The week of April 1st – During the month of April, your family will focus on the virtue of patience. Each week you will gather together and reflect on what it means to be patient in a world filled with impatience. Find a time this week to gather as a family, say a prayer, read or listen to a prompt, respond as a family to what you have heard and then act on the suggestion for the week.
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April Virtue Patience: Waiting until later for what you want now.
What is a virtue? A virtue is something that God does in us to change the world around us.
GATHER together in prayer
LISTEN through scripture; readings; stories; music; videos
RESPOND to what you have heard
ACT in service to what God is calling you to
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GATHER
Gather together as a family and have one member of your family read this poem:
Seen (for Easter Sunday)
You had not imagined that something so empty
could fill you to overflowing,
and now you carry the knowledge like an awful treasure
or like a child that curls itself within your heart:
how the emptiness will bear forth a new world you cannot fathom
but on whose edge you stand.
So why do you linger?
You have seen, and so you are already blessed.
You have seen, and so you are the blessing.
There is no other word you need.
There is simply to go and tell.
There is simply to begin.
– Jan Richardson from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Season
LISTEN
Have one person in your family read John 20:1-18 (The Resurrection). This Bible passage can be found online at Bible Gateway via this link: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+20%3A1-18&version=NRSV
RESPOND
Christians around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday. It is a joyous moment after the forty long days of Lent. But try to imagine that first Easter morning. For Mary Magdalene and the other disciples, it was a confusing moment. They had followed Jesus for three years, waiting patiently for him to reveal how he was going to free them from the oppression of the Roman Empire. But it didn’t happen. Jesus had died and it may have seemed like nothing had changed. But everything has changed. Jesus died, but death does not have the final word. It took both patience and perseverance for those earliest followers of Christ to carry on with Jesus’ message and mission. Talk about the resurrection story: What is most important to you about the story? Who would you want to be in the story? Is there another way to tell the story?
ACT
As a family talk about how you practice patience:
- Why is the ability to be patient a good thing?
- Do you think you are a patient or impatient person?
- Do you practice patience with each other in your family?
- How can you help each other to be more patient?
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Food for Thought
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant. 1 Corinthians 13:4 (Bible)
Why is patience so important? Because it makes us pay attention. – Paulo Coelho
Patience is not just about waiting for something… it’s about how you wait, or your attitude while waiting. – Joyce Meyer
Patience can’t be acquired overnight. It is just like building up a muscle. Every day you need to work on it. – Eknath Easwaran