March 25 - What We Believe: The Holy Spirit

Lesson Plans:  What We Believe – The Holy Spirit

Texts:

John 14:15-31

The Father Will Send the Holy Spirit

¹⁵ "If you love me, you will obey what I command. ¹⁶ I will ask the Father. And he will give you another Friend to help you and to be with you forever. ¹⁷ The Friend is the Spirit of truth. The world can't accept him. That is because the world does not see him or know him. But you know him. He lives with you, and he will be in you.

¹⁸ "I will not leave you like children who don't have parents. I will come to you.

¹⁹ "Before long, the world will not see me anymore. But you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. ²⁰ On that day you will realize that I am in my Father. You will know that you are in me, and I am in you.

²¹ "Anyone who has my commands and obeys them loves me. My Father will love the one who loves me. I too will love him. And I will show myself to him."

²² Then Judas spoke. "Lord," he said, "why do you plan to show yourself only to us? Why not also to the world?" The Judas who spoke those words was not Judas Iscariot.

²³ Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love him. We will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴ Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. The words you hear me say are not my own. They belong to the Father who sent me.

²⁵ "I have spoken all these things while I am still with you. ²⁶ But the Father will send the Friend in my name to help you. The Friend is the Holy Spirit. He will teach you all things. He will remind you of everything I have said to you.

²⁷ "I leave my peace with you. I give my peace to you. I do not give it to you as the world does. Do not let your hearts be troubled. And do not be afraid.

²⁸ "You heard me say, 'I am going away. And I am coming back to you.' If you loved me, you would be glad I am going to the Father. The Father is greater than I am. ²⁹ I have told you now before it happens. Then when it does happen, you will believe.

³⁰ "I will not speak with you much longer. The prince of this world is coming. He has no power over me. ³¹ But the world must learn that I love the Father. They must also learn that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me to do. Come now. Let us leave. “

Overview:

This lesson marks the final puzzle piece of the series of lessons on the Trinity.  Whew!  We made it!  The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity.  The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father.  Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit is in perfect union with the rest of the Trinity.  Like Jesus, the Holy Spirit has always been.  “He” was present and active in the creation of the world.  The Spirit continues to be active in our lives today.

Each person of the Trinity has their own distinctness that helps us identify with them by the way they interact with us.  The Holy Spirit is our most intimate connection to the Trinity in that we have direct contact with him.  The Holy Spirit dwells in us after we receive him in Baptism.  It is the Holy Spirit that serves as our guide and counselor.  He is the one that helps us to understand scripture, helps us to pray, gives us guidance in matters of conscience, calls upon us to act in charity, and inspires us to fully engage the spiritual gifts and virtues.  When we open our mouths to evangelize it is the Holy Spirit that speaks.  When we begin to see our true potential as God has created us and understand our likeness, it is through the eyes of the Holy Spirit.  What we see of God’s revelation, the Holy Spirit has pointed to.  The sacraments are carried out through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was the conduit through which Jesus was incarnate in Mary.  The Spirit acts in miracles and divine revelation.  He is a busy guy!

His place in the Trinity is thus:  Those who bear the Spirit are led to the Word (the Son), and the Son presents them to the Father.  It is impossible to see God’s Son without the Spirit, and no one can approach the Father without the Son, because the knowledge of the Father is through the Son and the knowledge of the Son is obtained through the Holy Spirit.  It happens this way whether we are aware of it or not.  In other words, we may not be aware of how the Spirit is working in us, but any faith we have is because the Holy Spirit has made it possible. 

This is how intimate a relationship we have with the Holy Spirit.  He is not only aware of our deepest and most secret thoughts, he’s in there working on them.  Obviously God is not into mind control, so we are “advised” by the Holy Spirit rather than controlled by him.  When we surrender our will to God, we are allowing the Holy Spirit greater influence on our thoughts, choices, and actions.  We listen more closely to that “little voice.”  Our conscience becomes more developed and we feel an aversion to doing that which will be displeasing to God. 

In the passage from John above, we read about the time when Jesus explained to the disciples that he would be leaving them, but he wouldn’t leave them alone.  He would leave “another Counselor” (paraclete) with them.  Jesus had begun something very important with this ragtag band of followers.  They would need continued guidance as they began to build Christ’s Church after his ascension.  As future members of this body, the Church, we too are given the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

Of course, in order for the disciples to have even been able to recognize Jesus as the Son of God, the Holy Spirit was already working in them.  This new pouring out of Christ’s Spirit in his followers represents a beautiful concept in our faith.  We can be renewed.  We can be equipped.  Throughout the New Testament you will see the phrase “and so-and-so was filled with the Holy Spirit.”  You might ask yourself, wasn’t this Apostle (or believer of one kind or another) already filled with the Holy Spirit?  The good news is that when God picks a task for us, he pours his Spirit into us in order to motivate, inspire and equip us.  We’re just humans and we can lose steam, become distracted, or simply need to prepare for something bigger than we have ever done before.  In the words of Nicky Gumbel of the Alpha Course fame, “Our God is the God of free refills.”  It seems we can never be too full of the Holy Spirit and God is only too happy to keep on pouring.

You could add “Power Refill” to the many names of the Holy Spirit.  From the list above of the many things that the Holy Spirit does within or for us you could gather a number of names for the Holy Spirit.  Again, the names help us understand the character of the Paraclete.  His other names will reflect the more “hands-on” relationship we can have with this third person of the Trinity.

The relationship we have with the Holy Spirit, as mentioned above, is the means by which we gain access to God.  Without the Spirit, we cannot connect to Jesus who shows us to the Father.  The Holy Spirit makes you receptive to God.  The Spirit teaches you to pray and helps you to be there for others. The Holy Spirit is responsible for the “Gifts of the Holy Spirit” (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord) and the “Fruits” (charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity).  We must work with the Holy Spirit to develop these gifts and virtues.

PreK-Kinder Lesson Notes:                                                                                                          

This class will focus on the gift that Jesus gave his Church, the Holy Spirit.  When Jesus was preparing to leave his friends, he told them he would not leave them alone.  He would leave a special friend with them who would remain with them always.  The Holy Spirit is this gift.  The Holy Spirit is our special friend who lives inside our hearts.  HE was a gift to us when we got baptized.  He is with us always.  He helps us to make good choices.  He helps us to learn about God.  He helps understand when God is trying to tell us something.  When you do something bad and you’re mom says, “You know better!”  She’s right, you do.  The Holy Spirit helps us to know right from wrong.  When we feel bad that we are doing something wrong, that’s the Holy Spirit saying, “I don’t think you should do that.”  The Spirit is inside us all the time even when we forget about him.  He never forgets about us. 

Objectives:

·         Introduce students to the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is one of the three parts of God that we’ve been talking about for a few weeks. 

·         The Spirit is with us always.  The Spirit lives in us because He “moved in” when we were baptized.

·         Help students understand one of the ways we interact with the Spirit.  He is our conscience.  You may need to explain what conscience is – knowing right from wrong and wanting to do right.

Activities:

·         Present the children with a few situations in which a good choice or a bad choice can be made.  Ask them which is which.  Which would they prefer to do and why?  How do they know which thing is good and which is bad.  Why do they want to do the good thing?  Their conscience is helping them know right from wrong and helping them make a good choice.

Crafts:

·         Make a Pinwheel.  One of the symbols of the Holy Spirit is wind.  Use the pinwheel pattern below to precut the pinwheel shape.  You can attach the paper to a drinking straw, wooden dowel, or a chop stick.  Have the children decorate the pinwheel with flames or other appropriate symbols.

·         Make a Good Choice/Bad Choice detector.  Supplies:  paper plates, markers, glue/tape/staples.  Have the students draw a happy face on the convex side of one paper plate, then a sad face on the convex side of a second plate.  Attach the two plates with tape, staples or glue.  If you’d like, you can add a stick handle using a ruler or a paint stirrer.  Run through some scenarios in which people are making good and bad choices and ask the children to show you the happy face when they hear a good choice and a sad face when they hear a bad choice. 

Lower Elementary Lesson Notes:                                                                                                

This class will focus on the names of the Holy Spirit.  Hopefully by now, the students are getting the hang of this.  The names of the Holy Spirit are listed on a separate sheet. 

Objectives:

·         Help children understand the role of the Holy Spirit in their lives. 

·         How many of the names on the list apply to ways they feel the Holy Spirit acting in their lives?

Activities:

·         Discuss ways in which the Holy Spirit helps us. 

·         Go on a field trip into the church to look for symbols of the Holy Spirit in the stained glass, linens and woodwork.  Hint:  There’s a dove over the baptismal font.  Where is there a flame?

Crafts:

·         Gel paint spray flames.  Make a solution of unsweetened Koolaid and hair gel and fill three spray bottles (red, orange and yellow).  Spray onto sections of poster board, then cover with clear wrap.  Using fingers draw swirls and shapes that depict a flame while blending the red, orange and yellow paints together (not completely).  Once the flames are complete, use a stylus (or the back of a paint brush) to draw one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit in the center of the flame.  (Dove, oil, water, light, wind)

Upper Elementary Lesson Notes:                                                                                                

This class will focus on how the Holy Spirit works in us.  We are given the Holy Spirit in baptism.  The Holy Spirit never leaves us.  Throughout our lifetime, the Spirit is trying to help us grow in our faith.  Whether it is helping guide our consciences, helping us understand scripture, developing the Fruits in us, or make Christ known to us in the sacraments, the Holy Spirit is always there for us.  The Spirit is like the seed in the Parable of the Sower.  We must feed it to help it grow.

The Gifts of the Spirit are:

Wisdom – able to judge rightly and desire what God wants

Understanding – seeing clearly into our faith

Counsel – guidance in practical matters

Fortitude – loving God no matter what

Knowledge – seeing God in all things

Piety – showing love and reverence for God

Fear of the Lord – having love that keeps us from offending God with sin.

These are things the Holy Spirit helps us to develop in our relationship with God.

The Fruits of the Spirit are:

charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity

These are things the Holy Spirit helps us to develop in our relationship with others. 

The Holy Spirit doesn’t leave these things fully developed for us like Easter eggs.  We have to make an effort to develop these things like growing a seed.  The more we use these gifts, the better they get. 

Objectives:

·         Help students understand how the Spirit is working in them.  Beyond helping them with their conscience, the Spirit helps them develop their gifts and fruits.

·         Give an overview of the gifts and fruits.  Ask the children how these things are helpful.

·         Make sure the children know that the Holy Spirit is always with them, right there inside them.  Whenever God calls them to do something he will always “fill them with the Spirit” so that they are equipped and encouraged to do whatever He asks.

Activities:

·         Have the children give examples of each of the fruits.  Children can take turns acting out scenarios involving each of the fruits.  See if the other students can guess what they are acting out.

·         Matching Glove Game.  Supplies:  Several pairs of different types of gloves and a bandana.  Blindfold a student and place a glove on their hand.  Have them try to find the matching glove in a pile of gloves.  The gloves illustrate how we can be “filled” with the Holy Spirit.

Crafts:

·         Make a Fruits of the Spirit Fruit Basket.  Supplies:  colored paper, scissors, hole punch, yarn, markers.  Have the students cut out basic shapes of different fruits.  They’ll need 12.  One each piece of fruit they will write the name of one of the Fruits of the Spirit.  Have them hole punch each piece and then tie them all together with yarn.  These fruit cards can be a reminder to try to exercise the Fruits every day.  Suggest that at the end of each day, the students flip through the Fruit cards and try to identify when they have done each fruit that day.  If they find there are some fruits they didn’t practice that day, they have a reminder to try again the next day. 

Titles and names

Of the Holy Spirit

Breath of the Almighty (Job 33:4).
Comforter (John 14:16, 26; 15:26).
Eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:14).
Free Spirit (Psalms 51:12).
God (Acts 5:3, 4).
Good Spirit (Nehemiah 9:20; Psalms 143:10).
Holy Spirit (Psalms 51:11; Luke 11:13; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30).
Power of the Highest (Luke 1:35).
Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15).
Spirit of burning (Isaiah 4:4).
Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9; 1 Peter 1:11).
Spirit of counsel (Isaiah 11:2).
Spirit of glory (1 Peter 4:14).
Spirit of God (Genesis 1:2; 1 Corinthians 2:11; Job 33:4).
Spirit of grace (Zechariah 12:10; Hebrews 10:29).
Spirit of holiness (Romans 1:4).
Spirit of judgment (Isaiah 4:4; 28:6).
Spirit of knowledge (Isaiah 11:2).
Spirit of life (Romans 8:2; Revelation 11:11).
Spirit of might (Isaiah 11:2).
Spirit of prophecy (Revelation 19:10).
Spirit of revelation (Ephesians 1:17).
Spirit of the Father (Matthew 10:20).
Spirit of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).
Spirit of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2; Acts 5:9).
Spirit of the Lord God (Isaiah 61:1).
Spirit of the Son (Galatians 4:6).
Spirit of truth (John 14:17; 15:26).
Spirit of understanding (Isaiah 11:2).
Spirit of wisdom (Isaiah 11:2; Ephesians 1:17).
Spirit (Matthew 4:1; John 3:6; 1 Timothy 4:1).

Counselor

Comforter

Teacher

Spirit of Truth

Symbols:

The Dove

Healing Ointment (Oil)

Living Water

A Raging Storm

A Flaming Fire

Light

Wind