Coming to Know God

Stage 2 Module

Coming to Know God

Module Focus

Christian children grow up hearing about God, but coming to know God is a lifelong journey in which there are always questions. Wondering about “Who is God?” can be challenging, perplexing and mysterious. Often our human minds try to explain God, rather than to be in relationship with God. Luckily, our God is a gracious God who reveals to us in the only ways that we understand i.e. in concrete human ways. God is revealed to us in: nature; in relationships with people; in the words and actions of special people; in many events of history; in the Church; in the Scriptures and especially in the person of Jesus Christ.

In our Christian tradition, there is an understanding that God cannot be seen in a simple way. God is complex, multi-faceted and always in relationship with humankind and creation. The concept of Trinity, which captures the idea of a multi-natured God is central to our Catholic faith and calls for continual thought and exploration.

Whilst it is understood that children in Stage 2 cannot begin to ponder that which theologians continually reflect and argue, it is nevertheless important for them to begin to explore the idea that God is multi-dimensional. This module introduces children to the term “Trinity”. It will explore what we consider to be the natures of God with which we are in relationship as Father, Son and Spirit through the scriptures and through our lived relationship with God.

Illustration by Elizabeth Wang, Code: RLAC1039C ‘Holy Trinity’

Outcomes

GRHD S 2.1: Identifies and describes God’s activity in the world today.
S S2.5: Explains the messages of specific scripture passages and their relationship to prayer, worship and the Christian life.
CD S2.3: Identifies the Church as a community of disciples of Jesus guiding and supporting Christians through moral teaching and example.
Learn About / Learn To
GRHD S2.1:
· God’s forgiving and healing activity in the Old Testament, through Jesus and today.
· God’s presence in creation and all people
· Using our God-given gifts and talents
· Ways God is revealed to us.
· Ways we understand Trinity
S S2.5:
· God’s revelation through the Scriptures
· How God speaks to us through Sacred Scripture.
CD S2.3
· exploring how God is revealed through the actions of the Church
· ways of participating in the mission of the Church / GRHD S2.1:
· Demonstrate healing and forgiveness
· Use God-given talents to reach out to others
· Experience ways that God is revealed.
S S2.5:
· Develop skills to listen to Scripture
· Discuss the messages of Scripture
· Compare and contrast selected passages of Scripture using a variety of texts
CD S2.3
· explore ways of participating in the mission of the Church
DISCIPLESHIP CHALLENGE
§ Students are challenged to respond as Christians to the presence of God in the world
§ Students are challenged to pray the Scriptures
§ Students are challenged to be part of school and faith communities

Catholic Discipleship

Our Christian understanding of God is founded in an understanding of mutual and equal relationships. This is expressed in the doctrine of Trinity. “ Our Trinitarian faith…confronts us with a value system…that focuses our gaze on the inestimable worth of communion with every human person, especially the needy among us” ( Mary-Ann Fatula, The Triune God of Christian Faith, Collegeville, Liturgical Press, 2003, pp.100-101).

Mutual and equal relationships are the hallmark of Catholic disciples, “pointing to what happens when God draws near, what Jesus calls the Kingdom” (David McLoughlin The Church, A Community of Disciples.in Exploring Theology: Making Sense of the Catholic Tradition, Dublin, Veritas Publications, 2007). Jesus and his disciples were models for discipleship today. They were an alternative community, who were counter cultural, challenging the values of the Roman Empire and the religious elite in Jerusalem. In this different community “the weak, the frail and the marginal are at the centre” (McLoughlin). They worked in communion with each other so that could enact their mission to all, especially the marginalised.

Prayer Focus -Trinitarian

The three prayers used in this module are doxologies or short statements of faith and praise for God. In a way, they are ‘mini creeds’. Such statements of faith become so much part of our lives they are like a favourite song or poem learned by heart (Tony Kelly, The Creed by Heart: Re- Learning the Nicene Creed, Harper Collins Religious Australia).

Sign of the Cross

The sign of the cross is a very ancient practice and prayer. We don't have any indication of it in Scripture, but St. Basil in the fourth century said that we learned the sign from the time of the apostles and that it was administered in baptisms. Some scholars interpret St. Paul's saying that he bears the marks of Christ on his body, in Galatians 6:17, as his referring to the sign of the cross. Probably when adult Christians were baptized, they made the sign of the cross that claimed them for Christ on their forehead proudly.

Tertullian (one of the early Church fathers) said that Christians at all times should mark their foreheads with the sign of the cross. Probably, Christians would make a little sign of the cross with their thumb and forefinger on their foreheads, to remind themselves that they were living a life for Christ. This practice lives on when we make small crosses on our foreheads, lips and hearts at the beginning of the Gospel in Mass.

When you make the sign of the cross, you are professing a mini version of the creed -- you are professing your belief in the Father, and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. Therefore it is an expression of our Trinitarian faith.

Sacramentally, it's a renewal of the sacrament of baptism; when you make it you say again, in effect, "I died with Christ and rose to new life."

The sign of the cross is a mark of discipleship. Jesus says in Luke 9:23, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me."

When suffering comes, the sign of the cross is a sign of acceptance. It's remembering that Jesus became a man and suffered for us and that we participate in Christ's suffering. The sign of the cross says, “I am willing to embrace suffering to share in Christ’s suffering.

When you’re suffering, when you’re feeling like God is not there, the sign of the cross helps you to focus on God and remember God is there for you.

(Bert Ghezzi, author of "Sign of the Cross: Recovering the Power of the Ancient Prayer" (Loyola Press) in http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=1542) “

Glory Be

The “Glory be to the Father” or the “Gloria Patri” is also a doxology or a statement of belief. It is a hymn of praise to God, which has been attributed to the writing of St Basil. The “Glory Be” is one of the prayers included in the Rosary. This prayer expresses our belief in a Trinitarian God. “As we explore the nature of God from the different facets we perceive, we can see God “beyond me”-creator, God “beside me” as friend and companion in Jesus, and “God within me” as Holy Spirit”

(Bosco Peters, 2007 at www.liturgy.co.nz ).

Eucharistic Doxology

Through him, and with him, and in him,

O God, almighty Father,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

all glory and honour is yours,

for ever and ever.

(Roman Missal, Third Edition)

“The Eucharistic Prayer concludes with a stirring expression of praise that permeates the entire Eucharistic Prayer. This concluding prayer is called the "Lesser Doxology" to distinguish it from the "Greater Doxology," which is the Gloria of the Mass. The doxology (statement of praise) summarizes the Eucharistic Prayer, which concludes as it began: The Church offers praise and glory to God. Note the formula that is used: to the Father (Abba) through Christ, the unique High Priest present in the midst of the assembled community, in the Holy Spirit by whoseaction the twofold change (of the bread and wine and of the assembled people) has been effected.

Final Acclamation. An enthusiastic Amen places the seal of the community’s approval on all that has been said and done in the Eucharistic Prayer. The three acclamations of the people (the Holy, Holy acclamation of praise, the Memorial Acclamation, the Great Amen or final acclamation) make abundantly clear that the Eucharistic Prayer, while proclaimed by the priest, is yet the prayer of the entire assembly or, better still, the prayer of Christ and his people.

During the doxology and the final acclamation, the host and the cup are raised on high as a gesture of offering. This offering is the principal offering in the Eucharist, not what we used to call the offertory (the preparation of the gifts ceremony”).

William H. Shannon in Catholic Update, May 2003

http://www.americancatholic.org/newsletters

“Christian faith is always a gift of God’s grace. It arises from an inner illumination which disposes a person to believe. By the same grace of God and the power of our own intellect the disposition to believe finds expression in stated beliefs about which we come to conviction and to which we give our assent…Christian faith is at least belief, but it must also be more than belief if it is to be a lived reality.” (Thomas Groome, Christian Religious Education: Sharing our Story and Vision San Francisco, Harper and Row, 1980, p. 61)

Core Scriptures with context

This module uses a range of scriptures which explore biblical images/names for God. There is a brief commentary about these scriptures in context .

Exodus 3: 13-14a, 15c

But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of your ancestors has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is God’s name?” what shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM… This is my name forever and this is my title for all generations.’

(It is also suggested that students read all of chapter 3 to set this scripture in context).

The phrase “I am who I am” has become one of the most significant of the Old Testament as it reveals much about the nature and character of God to people of different generations. To the Israelites this phrase captured one God who existed in opposition to the many gods that were worshipped in Egypt and Canaan. God was revealed to Moses as being ambiguous and yet imminent or close by to the people. God was revealed as a compassionate God who delivered the Israelites out of slavery and who would act through people such as Moses. To Jewish people, it was significant that God was not named in this passage as the name of god is considered to be so holy that it is not pronounced in prayer or worship ( there are no vowels in YHWH- the breath of God).

In our own context we also are invited to come to know our God who is imminent, compassionate and yet in many ways ambiguous. We come to know this God who reveals to us in the everydayness of our lives- our God who was, who is and who continues to be.

BIBLICAL IMAGES AND NAMES FOR GOD

The reality of God is limited by human language and human understanding. People through time image God in ways that they can understand. This includes images from nature and human images. Images from nature in the Bible capture characteristics of God/Jesus, described in elements of the world that made sense to the people of the time.

Human images for God relate to people of the time (such as kings, warriors, potters and shepherds) with each projecting particular characteristics of God or the person of Jesus. Even in the patriarchal society of the Old Testament, prophets and those who recorded the Scriptures used feminie, maternal images which revealed something about the human experience of God. Maternal images of God paint God protecting and sheltering people as a mother would.

Cosmic / Natural images~

God in the mountain ~ Ex 20:18-10

When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen”… Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid”.

My God is my rock~2 Sam 22:3

My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my saviour.

God is Light~ 1 Jn1:5

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

Wind~ Acts 2:1

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Fire~ Ex 3:1-2

Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.