Greetings and Opening prayer
First: each child is given a small piece of chocolate and asked to swallow it quickly. Please give them a very small piece, so they swallow without tasting it. Then give each child another piece of chocolate that’s the same size as the previous one. Ask them to eat it slowly, letting it melt in their mouth.
Second: eExplain that when we pray without thinking, in a hurry, without feeling, it is like eating chocolate without feeling the taste of it. It's almost as if we had not eaten the piece of chocolate. If we pray with sincerity and love in your hearts, it is like we are eating the piece of chocolate slowly, feeling the taste of chocolate in our mouths.
Show pictures of Jesus and ask:
Do you know who He is? Jesus. How is Jesus related to me? He is our Brother.
Comment: Jesus is our Master. Do you know what the word Master mean? Master is one who can teach. Jesus is the Master of our life and should be followed because he did what was right; through words and actions. He never hurt anyone.
Ask the children: Did Jesus pray? Yes. Show pictures in which Jesus is praying with other people. Where is He? He is standing on top of a hill. What clothes is He wearing? Same as the others. Here he is alone. Where? He is sitting on a rock at the edge of a stream along with the animals. There were no religions around as there are today at Jesus’ time. He showed us that this is how we should pray: with simplicity, humility and love. Rituals were created by the different religions over the years.
Third: explain that prayer is a conversation with God. We can pray anywhere and at any time: in the street, at home, spiritist centre, in school… A prayer can have three goals: to thank, to praise and to ask. A prayer can be spontaneous or memorised (give them as an example of memorised prayer: ‘The Lord's Prayer’). We should pray with sincere and simple words, know what to say and pray with our heart, with real feelings. A prayer doesn’t need not to be pretty or long to be listened to. God always hears our prayers.
Fourth: bring tapes that were previously recorded with several people praying to class. Some of the prayers should be memorised, others should be thanking prayers, perhaps others asking for something and/or praising God. Ask the children to identify what kind of prayer this is, at the end of each prayer: if it’s memorised or spontaneous. Ask them if they can identify if the prayer has one of these characteristics – to thank, to praise or to ask.
Suggested text for the children glue the notebook:
Fifth: suggested activities.
Activity 1: for children from kindergarten (3 to 4 years old), infants (5 to 6 years old) and first cycle (7 to 8 years old) it is interesting to use a doll made from a toilet paper roll. Ask them to show we can pray with words or thoughts, through the face of the doll.
We can make the face of the doll with a toilet paper roll, button eyes, cardboard and wool scraps. Cut just below the mid-roll to make the mouth. You will be able to assemble a mini-puppet, which opens and closes the mouth. Thus, we can illustrate that we can pray with words (the puppet's mouth opens and closes) or thoughts (the doll’s mouth is shut).
Activity 2: drawing or writing down a prayer.
* Give each child a blank page where they should write or draw a prayer, praising, thanking and/or asking for something. If they decide to draw the prayer, please explain they need to draw what they want to thank for (the family, the body, the house where they live...). If they draw what they to praise, they should draw the nature, sun, moon, stars, for example. The same should apply to something they want to ask through prayer. If the children can’t write, the spiritist teacher can write on top of the sheet where the prayer is drawn: Through prayer we can praise, thank and/or ask.
Activity 3: Distribute sheets with a picture of Jesus and a heart glued to a cardboard and decorated with glitter glue. Ask them to draw themselves praying to Jesus, reinforcing the teaching that all prayers must be made from the heart, with humility and love.
Click here to see the drawings by first cycle children (7 to 8 years old) from Santo Ângelo / RS.
Closing Prayer
Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.