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PRAYER FOR THE WEEK
Jesus, help me remember to put down the phone and laptop and chat in real life! Amen.
Jesus sent 72 followers out to teach people about God. He told them, "There aren't many workers to gather this harvest of people. Don't take stuff with you; tell everyone you meet, 'Peace be with you.' If they say it back, stay there and teach; if not, move on." The 72 did what Jesus said and came back happy: They'd helped lots of people to follow Him.

Summer is here! After a busy school year, it's tempting to spend any free time you have glued to your phone, the computer and the TV. Usually, you only have a little time to do that; now, you can spend hours staring at the screen.

Jesus (and your parents) would remind you to look away once in a while and talk to some people IRL (in real life)! In this week's Gospel (Luke 10:1-12,17-20), He sends a lot of His followers out to teach about Him - and His most important instruction for them is to interact with people.

When you spend hours online, you might feel like you're actually talking to people. After all, you're texting and IM'ing and posting on Facebook; your friends can learn about almost everything you're doing. But you can't see the looks on people's faces, the reactions when they read about your day.

In a way, that was Jesus' point: He wanted His followers to look people in the eye and say, "Peace be with you." Then people could see how joyful and close to God a follower of Jesus was - and maybe they'd want that joy for themselves. It would be hard to have a special moment like that just by reading about Jesus.

Interacting with people is a part of every kid's life. Jesus would say to make it an even bigger part - even during the summer. Look up from that screen and talk to some people![[In-content Ad]]

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