Command me to come to you on the water

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s gospel continues from where we left off last week. People are happy and satisfied that Jesus gave them bread to eat. Jesus tells the tired apostles to leave, whilst he sends the people back home. If we remember last week’s gospel, it started off saying that Jesus wanted to be alone, but the people had followed him. Now Jesus has this time alone to pray. According to this passage, Jesus spent quite some time praying. When he moves again towards the apostles, it was the ‘fourth watch’, meaning that it was after 3 o’clock in the morning.

This first part, shows us clearly the need for prayer. If Jesus felt the need to pray and be close to the Father, how much more should we feel this need?

Most probably the apostles were still awake and not sleeping on the boat, since the sea was rough. They were surely tired and afraid, so when Jesus approaches them, they think he is a ghost. After all, who among them expected to see Jesus walking on the water! Jesus quickly reassures them and tells them not to be afraid. This episode, reminds us of another similar event when the apostles were again on the boat in rough seas. That time, although Jesus was on the boat, he was asleep. Jesus uses both these occasions to show who he is, he wants to increase their faith, he wants them to know him more and to believe that he would be always with them and he would take care of them.

Peter wanted to go near Jesus … however he did not swim towards him. It is as if Peter wanted to make sure that it was Jesus after all, so he asks that he too may walk upon the sea. Jesus calls him to go towards him. The sea is still rough. Peter starts walking towards Jesus, but his faith falters and he starts to sink. Peter is scared and he turns to Jesus to save him. Jesus complies. He reprimands him gently about his lack of faith. Jesus knows about Peter’s weakness, as much as he knows ours too.

Both arrive on the boat and the sea calms down. In that moment, the apostles recognise Jesus and adore and worship him as the Son of God.

This episode reflects our faith. When everything is going well, we have a good relationship with God, but when we are in difficulty, our faith starts to weaken. Jesus wanted the apostles to have strong faith, and such an occasion proved and strengthened their faith. These readings, help us to deepen our faith in him. We notice that Jesus does not calm the sea before calling Peter to come to him. We will live through difficult and rough times, and these will test our faith. Jesus will not remove these situations from our lives, instead he will accompany us through them. When Peter starts to drown, Jesus is there to save him. He will do exactly the same with us. Like Peter we have to have courage. Sometimes Jesus asks us to come out of our comfort zone. He wants us to come out of the boat. It is true that we do not exactly feel safe on the boat because of the rough seas, however we have become accustomed to this situation. It requires courage to step out of the boat into the rough seas. We can do this if we have faith in Jesus’ presence. It could be that like Peter we too have doubts if it was the right decision after all, we may start to drown; this is when we turn to Jesus and ask him to save us.

Let us remember that as parents we are both witnesses and models for our children. If we have faith in God, without knowing, we will be nurturing our children to have faith in him too.

A reading from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 14, 22-33)

After he had fed the people, Jesus made the disciples get into a boat and precede him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 
After doing so, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. 
When it was evening he was there alone. 
Meanwhile the boat, already a few miles offshore, was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. 
During the fourth watch of the night, he came toward them walking on the sea. 
When the disciples saw him walking on the sea they were terrified. 
“It is a ghost,” they said, and they cried out in fear. 
At once Jesus spoke to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” 
Peter said to him in reply,
“Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 
He said, “Come.” 
Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. 
But when he saw how strong the wind was he became frightened;
and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord, save me!” 
Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and caught Peter,
and said to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 
After they got into the boat, the wind died down. 
Those who were in the boat did him homage, saying,
“Truly, you are the Son of God.” 

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

  1. Read the Gospel story so that you are familiar with it.
  2. Reflect on what the Gospel story is saying to you. Which points would you highlight and how do they affect you now?
  3. Listen to Walk on water
  4. How much do you know Jesus? Do you turn to him in times of trouble?
  5. Do you trust him? At present is there a burden in your life? Give it to Jesus (if you would like to trust Jesus but you do not know how, approach someone who can help you. Speak with a priest or a person whom you know is living a good Christian life, so that they may guide you. The first step is difficult, prayer will give you the strength that you need).
  6. Together with your family find the right time to read this gospel. The environment helps, so before you start, prepare:
    a. The Bible reading from St Matthew (14, 22-33)
    b. A lit candle
    c. Cover the table with green cloth
    d. A computer/laptop with the reading and clips
  7. Go through the steps with your children (2 age groups are being suggested)
  8. Feel free to adapt to your situation
  9. Be creative 😊
  10. Go to the Prayer Spaces section to continue praying as a family

Apart from hearing about another miracle, in today’s gospel Jesus will speak to us about faith. To have faith in Jesus means that we trust him. We will first listen to the gospel, then we will talk about faith.

We will learn that

  • Jesus is always with us
  • Jesus does not want anything bad to happen to us
  • We can trust Jesus

We need a non-transparent scarf.

We ask: 

  • What do you remember most from today’s gospel?
  • Why do you think Peter managed to walk on water? (Peter trusted Jesus and Jesus did a miracle)

What is trust?

Cover the eyes of one of the children with the scarf. Before doing so, scatter chairs and other obstacles around the room. Let the child see this before he/she is blindfolded. If one of the siblings tends to joke about, we can repeat this activity twice. First with the teasing sibling, then with a parent. After the child is blindfolded, quietly remove all obstacles, leaving only a chair at the end of the room.

Tell the blindfolded child that we will lead them to the other side of the room and ask them to sit down.

We can either hold their hands or just give instructions (for example walk straight ahead, turn to the left, turn around, sit down, etc). The blindfolded child cannot touch anything. When they sit down, the scarf is removed.

We ask how they felt. If it was repeated twice, we ask if there was a difference, that is between instructions given by the teasing sibling and when they were given by the parent.

The aim is that there would be in fact a difference between being led by the teasing sibling and the parent. They felt more secure when guided by the parent, because they trusted the parent more, in that they would not be led into one of the obstacles.

This can be likened to everyday examples. If they are crossing the road with one of the parents, and they are told to cross, they will obey because they trust the adult. If at the seaside, one of the parents calls them to go and buy an ice cream, they go because they trust them. However, if someone else, whom they do not know, asks them to go for an ice cream they do not go because they cannot trust that person. Similarly, whom will they tell a secret? (allow time for the children to give their answers) What was the reason for their choice? Why tell the secret to a person and not to another? (allow time for answers) From their answers show that we can trust some people with our secrets but not others.

It is similar with Peter. Peter knew Jesus, he trusted him, he had faith in him. So, when Jesus asked Peter to go near him, Peter obeyed. But then Peter looked at the waves and he was afraid, and he forgot that Jesus could make him walk on water, he doubted Jesus and he started to drown. As soon as Peter asks Jesus for help, Jesus immediately saves him and takes him on the boat with the other apostles.

From this episode we learn that:

  • We need to get to know Jesus, so that like Peter we can trust in him
    • How can we get to know Jesus? (reading the Bible, learning about God and Jesus during mass, prayer)
    • There could be times, when like Peter we doubt Jesus. What can we do then? (pray)
  • Just as Jesus listened to Peter call for help, he listens to us too
  • Jesus is always with us, so when we are afraid, for example we wake up at night because of a bad dream, or we are alone in the dark, we can call Jesus’ name. It is true, we will not be able to see Jesus, but when we call him, we will remember that he is there to take care of us.

Sign of the cross

Jesus, we love you, we want to get to know you more. We know that you can do anything, we know you love us, and you want us to be happy.

Listen to this song: My God is so big, so strong and so mighty .

Today we will be meeting the apostles on a boat. It was night time and the sea was rough. Jesus was not with them, because he remained behind to pray.

We will learn that

  • the more we get to know Jesus, the more we will have faith in him;
  • Jesus is always with us, he helps us when we turn to him.

We need a Bible suitable to the children’s age.

We ask:

  • How were the apostles feeling on the boat?
  • Why did they mistake Jesus for a ghost?
  • Why do you think Peter wanted to go towards Jesus?
  • At first, Peter started to walk on the water, but then he started to sink. Why?
  • If you were Peter, what would you have done?
  • What did Jesus do when Peter asked him to save him?
  • What did the apostles do when Jesus and Peter went on the boat?

Peter could walk on water because he had faith in Jesus. To have faith means that one learns to trust. It is not always easy to trust someone. Through today’s activity, we will learn more about what it means to trust someone.

Choose one of the siblings. The one who is chosen stands in front of the parents, facing the other way (that is giving his back). He is to stand stiff. The adult stands behind. We ask him to let himself go and fall back, we will be ready to catch him.

What happened?

Was he willing to fall back? Why?

When I trust someone, if he tells me that he will catch me, I will not doubt it, I know that he will not let me fall. To trust someone, first I have to know him. If someone whom I did not know, had asked me to do this activity, I would not have been ready to do it. I would have been unsure that he would catch me. He may let me fall and hurt myself.

This is the invitation Jesus is making today. He wants us to get to know him more. When we know him better, we will understand that he always speaks the truth, he keeps his promises, and he always cares for us.

Jesus however, never promises that there would not be times when we are afraid, or that we would not go through difficult times. In fact, when Jesus calls Peter to him, the sea was still rough. Jesus promises that if like Peter, we ask him to save us, and we believe that he can do this, Jesus will give us the help we need. Jesus will not make the difficult situations vanish. Instead, he will help us to overcome them. The sea only calmed down when Jesus and Peter went on the boat, and not before.

What do you understand when you hear the expression “trust in Jesus”? Trusting Jesus means that we want to be near him, to know him better. It was not easy for Peter to leave the boat and approach Jesus, but he did it because he wanted to be near him. And this is what we have to do. To get closer to Jesus, we need to go to Church, read the bible, pray and spend time with him. We will not always feel like it. It could be that Peter would have preferred to stay on the boat, but he chose to go to Jesus. This teaches us that although it is good to get closer to Jesus and get to know him better, it will not always be easy. There will also be times when we will mess up. When Peter did not continue looking at Jesus, and he looked at the rough sea, and he noticed that he was walking on the water, he became afraid, he started to doubt how he could be doing that, he forgot that Jesus was there, he forgot that he had chosen right in wanting to go to Jesus and so he started to sink. At times, although we wish to make the right choices we do the exact opposite! But as long as like Peter, we turn back and trust Jesus again, all will be ok. As soon as he started to drown, Peter called to Jesus for help. This is what we should do. When we realise that we messed up, we turn back to Jesus, and we will find him waiting.

Whom do we trust? (those who love and care for us)

In the same way, we turn to Jesus because we know that he loves us and he will help us.

In the Bible we find various episodes of people who showed great faith in God and Jesus. During this week, every day, choose one of these characters and together with your family, either say the story of this person or read it from the Bible. Afterwards spend some time discussing the life of this person and how we can become like him. These are a few of the characters who showed great faith.

  • Noah 
  • Abraham and Isaac
  • Daniel in the den of lions
  • Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego
  • Moses
  • David and Goliath
  • The Annunciation
  • The woman who was ill and bleeding for twelve years
  • The centurion and the healing of this servant

Sign of the cross

We listen to No matter what I’m facing.


Together we pray with Psalm 91

Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

Surely he will save you
    from the fowler’s snare
    and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
    nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes
    and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

“Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

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God speaks to us in many ways, including through the Sunday Scripture readings. Here you will find useful background and activities to better understand the upcoming Sunday's Scripture readings, helping you to connect the Scripture to daily life in a meaningful way.