Teaching the holy Trinity to children

[Kiki]

Hi all,
I am teaching the Creed to Sunday School students 12-14. I'm looking for a simple way to teach the Trinity. Any ideas from other SS Teachers or possible texts for children on this topic?
Thanks!

[Kris]

Hi all,
I am teaching the Creed to Sunday School students 12-14. I'm looking for a simple way to teach the Trinity. Any ideas from other SS Teachers or possible texts for children on this topic?
Thanks!

Hi,

I suppose you could go the way of St. Patrick and use the shamrock.

The analogy of the sun shining with two rays, or the sun being distinct (yet one with) the heat and light it emits, are also analogies used by the Fathers.

Iin XC,
Kris

[Antonios]

Hi Kiki,

One way which I have found helpful to describe to children how God reveals Himself to us in the Holy Trinity is that God the Father is the mouth, the Word He speaks is Jesus the Son, and the breath He uses to speak is the Holy Spirit.

[Father David Moser]

I do something similar - the Father is the idea, the Son is the word telling about the idea and the Spirit is the action that puts the idea into practice. I know that there is a similar thing in the fathers (but I forget where)

Another image that I use with kids in teaching the Trinity is an ice cube in a pan of boiling water. The ice is solid, the water is liquid and the steam is gas but they are all H2O. All three things are separate, but they are all the same thing and all at the same time in the same place. For very young children, this is a concept they can grasp easily, and although it is simplistic, it is sufficient for them.

Fr David Moser

[Trudy]

Hi all,
I am teaching the Creed to Sunday School students 12-14. I'm looking for a simple way to teach the Trinity. Any ideas from other SS Teachers or possible texts for children on this topic?
Thanks!

Last year I took our middle school aged Sunday school students through the Creed using a book entitled The Creed for Young People by Fr. Anthony Conaris. It was excellent.

For the Holy Trinity, I told them to think of a word. Then holding their hand in front of their mouth, speak the word. The "thought" I compared to the Father. The "spoken word" I compared to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And the breath they felt on their hand, I compared to the Holy Spirit, the breath of Life that carried the spoken word out.

The other thing I did, in order to explain how we are Ambassadors for Christ and are to reflect His Love was to darken the room. Using a mirror, I held up a flashlight, and from across the room pointed the flashlight so the beam hit the mirror. Naturally it bounced off the mirror and brightened the room.

Christ is the Light of Love. We are to be like the mirror, so when Christ's Love is reflected out of us, it is as a beacon to others.

One young man was quite excited by this concept and came up with his own metaphor. That of the Sun and the moon. The Sun is Christ, we are the moon and reflect God's love brightly to lighten the night sky.

It was a joyous moment for him and me!

Love in Christ,
Athanasia

[Bratislav]

Dear in Christ,

One of the best ways I have seen the Holy Trinity expressed is by using three extra-thin (Greek style?) candles. Start the demonstration with the candles already lit and held together in one hand- if you are doing this correctly it will be difficult to tell by sight that it is three and not one candle that you have, especially as the candles will all share the same flame. You can then seperate the candles showing how they are indeed seperate candles despite sharing one flame( Three Persons/Candles with One divine nature/flame). I think this a good analogy for showing the simultaneous Oneness and Threeness of God. It is also a particularly good analogy for children as the physical demonstration can be quite suprising and interesting when the little ones are not expecting it.

As far goes the relationship between the Three Persons, you could continue with the theme of fire in which case the Father is Fire Itself, the Only Begotten is Light and the Holy Spirit is Heat.

Hope that helps,
Bratislav
Milwaukee

[Ian Leyda]

I'm not quite sure how this would work out with kids 12-14, but for me the most helpful way to understand the Trinity is through studying the various heresies. It is at least a useful starting point.

It is very much akin to the tradition of talking about God by what God is NOT. And it helps us to avoid thinking of God by placing him in categories or only through function of the 3 persons.

Hope this helps.

Ian

[Athanasius Abdullah]

Dear all,

+irini nem ehmot

Some great advice has been given. I think it is also important to stress the limitation and inadequacy of analogies when proposing them to children, not only that God's incomprehensibility may be stressed, but also so that they don't unwittingly take analogies to their logical conclusions.

In IC XC
-Athanasius

[Katherine]

You could also explain the Trinity in the following manner. If you have a Russian wedding ring (ie. the three different coloured gold bands joined into one ring):

There are three different rings, all gold, and yet three different colours.

Much like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - all the same, and yet different.

The three rings are seperate, and yet joined and intertwined together to make one ring.

Much like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit - three seperate entities / personalities etc., and yet they are the same, are joined and intertwinted together to make one.

Forgive me if this is a poor, bad and even wrong example ... but it just came to mind.

[Olga P.]

This is a short activity that each of the children can do. I saw it at a childrens' catechism class I was helping at.

Take 3 strands of string (3 different colours if possible). Braid them together for about half their length and stick this onto a piece of card. Then separate out the 3 strands and stick them down separately.

The 3 strands braided together represent God as one. And then each strand can represent Father, Son and Holy Spirit.


I don't know if i have explained this very clearly - let me know if I havent.

love, olga

[Elena]

An anology I was given to the Trinity was to stand in a dark room with a candle. The candle is one thing. However from it come both light and heat. Light was compared to Jesus and heat to the Holy Spirit whilst God the Father was the flame from which both of these proceed.

Alot of other wise things were said which I have since forgotten, but I remeber as a teenager it made quite a good impact on me.

[Jennifer]

I don't have an analogy to share, but I think that a good way to teach about the Trinity is to talk about the various roles that each person of the Trinity fills in our salvation and in the Trinitarian relationship. For instance, the Father is the one from whom the Son and the Holy Spirit were respectively begotten and proceed. He is also the only one who knows when the Last Day of this age will be. The Son is the one who became a man and died for us and rose from the dead. The Church also represents/is His presence on earth now that he has ascended into heaven. The Holy Spirit is the one who prays with us, who gives specific talents and fruits to the people in the Church, and who helps to maintain Truth within the Church.

I think that these characteristics would be very meaningful to students who are 12-14 years old. The hard part is explaining how each of the Three Persons are One God. I don't know; is that really something that we can comprehend? Or is it just a matter of faith? What do you all think about that?

Jennifer

[Kosta]

Perhaps, you can make the analogy that since we are made in the image and likeness of God, that we too are a Trinity but nonetheless one.

We are mind ,body and soul. The body corresponds to the Son who was incarnate by the Virgin Mary and became man. We being members of the Church are the Body of Christ.

The Soul corresponds to the Holy Spirit. God breathed into Adam's nostril making us a living being.

And the Mind corresponds to God the Father, where all the thoughts and actions flow from.

Not sure if such an analogyy is age appropriate or even effective, we have to take what Miaphysite wrote earlier into consideration.

[Victor Mihailoff]

Hi all,
I am teaching the Creed to Sunday School students 12-14. I'm looking for a simple way to teach the Trinity. Any ideas from other SS Teachers or possible texts for children on this topic?
Thanks!

Hi Kiki. God bless your work with the young!

I don't know if this is too late to add to the rest but I once read that a simple analogy for explaining the concept of the Holy Trinity to children at first is the following. You show them a three handeled basket (or drawing of one if you can't obtain one, but the real thing is much better), and you put something nice inside it, like maybe a bouquet of flowers. You explain that the basket represents the one God, the three handles represent the three persons of God and the contents represent the one essence that is shared in the three persons.

That is for the Holy Trinity and they should be permitted to get this image firmly in mind before going further in explaining the attributes which distinguish the three Persons from one another. You know: the Father is the source Who begat the Son; the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and abides in the Son.

Using Sun and Moon can cause confusion later because
they are used to represent God and His Most Holy Mother, even in the Book of Revelation. If you cannot obtain a three handeled basket, maybe a three handeled bowl or urn or maybe make something made with craft work like knitting a three handeled bag or whatever. Ask Blessed Xenia of Petersburg to help you find what you need if you are still teaching that subject to the young ones.

May God guide you to guide the young. Victor