Family Formation

The third Person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit and every time we get some little glimpse of Jesus, whether it’s a host turning into the Real Body of Jesus at Mass or an interaction that prompts you to mention Jesus to someone, the Holy Spirit is at work.  The concept is a little harder to grasp because we don’t see Him, but we can see the results of His work and  Scripture and Tradition offer lots of symbols that help us bring the picture more clearly into focus.  Fire, water, oil,  a dove … the list goes on and all are ways to help us build our relationship with the third person of the Holy Trinity.

There are two activities with this lesson:

• The first one is the Pauline Family Holy Spirit Songbook which takes simple melodies you’re sure to know and “baptizes” them for the holy purpose of teaching you all some of the truths of the Faith!  If you have younger students, make this part of the lesson your priority! You’ll learn a little catechism of the Holy Spirit in very simple, memorable songs.
• The second activity is a visual reminder of the effects of the Holy Spirit using origami doves.  There are multiple directions for your family’s focus (Baptism, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, or the Fruits of the Holy Spirit), so think a bit about which you’d like to highlight ahead of time.  You may also find it helpful to test out the origami project so you’re familiar with it before trying to help your kids make their own.

We spend a lot of time here talking about how to teach the Faith, giving you materials to do it, actually doing it, encouraging you to actually do it … and the goal of every single one of those encounters can be summed up in a single word, Jesus!  He is the Son of God, the Messiah, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Lamb of God, and the Savior of us all!  Given all that, it’s only fitting that we spend at least a little concentrated time learning about Him!

One of our favorite quotes on the topic comes from Saint John Paul II:

The definitive aim of catechesis [teaching the Catholic Faith] is to put people not only in touch but in communion, in intimacy, with Jesus Christ: only He can lead us to the love of the Father in the Spirit and make us share in the life of the Holy Trinity.

–CT 5

One of things that makes Jesus so relatable is that He was incarnate – He was born, lived on earth, etc. and all of that can be plotted on a timeline just like your life can.  The first activity is kind of a scrapbook view of the life of Jesus to help your family take a look at those big events that we should all know.

Finally, test your knowledge about the life of Christ with a family game of Sovereignty!   Each board has 30 questions about Jesus and you can play at two different levels for beginners or experts.  You can play competitively for the point value listed on each question, or just have everyone shout out the answers they know.

Either way, it’ll take a little advance preparation to get the game boards ready, so parents, so your homework.

It’s hard to imagine a topic bigger than the Holy Trinity so in addition to covering it in class we’re going to break it down this month into Home Lessons about God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In the Creed we say, “I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible,” and this sets up our tendency to associate God the Father with the act of creation.  The best starting point is to have your children look around, at their bodies, at nature; literally everything we experience is here because God made it directly or indirectly*.

So why did God create all that goodness?  The Church teaches that He made it to communicate His glory to us.  And Thomas Aquinas taught that “Creatures came into existence when the key of love opened his hand.”  God is love and love is always fruitful in some way.  It shares, multiplies, spills over, it cannot be contained!  Our only logical reaction in the face of all that love is gratitude, praise, and to love Him in return!

The main activity for this lesson is the Holy God, We Praise Thy Name! Activity Booklet which starts with the favorite hymn of the same name and then guides your family through a number of joyful Psalms.  On each page we get to consider and respond to God’s greatness!  This would also be a fantastic time to use the Lectio Divina method of prayer that we learned about earlier this year.  There’s a quick refresher here and here.

*Sidenote: It’s fun to play Can You Think of Some Thing God Did Not Create? The answer is “no,” but challenge your kids to try to come up with something.

• Some things were directly created by Him: anything in nature, for example.
• Some things were indirectly created by Him: anything invented by human ingenuity falls into this category.  Sure, God did not make your car, but He did create the raw materials (steel, rubber, petroleum) and He created the brains that invented the concepts and the parts, and the hands that turned the wrenches, etc.
• Some “things” such as sin and illness were not part of God’s original plan and are also not part of heaven.  (Start reading the Catechism of the Catholic Church here at paragraph 385, and on through the end of the section, if you’re interested.)