. By their kindness and love of God they made it possible for God to make all these things happen.

Why not look at Superbook Kids Bible online??http://uk-en.superbook.cbn.com/sb_bible

With thanks to Superbook.cbn.com

Bernadette of Lourdes

Boy Jesus

Lambs