Things to talk about:

• How do you define love?
• Jesus encourages us to keep his commandments. Is it hard or easy to keep God’s commandments? Explain your answer.
• The words we hear in this Gospel are some of the last words Jesus gives his followers. What do you think your last spoken words might be to those you love?

Things to do:

• Chalk Art -Take some time today to decorate the sidewalk or driveway with messages of faith and encouragement to help your neighbors see the joy you have in Jesus. You can also include an activity to do as they walk by your house such as a hopscotch game, a maze, or another activity.
• Jesus commands us to love one another. Try to be the MOST loving person in your family this week. Invite your family to vote on who was the most loving at the end of the week.
• Ten Commandments and Greatest Commandment – as a family write or draw the Ten Commandments and the Greatest Commandment. Discuss and review each commandment. How can you turn “Thou shall not…. into Thou Shall to live that commandment?

Closing Prayer

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Prayer for Friends

In this Gospel, Jesus calls us friends. Offer this prayer for the friends in your life.

Lord, please help us to know your friendship in and through the people in our lives. Thank you for blessing us with friends who love us, share our sorrows, laugh with us, encourage us, stand by us in times of need. Bless our friends with health, wholeness, life, and love. We pray especially for (have each person who would like name a situation, particular friend, or relationship for which they would like to pray). Amen.

Name those who need our prayers. Close with the Sign of the Cross.

Catholic Insights

The theme of relationship continues in this Gospel. It is extremely important to Jesus that he communicate the essential things he needs his Apostles to understand. We also are invited to think about his words. As was true of his entire life, Jesus’ final words to his disciples are all about love. He reminds us how much we are loved by God the Father and by him, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Jesus wants us to know beyond any doubt that God does not love us because we do good things. It is because of God’s unconditional love for us that we are able to do good things. God’s love has no strings attached.

Jesus taught many lessons and reaffirmed all of the commandments of his Jewish faith, but he makes it clear to the Apostles that being in relationship with him comes down to one thing — to extend that unconditional love Jesus shows to us to one another, aided by the grace and strength of the Holy Spirit. As followers of Christ, we are called to share “The greatest love of all.”

Do you know …a beautiful way to think about who God is comes from the First Letter of John? “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” 1John 4:16 The original Greek word used for this type of love is agape, which refers to a love that is complete self-gift to another.

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The Greatest Commandment

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them [a scholar of the law]^* tested him by asking, Teacher,^* which commandment in the law is the greatest? ”He said to him,^* “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it:^* You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:34-40