TOOLBOX OF FAITH
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 9: SPIRIT OF LIFE (CANTEEN)
BY KATE TWEEDIE COVEY
© Copyright 2008 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 7:21:25 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Spirit of Life, come unto me.
— Carolyn McDade
The spirit is really the bouquet of life. It is not something breathed into life, it comes out of life.
— Joseph Campbell in a conversation with Bill Moyers
The water and the water bottle symbolize the Spirit of Life. In this session, participants reflect on different ways our faith leads us to think about and connect with how the Spirit of Life works in our lives. Reflections may include how pain and hurt as well as joy and wonder can bring a sense of the Spirit of Life, when one may feel connected to everything. You will guide participants to explore the idea of the Spirit of Life as a part of everything —fluid and pervasive, like water.
For the Welcoming and Entering and Opening activities, you will need to fill large, shallow containers with water for participants to share.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
ACTIVITY | MINUTES |
Welcoming and Entering | |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story — Creation | 10 |
Activity 2: Water Play | 8 |
Activity 3: Water Communion | 10 |
Activity 4: Singing "Spirit of Life" | 10 |
Activity 5: Council Circle | 12 |
Faith in Action: Ideas | |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Take a moment and let your body and mind settle. If you are comfortable doing so, spend a few moments in peaceful meditation. In preparation for this session on Spirit of Life, you may wish to reflect on how you personally would answer the council questions about the Spirit of Life. When have you felt the Spirit of Life, or something akin? What does the Spirit of Life feel like to you? Do you have other names to call it?
As an adult leader, your opinion may have more influence than those of participants. Therefore, your personal disclosure should not become part of the discussion unless participants ask you a question directly. In that case, be sure to preface your opinion by setting the context that each of us, adults and children, has different opinions, and yours is one among many. Then guide the conversation away from your own opinion and allow participants to reflect on their own thoughts.
SESSION PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
This activity is intended for the time before the session when children arrive individually, that is, "straggle in."
Welcome participants. Invite them to choose a straw and explore the water in the basins — without spilling or drinking any — using the straw, or their hands. Save the straws for a later activity.
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The children will blow into a basin of water to explore the qualities of water and make a bubble print, an ethereal, beautiful, almost marbleized piece of art. In this activity, you will guide them to connect the properties of water with some qualities of the Spirit of Life.
Gather the children in a circle, in your Council Circle space. Light the chalice.
Indicate where the opening words are posted, for any children who are unfamiliar with them. Lead the group in reciting:
We are Unitarian Universalists
with minds that think,
hearts that love,
and hands that are ready to serve.
Hold up the water bottle and tell the children it contains water, the Tool of the Day.
Pass around the tool. As children pass it, invite them to share prior experiences with water. Encourage each child to mention something that no one else has said.
Lead a discussion to introduce the water in the water bottle as a symbol for the Spirit of Life. Ask, "What do you think makes this a Unitarian Universalist tool?" Allow participants to share ideas. Affirm that there is no one answer.
Explain, in these or your own words:
Just as water is around us all the time, sometimes unseen and unrecognized, so is the Spirit of Life around us all the time, sometimes unseen and unrecognized. Water is healing and life-giving, and so is the Spirit of Life. Unitarian Universalism is a faith that can help each person connect to the Spirit of Life and be endlessly expanded by the possibilities in the world.
As we talk more about the Spirit of Life today, you will come to understand it better. It is something that can be defined in different ways. Here is a definition which may work for you: The Spirit of Life is a force which creates and upholds life.
Unitarian Universalism affirms the direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces which create and uphold life. Recognizing and welcoming the Spirit of Life is one way to grow spiritually. This is a key part of growing in faith and deepening in religious understanding. One reason we are exploring the Spirit of Life today is that Unitarian Universalism values acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations.
Collect the tool. Extinguish the chalice.
Invite the children to arrange themselves at the worktable(s) in groups of two or three around a basin of water. Help each group mix bubble solution and tempera paint in their basin, and guide them to create bubble prints. Tell them:
Use your straw to blow into the water and make bubbles. Gently press a sheet of construction paper on top of the bubbles, for just a second. Then lift the paper straight up to remove it, and let it dry.
Indicate where the children can lay their bubble prints to dry. After a few prints have dried, invite a participant to write the words "Spirit of Life" on one and tape or glue it to the Toolbox of Our Faith poster. Or, do this during the Closing.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — CREATION (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather the group to hear a story. You may tell them:
This story is based on the first of two versions of the creation story found in Hebrew scripture in the Book of Genesis, Chapters 1 and 2. This story reaches into our Jewish and ChristIan heritage, our love of reason, and our Unitarian Universalist tradition of seeking the divine in everything — all in a bundle called Spirit of Life.
ACTIVITY 2: WATER PLAY (8 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Allow children to explore, in free play, the way water embodies various qualities of the Spirit of Life.
Invite participants to gather in groups of two or three at the filled basins of water, and enjoy some free-form experimentation with water and tools. When the play lags, suggest participants add dish soap and/or food coloring.
As the children play, encourage them to feel the water run through their fingers, listen to the water pour out, and try to visually track where the water goes as they squirt it, splash it, or stir it.
Variations
If your space can accommodate it — or, if you have an outdoor space — convene the group at one large basin. Or, use vinyl gutters to create sluices from one basin to another.
ACTIVITY 3: WATER COMMUNION (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather participants around the table where you have placed the vase or pitcher, the plastic cups, and the large bowl. Tell them, in these words or your own:
Many Unitarian Universalist congregations hold a water communion at the end of the summer, in which participants of all ages bring "living waters" from wherever their travels led them and mingle them for later use by the congregation in ceremonies, such as a child dedication.
Tell the group you will enact a water communion together, to demonstrate how all water is connected, just as all things are connected by the Spirit of Life.
Indicate the water in the clear vase or pitcher. Point out that water molecules never stop existing, they just get recycled over and over, so that water molecules from the local tap could have once been in the Amazon River, in a New England pond, in the blood of a tiger in India, in the saliva of a salamander, in the local swimming pool, or in snow on top of the Rocky Mountains. See if the children can think of more places where a water molecule in the vase or pitcher might once have been.
Give each child a plastic cup to hold. Pour into each cup some water from the pitcher or vase. Ask the children to close their eyes and meditate on their own experiences with water and think of their own personal "water stories" they could share with the group. Prompt them by suggesting they might have had an experience with a river, a creek, a pond, a puddle, a fish bowl, a swimming pool, a lake, a bathtub, a rain storm, or an ocean. Allow a few minutes of quiet time.
Then, gather the group around the large bowl. Invite each participant to share his/her personal water story and pour water from the cup into the bowl. As each child pours his/her water, have them recite, "This water is part of the living water that makes up our world."
ACTIVITY 4: SINGING "SPIRIT OF LIFE" (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants learn and sing the Unitarian Universalist hymn, "Spirit of Life."
Gather the group in a circle. Teach and lead hymn #123 "Spirit of Life." If you wish, teach the arm and hand motions, as well.
ACTIVITY 5: COUNCIL CIRCLE (12 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Each session closes with a Council Circle. The goal of the Council Circle is to share our stories, listen to each other, and grow in faith together. Listening to each other is a religious act. The Council Circle includes three rituals: Reflection, Sharing of Joys and Concerns, and a Closing.
Reflection
Gather the group in the Council Circle. Light the chalice. Offer words spoken routinely in your congregational worship, or these:
We are Unitarian Universalists
with minds that think,
hearts that love,
and hands that are ready to serve.
Guide participants to reflect on the Spirit of Life — what it is, what it feels like, how it is like water. Ask them to pass the Tool of the Day as a talking stick. You may offer these questions:
Sharing of Joys and Concerns
After discussion has closed, invite participants to share important things in their lives. What they share may or may not be related to the session topic and discussion.
Invite participants to light a council candle from the chalice flame as they share. If there are not enough candles, it is OK to snuff out and re-light a candle. Save the candle of a different color for last. When all who want to share joys and concerns have done so, light this candle with the words, "For all the joys and concerns that remain unspoken."
If you are using a glass bowl, water, and stones instead of council candles, invite participants to drop a stone into the bowl when they share. End the sharing by adding one last stone for unspoken joys and concerns.
Closing
Extinguish the council candles. Gather participants around the chalice; if it has been extinguished, re-light it.
Build a water story with the group. Pass the water bottle and water around the circle. Ask each participant to imagine a form that the water took during its never-ending journey in the universe. Invite them to be as imaginative as possible. You might say, to start:
Today, we talked about the fact that a water molecule, once formed, never ceases to exist in nature, and might travel far and wide, across time.
This molecule of H20 — two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom — started in the Big Bang. The hydrogen was formed by a burning star. This one bit of water was part of an icy asteroid that crashed together with others and formed the planet, Earth. This very bit of water then became part of a brontosaurus's blood that spilled when it tripped. That bit of blood seeped into the soil. It eventually became part of a flower eaten by a woman gatherer. She passed the water in a stream of urine next to a tree. Later, this bit of water was carried in a piece of grass. The grass dried in the sun, and this water evaporated into the sky...
Allow each participant to add to the story. You may want to go around the circle twice. To end the story, say "As water is a never-ending part of the universe, so is the Spirit of Life."
Close with an element (meditation, benediction, song) commonly used in your congregational worship, or use one or more of the suggestions below. Base your choice(s) on the needs and energy level of your group. With your co-leaders, you may elect to use the same ritual to close every session.
A. Lead the group in singing "Meditation on Breathing," Hymn 1009 in Singing the Journey: A Hymnbook Supplement to Singing the Living Tradition. Hear the simple tune online (at www.uua.org/publications/singingjourney/52328.shtml).
B. Have the group read in unison Reading 452 by Marjorie Montgomery in Singing the Living Tradition:
Life is a gift for which we are grateful.
We gather in community to celebrate
the glories
and mysteries
of this great gift.
C. Sing or say the words to "From You I Receive," Hymn 402 in Singing the Living Tradition. Teach the group the accompanying movements.
From you I receive | Scoop the air by reaching toward other participants, then bringing air toward yourself at chest level, that is, receiving it. |
To you I give | Opposite from above — scoop the air at chest level and push it outward to "give" to other participants. |
Together we share | All grasp hands. |
By this we live | Make fist of strength with each hand and stack one hand on top of the other at belly button level. |
D. Go around the circle — using the Tool of the Day as a talking stick again, if you like — and invite each participant to say one thing they will do to express their inner thoughts and selves. A higher-energy version of the above could involve the group repeating back, chant-style, the statement of each participant, and adding, "Go out into the world and feel of the Spirit of Life!"
E. Sing a familiar song. Suggestions: "Thula Klizeo," Hymn 1056 in Singing the Journey; "I Know This Rose Will Open," Hymn 396 in Singing the Living Tradition; or "Rejoice in Love," Hymn 380 in Singing the Living Tradition.
F. Use this team spirit chant, "Pump It Up!"
Leader: Pump, pump, pump it up!
Group: Pump, pump, pump it up!
Leader: Pump that UU spirit up!
Group: Pump that UU spirit up!
Instead of "Pump it up!" you may use "Fire it up!" or "Keep it up!"
Pass the Tool of the Day around the circle and invite participants, one at a time, to voice a way they plan to use the quality of faith that was explored today. Guide them to say:
With my UU Equality of faith, e.g. Spirit of Life], I will...
Lead the group in responding to each participant's contribution:
Group: Go, UU, go!
If you have not yet done so, invite a participant to tape a bubble print to the Toolbox of Our Faith poster. Write "Spirit of Life" on the poster.
Extinguish the chalice. Distribute Taking It Home handouts. Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: IDEAS
Description of Activity
"Spirit of Life"
Arrange with your minister or lay worship leaders for the congregation to sing the song, "Spirit of Life," when the children can join in.
Engage the group in illustrating a poster with the words and pictures representing the images in the song.
Candlelight Vigil
Take part together in a candlelight vigil. Moments of shared connection and transcendence cannot be orchestrated, yet they often do happen when people gather for a common purpose and a common good.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on these questions and discuss them with your co-leaders:
TAKING IT HOME
Spirit of Life, come unto me.
— Carolyn McDade
The spirit is really the bouquet of life. It is not something breathed into life, it comes out of life.
— Joseph Campbell in a conversation with Bill Moyers
IN TODAY'S SESSION...
Water in a water bottle symbolizes the Sprit of Life. In this session, children reflected on how the Spirit of Life works in our lives. The group heard a creation story based on the Book of Genesis in Hebrew scripture. Reflections included how pain and hurt as well as joy and wonder can bring a sense of the Spirit of Life, when one may feel connected to everything. Participants discussed how the Spirit of Life is a part of everything, just as water is pervasive.
The children learned about the Spirit of Life to demonstrate that:
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about...
Think about these questions, and share your reflections with your child:
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try...
Today, we talked about the fact that a water molecule, once formed, never ceases to exist, and might travel far and wide across time. Make up a water story together. Invite each person to imagine a form that the water took during its never-ending journey in the universe. Be imaginative. You might start by staying:
This H20 — two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom — started in the Big Bang. The hydrogen was formed by a burning star. This one bit of water was part of an icy asteroid that crashed together with others and formed planet earth. This very bit of water then became part of a brontosaurus's blood that spilled when it tripped. That bit of blood seeped into the soil. It eventually became part of a flower eaten by a woman gatherer. She passed the water in a stream of urine next to a tree. Later, this bit of water was carried in a piece of grass. The grass dried in the sun, and this water evaporated into the sky.
Invite each person in the family to add to the story. To end the story, say "As water is a never-ending part of the universe, so is the Spirit of Life."
TOOLBOX OF FAITH: SESSION 9:
STORY: CREATION
This story is based on the first of two versions of the creation story found in Hebrew scripture in the Book of Genesis, Chapters 1 and 2. It comes from Stories in Faith: Exploring Our Unitarian Universalist Principles and Sources Through Wisdom Tales by Gail Forsyth-Vail (Boston: Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations, 2007).
Designate volunteers to take the roles of "Appreciating Voice" and "Bible Voice." Have adult co-leaders read aloud the respective roles, or invite participant volunteers who are strong readers to do it. Allow volunteers an opportunity to read the text ahead of time, so they will be comfortable reading it aloud. Before beginning the story, you may like to paraphrase or read aloud for the group the introductory matter that precedes the first piece spoken by the "Appreciating Voice." To make this story more interactive, and to give the children an experience of speaking biblical words, you might instruct the listeners to repeat back the last sentence, each time "Bible Voice" speaks.
In this version, man and woman are created together, both in the image of God. The seven-day creation story, while not scientifically accurate, contains ancient wisdom. It is a hymn of praise to all of creation, poetry that names and lingers over all the wonders of the world. It is presented here as a reading in two voices: a "Bible voice" that is the text itself, and an "Appreciating Voice" that lingers in gratitude and praise over the wonders enumerated in the text.
In this well-known passage of scripture, God "talks the world into being." His or her actions bring order out of chaos. He or she divides, differentiates, and categorizes, bringing about the order of night and day, sea and sky, plants and animals. By naming things God identifies each as separate and different from one another. In turn each is given meaning. The God of Genesis blesses each creature. This gesture acknowledges, rather than confers, the sacredness of all living things. It invites us also to name and bless all of the wonders of our world.
Appreciating Voice:
Sometimes, when I look up at the stars, or feel the rain on my face, or hear the buzzing of a bee, I wonder where it all comes from. How did we begin? I know the wisdom that comes from science, which says that microscopic one-celled creatures evolved over millions of years into countless complicated forms of life. But sometimes, when I behold the wonder of it all, I love to hear the words spoken long ago by the ancient Hebrews about how the earth and the sky and all things living were called into being and blessed by the Spirit of Life we sometimes call God.
Bible Voice:
In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness. A wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God called the light Day, and the darkness Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Appreciating Voice:
From the beginning, light and darkness, activity and rest, day and night.
Bible Voice:
And God said, "Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
Appreciating Voice:
From the mountaintop, the treetop, the airplane, or our own backyards, we see the daytime clouds and nighttime stars that reach further than we can even imagine. From the canoe, the rocky bluff, or the sandy shore, we see the vastness of the sea, deeper and wider than we can fully understand. In the presence of sky or of sea, we feel connected to the mystery of life.
Bible Voice:
And God said, "Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear." And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were called together Seas. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it." And it was so. And there was evening and there was morning, the third day.
Appreciating Voice:
Chestnuts, acorns, dandelions, and beans—each carries the beginning of a brand-new plant. We plant apple seeds and peach pits, wheat, peas, and corn. We watch day by day for the avocado seed in a glass to sprout or the bean to split and put down roots. We are grateful for the plants and the trees that bring us beauty, joy, and good food—and for those plants that protect themselves with thorns, poison leaves, and tall, winding branches.
Bible Voice:
And God said, "Let there be lights in the dome of the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years." God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. And there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day.
Appreciating Voice:
We give thanks for the orbit of our earth around its sun. It brings the seasons: times for planting and for harvest, time to enjoy the warmth of the sun, and time to pull closer to the fire for warmth. We give thanks also for our earth's moon, which causes the tidal coming and going of the oceans.
Bible Voice:
And God said, "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky." So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth." And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.
Appreciating Voice:
Blessing all the creatures of the earth, the sea, and the sky, God acknowledged that each is sacred.
Bible Voice:
And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals, and everything that creeps upon the ground." And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image."
So God created humankind in his image,
In the image of God he created them
Male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."
And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.
Appreciating Voice:
We, too, can bless the animals of every kind on the face of the earth. We can recognize the divine, the Creative Spirit, the Spirit of Life in each of them and in each of us. We rejoice in the blessing of being alive and sharing the gift of life with the creatures of this, our planet home.
Bible Voice:
Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude. And on the seventh day God finished the work. And on that day God rested. So God blessed the seventh day.
FIND OUT MORE
The website, The Great Story (at www.thegreatstory.org/), blends evolutionary and creationist views of cosmology, presenting many resources about "the sacred narrative of an evolving Universe."
The hymn, "Spirit of Life," and its author (at www.uuworld.org/life/articles/35893.shtml) Carolyn McDade, were featured in the Fall 2007 issue of UU World.