How to Help Children Recognize the Holy Spirit in Their Lives

Pentecost is upon us, once again early this year! This celebration is truly the beginning of our lives in the Spirit, the third member of our Blessed Trinity. However, in our marriage, the biggest obstacle of building a relationship with the Holy Spirit is recognizing it!

With two preschoolers in the house, the concept of the Holy Spirit can be a bit nebulous and daunting to explain. We have found that the easiest way for them to learn is by our recognizing and audibly acknowledging what we call “Spirit Moments”. We used to call these, “God-incidences” or coincidences that could only be divinely inspired, but as we have grown in depth of faith, we realize that these everyday moments and movements are of our Guide, the Spirit.

Here are some of the ways we recognize the Spirit and acknowledge it:

1. When we open a window and the breeze rushes in, we say “Come Holy Spirit!” with a big smile and deep breath. – Scripture passage
2. When we recognize a divine moment such as a special message or gift, or even just a small miracle like being on time or running late which means avoiding a bad situation, we are always sure to say, “That’s the Spirit for you!”
3. When we find ourselves in time of discernment or society challenge we make sure that our prayers reach out to our Divine Guide, the Spirit. “Holy Spirit, help us to see the clear path to the ways and Word of our Lord.”

Here are some fun activities that help our young kiddos experience the Spirit and begin to form the foundation of an understanding of the Spirit. Feel free to print these and reuse them!

Fruits of the Spirit Activity (for littles) – Laminate both sheets (or don’t) and cut out oranges. Invite young people to match the words and actions and explain why. Invite them to think of or act out their own actions. Use the definitions below to help with your explanations.

Gifts of the Spirit Action Game (for biggers) – We use this as a type of charades game. You can choose if words can be used or not, but work individually or as partners to create demonstrations of the Gifts and have the others in the family guess. Each person gets one guess…just listing the 7 isn’t allowed!

• Wisdom (Recognize strengths and weaknesses and deepen our experience of God),
• Understanding (to keep an open mind as we seek faith and truth),
• Counsel (to make right judgments through prayer and reflection and helping others to do the same),
• Fortitude (to have courage to share the faith in word and deed),
• Knowledge (to learn God’s plan for us),
• Piety (Love, to recognize God’s generosity and treat all others and creation as gifts from God),
• Awe (Fear of the Lord, to give glory and praise to our God who is sometimes no more than a mystery to the human person)

Popcorn Prayer and Popcorn Prayer Table Tents (for all) – One of our favorites before family movie night! I didn’t write this, but I did adapt it. This additional link is to a great resource for making family movie night a bit more faith-filled without having to focus only on faith-based movies. Modern movies organized by the liturgical year with reflections and questions for discussion!

Amberly Boerschinger is wife, mother and spiritual teacher. She works part time for a local parish and also facilitates a wide variety of classes and events on Catholic women’s spirituality and the Catholic spiritual traditions through the Diocese of Green Bay, Department of New Evangelization. She recently rekindled her love for film with a viewing of the international film, The Hedgehog and a cheap seats viewing of the newest rendition of Les Miserables, complete with snacks of course!

photo credit for stained glass window