Our Gifts and God’s Call Grade 3 Vocation Awareness

Vocation Prayer God, thank you for loving me. In Baptism you called me by name to live as your child. Help all your people to know their call in life. For your greater glory, raise up generous leaders to serve as priests, deacons, sisters, and brothers. Amen.

God created us to love and serve Him He gave us special gifts to help us do this!

Vocations The talents and gifts God gave us will help us decide which way God is calling us to serve Him. The way we serve God is our vocation.

Before you can figure out your vocation, you should recognize the gifts that God has given you. What gifts do you have that are bringing you closer to God? Do you have courage or a positive attitude? Are you a hard worker, helpful, kind, energetic, smart,musican, good at math or reading? On each step that leads to Jesus write a gift that you have. If you having trouble ask a friend, teacher or a parent to help you recognize your gifts and talents Write! How can you use these gifts to become closer to God? Example Share some with you class

Recap Why did God create us? How should we use the gifts God gave us? What is a vocation? What’s Next? Tomorrow we will discuss the vocation to the priesthood

Vocation Prayer God, thank you for loving me. In Baptism you called me by name to live as your child. Help all your people to know their call in life. For your greater glory, raise up generous leaders to serve as priests, deacons, sisters, and brothers. Amen.

Priesthood The first vocation that we will learn about is priesthood. What priests do you know? How would you describe them? Share

Some men decide that God is calling them to be priest Some men decide that God is calling them to be priest. They use their gifts and talents to bring people closer to God

An important part of being a priest is administering the Sacraments What’s a sacrament again? A sacrament is a visible sign, given to us by Christ, to give us grace

God gave us 7 sacraments. Lets see who can remember what they are. Lots of people get this sacrament as a baby. It takes away original sin and gives us a new birth in the Holy Spirit. Its sign is the pouring of water.

Baptism Have you ever been to a Baptism that you remember? When we are baptized, we become children of God, members of the church, and are given eternal life. A person is baptized only once.

2) This next sacrament has a few different names 2) This next sacrament has a few different names. During this sacrament you confess your sins to a priest

Penance or Reconciliation When we go to Confession we say our sins to the priest. By the power given to him by Jesus, he forgives us. We get lots of grace and should go to Confession often!

3) In this sacrament, we receive Jesus in the form of bread and wine

Holy Eucharist In this sacrament, a priest changes bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. This miracle occurs each time Mass is said during the Consecration . Saying Mass each day is an important part of being a priest

4) In this sacrament, a man and a woman make promises to one another to stay together forever

Holy Matrimony (aka Marriage) The bride and groom make vows ( special promises) to love one another and help each other grow closer to God

5) This is a sacrament when men become priests.

Holy Orders After a man goes to seminary for a few years he is finally ordained a priest.

6) You receive this sacrament when you are sick 6) You receive this sacrament when you are sick. The priest blesses you with oil

Annointing of the Sick An important job of a priest is to comfort and help people who are sick.

7) In this sacrament you receive the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit

Confirmation During Confirmation you are blessed with holy oil called Chrism and become a full member of the Catholic Church!

Priests play an important role in all these sacraments! In your religion copybook write down 3-5 sentences on what you learned about sacraments. Draw a picture underneath. Don’t forget to include the priest!

Recap Today you learned that some men are called to be priest. One job of the priest is to administer the sacraments to us Tomorrow we will talk about the vocation to marriage

Vocation Prayer God, thank you for loving me. In Baptism you called me by name to live as your child. Help all your people to know their call in life. For your greater glory, raise up generous leaders to serve as priests, deacons, sisters, and brothers. Amen.

Who can remember what vocation we learned about yesterday? The Priesthood

Today we will discuss vocations to the religious life Sisters, Brothers, Nuns and Monks

Some people feel God is calling them to join a religious order Some people feel God is calling them to join a religious order. Many great saints were members of religious order Can anyone name the saints below?

Saints and Vocations If you said St Therese, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Katherine Drexel than you’re right! Listen to their stories of how they followed God’s call

Write about it! Think about St. Therese the Little Flower. What little acts of kindness and sacrifices can you make to become closer to God. How can you follow her example?

Recap What vocations have we discussed so far? What saints were members of religious orders? How can we follow in the footsteps of the saints to become closer to God?

Vocation Prayer God, thank you for loving me. In Baptism you called me by name to live as your child. Help all your people to know their call in life. For your greater glory, raise up generous leaders to serve as priests, deacons, sisters, and brothers. Amen.

Marriage Marriage is a sacrament in which a man and woman vow to love each other forever.

Marriage is a Vocation Marriage is a vocation just like priesthood, or the call to religious life No matter what your vocation, we are all called to spread God’s love and His word throughout the world. People who are called to marriage share God’s love and His word with one another and their families.

Can anyone think of any saints who are married?

Read about St. Anne and St. Joachim St Anne and Joachim are very special saints because they are the parents of Mary and the grandparents of Jesus.! Tradition holds that for a long time they were childless. They prayed and prayed and finally God sent them a daughter. She grew up to be the mother of God! Anne and Joachim are great examples of what a good marriage is because they spread God’s word to their daughter Mary. They taught her all about God and helped her grow into a good and holy woman.

Do you know anyone who is married? Write about ways in which the saints we talked about or someone you know is closer to God through the sacrament of marriage? Example My grandparents are great examples of married people who help one another become closer to God. They stuck with each other through good times and bad. For awhile, my Grandpop had to go to war, my Grandmom had to raise seven children on her own. It wasn’t easy but she knew it that it was important to teach her children to pray and go to Mass. When he got back from war, the family was finally together again! They thanked God for his safe return by praying every night as a family. My Mom taught me the same prayers her Mom and Dad taught her. Their good example of how to be a strong Catholic was passed down to me!

Recap What are the 3 vocations we learned about this week? Priesthood Marriage Religious Life

Vocation Prayer God, thank you for loving me. In Baptism you called me by name to live as your child. Help all your people to know their call in life. For your greater glory, raise up generous leaders to serve as priests, deacons, sisters, and brothers. Amen.

God calls us to our vocations, but not the way we call people

Pray to know the way… God doesn’t call on phones or yell over our noisy lives. We need to quiet down so we can hear him. When we pray, we are talking to God. If we keep praying He will help us discover the path He wants us to follow.

Talking with Jesus Pretend Jesus really did call you on the phone. What do you think you would talk about? Write a conversation between you and Jesus. Include what you learned about vocations this week. If you wish, share some of your conversation with your classmates and teacher. Jesus – Me – Me -

Recap God has a great plan for each one of us! We should use our gifts and develop our talents and use them for good, how God wants us to. If we listen, God is speaking. If you want to know your vocation make time to pray to God and ask him to guide you! It’s never too early to start praying about God’s plan for you!