Opening Prayer
First:
please make a readable panel with the theme of the class (The Lord’s Prayer). This will enable the children to find out what is the name of the topic which will be discussed. You could make drawings of these letters or collage, for example.
Second:
Please ask the following questions to the children:
Third:
Please explain the meaning of each part of the prayer, using the drawing suggested as a reference guide. You could perhaps also make a panel of these drawings.
Obs.:
.: In The Gospel According to Spiritism, Chapter 28, there is a detailed analysis of the meaning of THE LORD’S PRAYER. We would also recommend the book Iniciação ao Espiritismo (Spiritism for Beginners; to be translated into the English language), from Terezinha Oliveira, Edited by EME, (Chapter 27 - Oração Dominical).
Closing Pray:
please give each child a copy of THE LORD'S PRAYER so they can glue it into their notebooks. Please invite all of them to pray together, using THE LORD'S PRAYER bringing the class into a closure.
Class suggested being suitable for:
2nd cycle (9 to 10 years old) and 3rd cycle (11 to 12 years old); you could expand the content of the class depending on the maturity of the group.
1 – Who knows The Lord’s Prayer?
2 – How would this prayer also be called? Sunday Prayer or Prayer of the Lord since the disciples called Jesus - Latin for lord
3 – Who taught us this prayer?
4 – To whom is it directed to?
Obs.: this is an adaptation from The Lord’s Prayer, which is well disseminated amongst the spiritist movement but from an unknown author.
Our Father,
God is our Father; we are all brothers, sons of the Creator. God is the supreme intelligence, the first cause of all the things. God is eternal, infinite, unique, immaterial, all-powerful, just and good. Prayer is an act of worship. Praying to God is to think about Him, to approach Him, to get in touch with Him.
who is present in the harmony of the Universe
God is the Creator of the Universe. He created everything that is in it; the main objective is our moral evolution. He sent us Jesus, who is our brother. He was the most evolved spirit that has ever incarnate in Earth. He came to be our guide and role model.
Hallowed be Your name
If we connect to God, we can feel His presence because everywhere there is proof of his Divine love and wisdom. We should worship God and thank Him for our life, our family and experiences; happy and sad ones which allow us to progress spiritually.
May Your kingdom come! May Your will be done on Earth, on the Space and on all inhabited worlds as it is in heaven!
Everyone must put Jesus’ teachings into practice in order to install God’s kingdom within ourselves. This is the kingdom of peace, justice and love. The Divine Laws are also imprinted into the conscious mind of every human being. God’s will is expressed through the manifestations of the principle of action and reaction (or “law of cause and effect”). We must be aware of our thoughts, words and actions since everything we do, good or bad, will have consequences to ourselves.
Give us this day our daily bread for the soul and the body, Sir
Please ask only what is necessary. You should ask for the bread that feeds the physical body and the bread of the soul which is faith; the trust in God. You can ask for the daily bread; that is the way of obtaining through work the necessary things for the material and spiritual world since we can not ask for the superfluous; the unnecessary.
Forgive us our sins and imperfections; please give us the sublime feeling of forgiveness for those who sin against us!
Mercy consists of being able to forget and forgive all offence. We are still imperfect spirits who make lots of mistakes but we do have the commitment to ourselves to be more charitable, forgiving and forgetting all offenses.
Lead us not into the temptation of the matter, the traps from spirits who are less perfect than ourselves, but please send us the good ones spirits to shed light upon us.
We need to analyze all situations, learn from our mistakes and try to do goodness. We need to make efforts to practice goodness, as this is the only way to reach true happiness. Let’s improve everyday so we can always deserve the help and inspiration of our protector spirit. It is not enough to just avoid evil, but it is necessary to practice goodness. Please be aware of all influence from incarnate and disincarnate spirits. Let’s carry our inner reform and change our bad inclinations and vices.
Let the ray of Your light sprinkle over the suffering humanity. In the name of God, Christ and charity.
We need to understand God is just and only does goodness. The good spirits try to lead us into the right road, sustain us under the trials of life, and aid us to bear them with courage and resignation. The prospect of the happiness which awaits therefore gives us patience, resignation and courage to continue to the end of his path.
Fourth:
here below are some suggested activities received from the spiritist teacher Adriana Timón from União Espírita de Peruíbe – Peruíbe/SP.
Activity 1:
print and answer.
Answer activity 1:
(7), (3), (10), (4), (6), (1), (9), (11), (2), (8), (5)
Activity 2:
assemble THE LORD’S PRAYER in the shape of an accordion.
Activity 3:
please write and assemble THE LORD’S PRAYER in the shape of a little book.
Click here to see some pictures of how this was done, as an example.
Click here to see the PowerPoint with THE LORD'S PRAYER – adapted Spiritist version.
Click here to see the PowerPoint with THE LORD'S PRAYER from the Gospel According to Spiritism.
Click here to print a copy of THE LORD'S PRAYER – adapted Spiritist version.
Click here to print a copy of THE LORD'S PRAYER from the Gospel According the Spiritism.
Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.
