April Youth Ministry Meeting

We had the April Younth Ministry meeting on Sunday April 11th, 2010.  It was a week later than usual since the celebration of Easter was last weekend.

At this months meeting we continued the Lent & Easter theme.  To remind us of prayer and fasting we made hand rolled pretzels in the church kitchen.  From CathlicCulture.org we lerarned that Pretzels were originally developed in Ancient Roman family homes as far back as the 4th Century.  Pretzels are breads made using only water flour and salt to remind themselves that lent is a time of fasting and focus on God – not celebration and rich foods like creams, meats and cheeses.  The “Pretzels” were formed into a symbol of a person with their arms folded across their chest in prayer. 

The Pretzel Prayer:

We beg you, O Lord, to bless these breads which are to remind that Lent is a sacred season of penance and prayer.  For this very reason the early Christians started the custom of making these breads in the form of arms crossed in prayer.  Thus they kept the holy purpose of lent alive in their hearts from day to day, and increased in their soulds the love of Christ, even unto death, if necessary.

Grant us we pray, that we too, may be reminded by the daily sight of these pretzels to observe the holy season of Lent with true devotion and great spiritual fruit.  We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

We also discussed some Christian meaning for the Jelly Beans given at Easter.

• Red is for the bBlood He gave
• Green is for the grass He made
• Yellow is for the sun so bright
• Orange is for the edge of night
• Black is for the sins that were made
• White is for the grace that He gave
• Purple is for the hour of sorrow

Thanks to www.childfun.com for this list.

After making our pretzels we created fun little Chalkboard Easter Rabbits (I’ll call them T’wabits).  The little chalboards are great for short messages (like tweets on www.Twitter.com).  I found this craft on www.AllFreeCrafts.com and we all had fun gluing them together in funny ways.  Check out the picture show below to catch a glimpse of a T’wabit.

Here are pictures from the Youth Ministry Meeting on April 11th.

to get a better view of the pictures go to: