Feast of the Trinity Cycle C

Feast of the Trinity   Cycle C

Welcome children to their worship space.

Introduce

              Explain: Today is Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost.  Does anyone remember what we celebrated last week on the feast of Pentecost?  What happened? <the Holy Spirit came to them just like Jesus had promised>

Ask: How do you think the Holy Spirit reveals himself to us today? <guidance to do the right thing>

Introduce symbol

Ask:  To share what we celebrate today, on Trinity Sunday, we are going to open with a prayer that you may know. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.  Amen.

Does this prayer tell us that we have 3 Gods?  <no- 3 persons in 1 God>

Explain:  We believe that there is 1 God, but that there are 3 persons in this 1 God.  Can you name the 3 persons?  <Father, Son and Holy Spirit>

Say:  Today’s symbol <hold up the symbol> is a shamrock to help us understand the Trinity.  One plant, three parts. 

Explain:  This idea of 1 God and 3 persons is a very confusing one.  We believe it even though most of us can’t really understand it.  During our readings today, we will talk about the Blessed Trinity and see how the different persons of our God are shown to us in Scripture.

Explain: During our celebrations in the church year, we focus on the different persons.  Last week – and during the next few months, which person did we focus on?  <the Holy Spirit and how he helps us understand God and how God wants us to live>  What about the season of Lent?  Which person did we talk about the most?  <Jesus>  And the season of Advent?  What was that all about?  <the coming of Jesus – the focus was God the Father who would send his son to us> 

Say:  Let’s look at the poster.  What does it say? <O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!>  This is our Responsorial Psalm for today, a psalm of praise.

Introduce readings

Say:  Let’s light the candle to show that we are ready to listen to the Words of God.

Say: Today’s first reading is from the Old Testament book of Proverbs. (Prov 8:22 –31)  Proverbs is a book that contains a lot of types of teaching. This particular poem is a poem that teaches us about a virtue or character trait called Wisdom.  Wisdom is used as a character that speaks to us about one of the persons or our God.  Listen to the words of this reading and see if you can hear which person Wisdom is talking about.

Have the reader read the first reading.

Ask: Who do you think it is?  <God the Father>  Why?  <Because God the Father created the earth> Here’s something to think about.  We believe that Jesus was the Son of God and he came to earth to help us understand more about God.  Our understanding of the trinity comes from Jesus in the New Testament. 

When you think about Wisdom as a character in the Old Testament, does it remind you of one of the persons of God that Jesus taught about?  <Teaching note: there is a parallel between the Old Testament understanding of Wisdom and the Holy Spirit as revealed on Pentecost>

Say: Now it is time for the Responsorial Psalm.  Your part is to say the words of praise nice and loud:

O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!

Say:  Today’s Gospel reading comes from the book of John.  (Jn 16:12-15)  Do you remember who the Gospel writers were?  <Matthew, Mark, Luke and John>  In today’s reading Jesus tells us about the Blessed Trinity.

Say:  Now we will get ready to hear the Gospel.  Please stand up.

Say together: Alleluia, Alleluia.

Have the reader begin: “a reading from the holy gospel.....”

Read:  Read the Gospel

Say: Jesus himself said, “I have much more to say to you, but right now it would be more than you can understand.”  It’s okay not to understand everything about God.  Truthfully, no one understands it all.  We are all learning…. Which person of the Trinity helps us learn and understand?  <the Holy Spirit>

Hand out the poster & Offertory symbols to color and cut out. (The symbol is a shamrock). 

Ask children to add their names to the shamrock cutouts for the poster. 

 

Explain: Color this symbol of the shamrock and bring it to the altar (don’t forget to put your name on the back!)  to show that we have learned about the Holy Trinity.

If there is time, review the prayer:  Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.  As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.  Amen.

Give out stickers and hand-outs as they leave.

 

poster

 

banner

Offertory

Parent Letter

Feast of the Holy Trinity C

Dear Parents,

            Today is the Feast of the Blessed Trinity.  The children listened to two of the same readings you did:  Proverbs 8:22-31  and  John 16: 12-15

To reinforce at home:

The teaching of the Holy Trinity is very difficult for any of us to understand.  We are much better at accepting it than actually understanding.  We talked today about the Trinity, the 3 persons in 1 God.  We talked about how we understand each person – God the Father as Creator, God the Son who became man and died to save us, and God the Holy Spirit who remains with us helping us to understand and grow. 

During the church year, we celebrate the different persons of God – during Advent we focus on Yahweh, God the Father, who will send his son to live among us, during Lent, we focus on God the Son, who would die and rise again for us, and after Easter, we focus on the Holy Spirit who guides God’s people, Christ’s Body on earth.

Activities to do at home:

Teach and pray the prayer that glorifies the Trinity:

Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.  As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.  Amen.

Read your favorite Scripture passage with your children and decide which person of our God is reflected there.

Thank you for sharing your children!