June 13th CLW Lesson

A reading from the Gospel according to Mark 4: 26-34:  Jesus was talking to the crowds and said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who scatters seeds on the ground.  He puts in a lot of work, plowing and watering the fields, but he also goes to sleep and while he sleeps, the wheat grows.  The man doesn’t know how it grows…it just does!  It sprouts, first one leaf, then another, until it is ready for harvest.”
Jesus’ disciples asked if there was another parable to explain the Kingdom of God.  Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.  When the mustard seed is planted in the ground it is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.  But it grows into the largest of plants, growing large branches that birds can get shade from.”

In today's Gospel, Jesus is telling us about how his kingdom grows.  In the first story, Jesus tells us how we can take care of our faith just like the farmer takes care of the wheat – the farmer plows the field, he waters it, he weeds it.  However, the weeds still try to crowd out the wheat, etc.  At the end of the day, the wheat grows because of God as the wheat grows when the man is asleep.  For our faith to grow, we nurture it like the farmer, and even when we don’t know it, God is helping our faith to grow, just like he does with the wheat.
In the second story, we learn about the parable of the mustard seed.  A parable is a story.  Jesus is telling his disciples that their faith will spread to others as they do his work so that God’s message will spread to other nations and other people.  In this story Jesus is telling us that just a little bit of faith can grow to be ginormous!  The mustard seed you have grows to be over 8 feet tall – that is taller than you or me!  We just need to do our part like the farmer does his and tiny seeds of faith that we help plant will grow to be great things for the Glory of God!


1)    Did the farmer make the wheat grow on his own? If not, who helps him? (No, God!)
2)    How small can your faith start out how big can it get? (like a mustard seed – it can grow hundreds of times its size!)
3)    How do we grow our faith? (go to church, share, pray to God, help our parents, etc.) 


COLORING SHEET
by CatholicMom