Bronze Serpent and Jelly Bean Prayer

As the Israelites are on their 40 year journey into the Promised land they continue to complain about Moses and even about God. They are sick of eating manna and quail and are sick of wondering around. For their punishment God sent serpents among them. The bites of these snakes caused death. Only after many people had died from the bites did the Israelites realize their sinfulness. The people went to Moses and admitted that they had sinned. They asked Moses to intercede for them so that God would save them from the snake bites. God told Moses to place a bronze snake on a pole and place it where the people could see it. The people who had been bitten by the snake came to see the bronze serpent. They had faith in God's power to heal them. These people lived and were healed of the terrible snakebites. In the book of John, Jesus says, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." In this way Moses prefigures Jesus. So for my treat I tied pretzels together with dental floss to from a cross, then I tied a gummy worm to the cross.
Who knew that eating jelly beans could be a form of prayer. Each color represents something about Jesus. For my second treat I gave the students jelly beans.
Orange for the edge of night.
Pink is for a new tomorrow.
White is for the life he gave.
Purple is for his hour of sorrow.
Black is for the sins we made.
Green is for the grass he made.
Yellow is for the sun so bright.
Red is for the blood he gave.

Seder meal

A Seder meal is a Christian Passover. The Catholic Mass is modeled after the Seder Meal. After every Seder Meal I seem to have a better understanding of our mass, so I guess all of the work is worth it. I use a Seder celebration that I got off the Internet several years, it is a very structured celebration. We begin with the symbolic foods and then a meal and close with a blessing.

The symbolic foods are:

4 glasses of grape juice for the 4 promises God gave the Israelites; I will bring you out of Egypt, I will free you from slavery, I will save you by my own hand, and I will take you to be my people and I will be your God.

Parsley representing new life, salt water for their tears.

Matzoh the unleavened bread.

Horseradish (bitter herb) representing the bitterness in Egypt.

Haroset (chopped apples and walnuts with cinnamon and honey) representing the mortar used to make bricks.

Lamb bone representing the passover lamb.

Egg representing the offering brought to the temple. I have deviled eggs instead of boiled eggs because they are less messy.

For our meal we have lamb, mashed potatoes and gravy, noodles, creamed corn and for dessert carrot cake.

Part of the celebration is for the teacher to hide a piece of matzoh representing Jesus being hidden for 3 days. Whoever finds the hidden Matzoh gets a prize. Since I have new students each year I can use the same hiding place every year, which is in the tree with the serpent. The prize this year is jelly belly jelly beans.

The students enjoyed the celebration and did a wonderful job participating. Have a very blessed Easter.

The Spies

After spending about a year at Mt. Sinai, where Moses received the 613 laws that the Israelites were expected to follow it was time to enter the Promised land. So Moses sent 12 spies, one from each of the 12 tribes, to check out the land. They spied the land for forty days. When they returned to Moses everyone agreed that the land was flowing with milk and honey. They commented on how great were the figs, pomegranates and grapes. It actually took two people to carry the grapes on a pole they were so large. Even as they agreed on how great the land was all of the spies except for Caleb and Joshua thought the Canaanites were too fearful. They said the Israelites seemed liked grasshoppers next to them. Caleb and Joshua agreed the Canaanites were a fearful people but the Israelites had God on their side and He would help them attack the enemy. The Israelites decided that they would not march into Canaan. God was not happy with their decision and wanted to destroy them, but Moses interceded for them and God did not destroy the Israelites, but told them they would have to wander in the dessert for 40 years and only the young children would live to enter Canaan.

So for my treat tonight I have grapes, fig newtons and pomegranate juice. I sure am glad that Jesus came and died for me so I don't have to follow the 613 laws!

Manna in the desert

Reading about the Israelites reminds me of my children when they were bored, no matter you had for them to do, they complained. I'm sure Moses got pretty tired of hearing the Israelites complain. Two months after they had left Egypt they were complaining they had nothing to eat. So Moses asks God for his help; he sent quail in the evening and manna in the morning. Manna were sticky white flakes with a sweet taste. Because it tasted like wafers the Israelites called it "bread from heaven." They were only to collect enough for one day, so they would learn to trust God that he would supply their needs every day. The day before the Sabbath they were to collect enough for that day and the Sabbath.

So for my treat, the stickiest thing I could think of was marshmallow cream. So I made sticky rice Crispy treats with speckled eggs to represent quail eggs. I know the speckled eggs are stretching the quail a bit, but my daughter is due any day and I wanted to plan something easy in case I need to make a quick trip to see my new grand baby!