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PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me do whatever I need to in order to show I'm excited, as soon as I can! Amen.

Jesus, Peter, James and John went up a mountain. All of a sudden, Jesus' face and clothes got as bright as the sun! Moses and Elijah, famous prophets, appeared with Jesus, and Peter was so excited that he offered to build tabernacles to honor all of them. Then God's voice said, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him." The light went away and the disciples were alone with Jesus. "Don't talk about this until I'm in heaven," Jesus told them.

When you're excited about something, do you get quiet or loud? It would be surprising if you answered, "Quiet!" Most kids shout, cheer, jump or clap. If you're excited, you show it!

In this week's Gospel (Mat­thew 17:1-9), something happens that amazes the three Apostles who see it: Jesus' "transfiguration," a word that means a change into something different.

Right in front of Peter, James and John, Jesus changes into what He might look like in heaven: bright as the sun. To make things more unbelievable, Moses and Elijah appear, too. Those are people the Apostles would have only read about in the Torah, the Jewish Bible.

Like anyone would, Peter gets excited. He wants to do something! All he can come up with is to build something, right then and there, as a way to honor God and these holy people.

When you're excited, the last thing you want is to be calm and quiet. But, sometimes, your excitement has to wait until later to come out. If you're in school and hear something cool, your teachers will not be happy if you jump out of your seat and run around!

Jesus wanted the Apostles to wait, too. They'd gotten a glimpse of how Jesus would look in heaven, but the time to show excitement, Jesus said, was after He died and came back to life on Easter.

Waiting to let excitement out can be a chore. But Jesus never said not to get excited. If you can't show it right away, jump, cheer or even make something as soon as you can. It's OK to be excited![[In-content Ad]]

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