The angel helps St. Peter escape!

Let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them, for such is the Kingdom of Heaven. Mark 10:4
Sunday, January 12, 2014 Volume 2, Issue 2

Christs Gifts to Us
Now that Christmas is all over, youre probably all tired of thinking about presents. But todays epistle reading
tells us about a different kind of present a gift that Christ gives to each of us. The epistle says that our
Lord, Jesus Christ, gives each one of us a giftnot one that we can use for a few weeks and throw away, but one for our whole life. It is a gift that we use to help Gods church!

Lets listen to the epistle. And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers. Some of those words you might not know yet, but the epistle tells us that whatever gift God gives us, whatever we do with our lives, we do it so that we can build up the body of Christ. That means that whatever we do, we do it so we can help others grow closer to Jesus Christ.
Do you think you can remember that? Each one of us has a different task for our life. But each one of us also has the SAME taskto help others grow close to our Lord!

The epistle reading tells us that Christ gives each of us a different gift.

PRISON ESCAPE
King Herod has thrown St. Peter into prison! Can you help St. Peter find his way out?

THE CHAINS OF SAINT PETER

Sometimes we celebrate feastdays for saints. Other times we celebrate feastdays for events, things that happened in our Churchs long history.
Have you heard the story of St. Peters chains? St. Peter was busy in Rome, telling people all about Christand lots of people were becoming Christians. Lots of people were learning to believe in Jesus Christ and getting baptized, too.

Whats in an icon?
Can you find the chains of St. Peter in this icon? Do you see the angel helping St. Peter to escape?

The king did not like this, and so he threw St. Peter into prison. He was chained up, with a prison guard on each side of him. Did he have any chance of escaping? No! But during the night, an angel told St. Peter to get up. The chains fell from him, and St. Peter left the prison cell! But what happened to the chains? Christians knew that these chains were special because they had once touched St. Peter. They were all a part of this big miracle that God had let happen. So they brought sick people to touch the chains, and they were healed! You can still find these chains at a church in Rome, Italy. If you see them one day, youll remember this wonderful miracle. And youll remember that nobody can stop the power of God!
We celebrate this feastday on Thursday, January 16th.

You can still pray in front of the chains of St. Peter if you go to a church in Rome, Italy.