Chrismation
CHRISMATION
Objectives:
- Children should know that we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit at Chrismation.
- Children should be able to respond “Seal!” during Chrismation services.
Possible Lesson Plan:
- Open with prayer.
- Review last week’s lesson on baptism. Have the children share their pictures of their own baptism.
- Review the story of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and show the icon. (Story is also in the Children’s Bible Reader.)
- Discuss our own personal “Pentecost” – Chrismation. Each of us receives the Holy Spirit at Chrismation. Have children repeat the word several times.
- Role-play a Chrismation – begin with the same baby doll, now in baptismal dress, from last week, godparent holding baby, other godparent with candle:
Priest (teacher or older student, dips cotton swab in oil and makes the sign of the cross on the baby’s forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, chest, hands, and feet, each time saying): The Seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit.
All: Seal!
(Priest and godparents with baby march around the baptismal “font” three times while all sing as practiced last week “As Many as Have been Baptized”)
Priest (while wiping oil off baby’s forehead, etc. with small sponge): You are baptized! You have the light of Christ! You have been Chrismated! You have received the Holy Spirit! You are made holy! You are washed in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!
All: Amen!
- Make a handprint flame:
Each child begins with a paper plate with self-hardening clay or Model Magic. Have the child make a handprint in the middle of the clay. Color the handprint with yellow, red, and orange markers, like a flame. remind the children of the tongues of fire that descended on the followers of Jesus at Pentecost. Title the project “(Name) received the Holy Spirit at Chrismation”
Alternate craft: Clay too messy? Then make an “envelope viewer” and use the pictures of baptism and chrismation. Print and cut apart and tape end to end to make one long strip. Let the children color. Have the viewers already made for them to decorate – just take a regular envelope, cut off the ends, lick it shut, and cut a “viewing screen” on the good side. The children can move the strip along to see the entire show. You can even glue on a “TV” screen border if you want printed on cardstock and sized to fit your envelopes and printed strip – cut out the screen ahead of time for the children.
- Close with prayer.