Tonight, as we begin our first of five Confirmation Intensives (class will be for two hours instead of 75 minutes, comprised of five different mini-sessions), I will be teaching about images of the Holy Spirit: water, anointing, fire, and a dove.
To introduce this concept, I am bringing in a blank red octagon that I cut out of construction paper and afixed to a stick. I plan to show it to the kids and to ask them what it is. I have no doubt that someone will say that it is a stop sign, to which I will reply by saying how interesting that a piece of red paper in the shape of an octagon conveys the message of STOP even though the word is not printed on it! Signs and symbols convey meaning.
I’ll use that as an introduction to talking about symbols of the Holy Spirit (as described in the Confirmed in the Spirit textbook, pg. 5) and how the Church provides us with images of the Holy Spirit, who is invisible, to help us think about how the Spirit is involved in our lives. From there, I will have the kids create mini-mobiles of these four symbols or images of the Holy Spirit: water, anointing, fire, and a dove. They’ll cut out the pictures and descriptions from their books and glue them to index cards, which they will string together and attach to a straw.
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