This week, Year 5 led us in a liturgy helping us to think about how we can show piety without being boastful. They chose the scripture Matthew 6 because, in this scripture, Jesus tells us that we should pray and give to charity without telling anyone about it because, if we boast, that boasting is the only reward we will get. If we do good without expecting praise, we are doing what God wants because we are doing what is right without being rewarded by other people. We will be rewarded when we get to Heaven because God sees everything that we do.
To help us understand this, the children performed a drama where children put money in the CAFOD box while loudly boasting about how much they were giving and what good people they were. Then, other children quietly walked up and put money in the box without making a fuss. Year 34 particularly enjoyed this part. They discussed it afterwards and said that it helped them understand what Jesus meant about not showing off when you do good deeds. We feel good when we do good just because we are doing what God wants us to and showing our love for Him and for others.
Year 5 gave us the mission to do something good without anyone finding out about it and then led us in a prayer asking God to help us to be humble and quiet when we pray or help others.
Year 34 talked about how we could put the message into practise and the children suggested that they could take part in the helping hands at St Francis activities quietly without telling anyone or expecting a reward. D suggested that he could do the washing up as a surprise for his mum and not tell her he had done it. Some children said that they would go somewhere quiet to say a prayer so that no one could see them except God and that when the classroom was quiet they would put some money in the CAFOD box.
