The Wednesday Word is a unique Midweek Mission — an established, weekly, prayerful encounter for schools, homes, and parishes, offered without charge to support your school’s Catholic mission and to enrich the Catholic life of your school.
Each week, our beautifully produced resources support schools in their prayer life — whether in teacher or pupil-led Celebrations of the Word in class, or at assemblies.
The Wednesday Word PDF can also be downloaded and printed by the school for children to take home as a weekly Gospel ‘gift’ to share with their family. Alternatively, the school can email the resource directly to parents.
Either method of distribution creates a dynamic opportunity for God’s Word to be present in the homes of all families connected to participating primary schools — offering parents and children a simple way to gather and share faith together, including many who may currently feel distant from the Church.
Rooted in Sunday’s Gospel and presented in quick, easy-to-read, contemporary, bite-sized Catholic material which carries an imprimatur, The Wednesday Word provides a simple yet powerful opportunity for evangelisation among the parents connected to your school — supporting the outreach and ministry of the Catholic Church.
Offered without charge in support of the mission of the Church and to strengthen the home–school–parish partnership, and dedicated to St Joseph, the Patron Saint of Families (whose day is Wednesday), The Wednesday Word truly is Good News for Everyone!
Welcome to The Wednesday Word.
The Wednesday Word ‘Family Time Together’ section seeks to encourage and enable even the busiest of parents to enrich their relationships with their children and with one another by spending a very special ten minutes of Family Time together each week.
Families are encouraged to remove distractions (e.g. phones, computer games, TV, etc.) for a short time, and gather together to talk. The Christ-centred focus of conversation is provided by the Sunday Gospel and a weekly word in the Family Time section of The Wednesday Word leaflet. It is simple to do and has proved extremely effective in practice.
The Wednesday Word Family Time is discussion-based and specially produced to be suitable for families of all faiths or none, with primary school children of all ages, to help sow the seed of God’s Word. The suggested Family Time theme (Wednesday’s ‘word’) for each week is inspired by the Gospel of the subsequent Sunday. In this way, it supports the RE already provided by our schools, and the chosen weekly ‘word’ is always relevant to daily family life (e.g. peace, joy, courage, hope, forgiveness, patience, etc.), so that everyone can be included regardless of background.
We are also aware that some families with children in Catholic schools may have only one Catholic parent, or may belong to a different faith altogether. We therefore seek to share the Good News and Catholic truth sensitively, inclusively, and always in an inspiring and welcoming way. Each one of our leaflets is faithful to Catholic teaching and carries an imprimatur.
Having been extensively trialled and proven to help both churched and unchurched families foster a closer family unit, The Wednesday Word also seeks to inspire and enable parents and carers, in particular, to feel closer to God — to think seriously about the love and Good News that Jesus Christ and his Church offer to them and their children.
To discover more closely how The Wednesday Word Family Time is helping families grow closer to God and to one another, please take a look at a selection of family testimonies section here.
In the formative stage of a Christian life there are three main supports:
the family, the school, and the Church. Yet, in the present context of Catholic family life in our country, one of these supports is often missing — namely, the Church. Many families connected with our schools have little or no regular contact with their local parish community.
So what is necessary to regain this living contact between the family and the local Church? One clear intermediary is the school. The Wednesday Word is an attempt to bridge this gap — a regular, warm, and unthreatening way to sow seeds in the hearts of parents — sending the Sunday Gospel from school into the heart of the home, and helping to strengthen the living relationship between families and the Church.
Each week, through The Wednesday Word, the Sunday Gospel is sent out into school family homes, carrying goodness into the home —
by placing God’s Word gently and consistently before parents, carers, and children.
For all school parents, the arrival of The Wednesday Word acts as a weekly reminder of the love that our Lord has for them. For parents whose children were baptised, its weekly appearance can gently bring to mind the promise they made at Baptism — to help their children grow in the knowledge and practice of the Good News we have received in Jesus Christ.
The Wednesday Word is a powerful and effective way to enhance the home, school, and parish partnership. This family-friendly Gospel resource is offered as a gift; there is no obligation for families to use it. In this way, the Word is simply sent out — and, as in the Parable of the Sower, some will respond and some will not. Yet the Word will be present in every home, and the opportunity will always be there for every family to receive it.
Many parents choose a Catholic school because they recognise that its ethos provides a firm foundation for life. Simply reading The Wednesday Word helps them to understand more about the faith and values upon which our schools are built.
Encouraging and enabling the Gospel to take root in the home opens new possibilities for many parents to rediscover what may be a dormant or hesitant faith, and may gently encourage them towards their local parish church.
Always faithful to Catholic teaching, we have found that many families of other faiths have also discovered something of real interest and value in The Wednesday Word.
We suggest a particular day (Wednesday) for distribution to help parents connect the name of the resource with the day on which they receive it from school. Since most of us are creatures of habit, nominating the same day each week helps families develop a special weekly time together.
Another reason for choosing Wednesday is that it allows any school families who attend Mass sufficient time to reflect on the Gospel that has been read in church on the succeeding Sunday. It also gives families (and schools) time to think about or prepare for the forthcoming Sunday Gospel.
Moreover, Wednesday is the day which the Catholic Church dedicates to St Joseph, the Patron Saint of Families. The Wednesday Word is also under his patronage.
Of course, Wednesday is only a suggestion: each school can choose the best time to distribute the resource, and parents will know when it is the best time to use it within their own families.
No. The impact on school administration is minimal. The scheme can be entered into and implemented very easily. The leaflets are supplied to schools each week via email, ready for schools to print or to forward digitally through email or school social media to their parents. Many schools find that administering The Wednesday Word takes no more than a few minutes each week.
To begin distributing the Gospel to your families through this innovative approach, we kindly ask you to visit our registration page and simply fill in your details on the online form (which you can access here). Once registered, we will send The Wednesday Word PDF directly to your school each week, for you to use in school and to distribute in whichever way best suits your communication channels.
To further support schools, we will also provide links to the 5 & 10 minute Prayer Frameworks and to the Sunday Gospel Galleries, where you can access forthcoming resources to help you plan your school’s Celebrations of the Word throughout the year.
The Wednesday Word is provided entirely free of charge to all participating schools and parishes. Every weekly leaflet is faithful to Catholic teaching and carries an imprimatur.
The Wednesday Word — at your service!
To enable primary school children to fully participate in Family Time, the Jerusalem version of the Gospels is adapted in a way similar to the popular translations that many parishes already use in their Children’s Liturgy sessions.
To ensure accuracy and instil confidence, we have invested significant time and care into developing a meticulous consultation process. As a result, every Wednesday Word leaflet is granted an imprimatur, declaring the resource free from any moral or doctrinal error — so you can use and distribute it with complete confidence.
Fr Henry Wansbrough OSB — a monk of Ampleforth Abbey, world-renowned biblical scholar, General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible, and for many years a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission — writes the weekly Sunday readings reflections for our parish version of The Wednesday Word.
Because The Wednesday Word shares the Gospel, it is naturally for everyone. However, along with supporting Catholic schools with their weekly class prayers and assemblies, The Wednesday Word seeks in particular to engage with the majority of parents who do not take their children to church to hear the Sunday Gospel. Statistics tell us this can be as high as 80% or above in many schools. Research also suggests that many parents never open a Bible, have no regular prayer life, and do not tend to enquire about the faith through adult catechesis.
We are also aware that some families with children in Catholic schools may have only one Catholic parent, or may belong to a different faith altogether. We therefore seek to share the Good News and Catholic truth sensitively, inclusively, and always in an inspiring and welcoming way, helping parents to see the relevance of the faith for themselves and their children. As such, The Wednesday Word spiritually supports all parents and carers, recognising that an adult’s relationship with God has the most significant impact on the future faith-life of the family. When a parent’s faith is nurtured, this inevitably enriches the overall well-being of the whole household. The new and effective links created by The Wednesday Word with parents and carers greatly enrich the home–school–parish partnership.
The Wednesday Word also provides an excellent way for practising Catholic families who do attend the parish church to prepare for the proclamation of the Gospel at the coming Sunday Mass — helping them in their role as primary teachers of the faith to pass it on to their children and further strengthen the domestic church.
Not directly. The Wednesday Word is not a publishing company with any vested interest in linking with or promoting any particular RE programme. Rather, The Wednesday Word is a not-for-profit Charitable Trust, designed as an inclusive national outreach so that all schools can benefit.
The Wednesday Word is purposely designed to complement, not compete with, any existing RE programme. It draws on what schools and parish churches already share in common — the Sunday Gospel, the sayings of the saints, and the teaching of the Catholic Church. For this reason, The Wednesday Word can be used alongside, and in harmony with, any RE programme already in place.
The Wednesday Word provides schools with a ready-made way to share the Good News of the Gospel with their children each week, and also for the good of the family, along with an indirect educational element which enriches and supports existing school catechetical programmes. This has been enthusiastically confirmed by headteachers, RE coordinators, teachers, parents school governors, and parish priests, who consistently affirm that The Wednesday Word adds real value to their RE provision and strengthens the home–school–parish partnership.
How much does The Wednesday Word leaflet cost?
“The Wednesday Word is a not-for-profit Catholic charity which is sincere about supporting your school’s mission and, to ensure that financial constraints never hinder the dissemination of the Gospel to children or parents, we email The Wednesday Word (PDF) free of charge — direct to your school’s inbox — each week.
Along with using The Wednesday Word in school with your Celebrations of the Word, we warmly encourage you to share The Wednesday Word as a weekly Gospel Gift with your families, either by printing hard-copy leaflets or by emailing a digital copy home to parents.”
Because The Wednesday Word is based on the Sunday Gospel, we provide material for every Sunday of the year, including through holiday periods. Along with being an ongoing, unbroken invitation to the Eucharist, The Wednesday Word is also made available each week to support participating families with their Wednesday prayer time together, which is rooted in the Word of God.
So, before each half-term break, we supply The Wednesday Word in booklet form. This can be printed and handed out before school holidays, displayed on your school website, or read as a flip book on our website until children return. We always include a few weeks in these booklets because school holiday dates vary across the country.
Whether or not a family chooses to participate during the holidays is entirely their choice – all we seek to do is provide them with a friendly invitation and the opportunity.
The Wednesday Word Scripture & Prayer resource is unique. It:
Is a Catholic midweek mission and meditation for our time, created to share the Gospel and bring glory to God — but it needs your support. Come and share in the joy of The Wednesday Word — it truly is Good News for Everyone!
