Teach the Trinity with Candles

As promised, here is my craft to teach about The Most Holy Trinity, the mystery of our One God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  In March I saw this post by Vicky at Mess for Less about making decorative votive candle holders, and I thought: what a great idea for a lesson about the Trinity!  

We decorated each of three candles with a symbol for the Trinity: Father = heart, Son = cross, Holy Spirit = dove.  I chose the obvious symbols for the Son and Holy Spirit and my eight year old daughter decided that God the Father should be represented by a heart, because of His love for us.

Each candle represents one expression or person of God, distinct and separate from one another.  However, each flame of the candle is identical, representing the one God that is present in each of the three persons.  The Trinity is one of the deepest mysteries of our Catholic faith, so I hope that this craft helps my children understand how three persons are still one God.  The image below may remind you of the triangle that is often used to explain this doctrine.

I could not find inexpensive undecorated votive holders, so we decorated some candles from the dollar store.  My older daughter made the heart candle all by herself.  I cut the crosses for my four year old and she glued them on with help from her sister for the top layer of mod podge.  I made the dove candle using a coloring page of a dove as a template.  You can find the page at the website of the Eucharistic Youth Movement (in the Miscellanea category).

I also used some of the extra shapes we cut from tissue paper to make a fourth candle with all three symbols; to me this one represents the mystery of the Trinity the best.

This craft is one that can be done several different ways, so I encourage you to use your creativity.  For example, my daughter’s original thought was to cover the entire candle with a rectangle of tissue paper that had the symbol as a cut out.  I was hoping to put more of the symbols in different colors overlapping each other on each candle.  Although we had hoped to make the cross brown, when we couldn’t find brown tissue paper my children opted for yellow, which admittedly is much harder to see, even when the candle is lit.

Ultimately, I let my children decide what they wanted to do.  They wanted to put a few symbols on each candle, which worked out well since we were short on time that day.  However, I think we will visit this candle idea again later in the liturgical year.  We could make many more candles to decorate our tabletop shrine throughout the year.

Please visit my Trinity Link up for more teaching ideas and reflections about The Most Holy Trinity, or to link up your own posts.

Linking with: Catholic Bloggers Link up Blitz, Faith Formation in Young Children, After School Party, Kids Get Crafty, We Made That, Weekly Kids Co-op, For the Kids Friday, Hobbies and Handicrafts, Pinterest Party

Notice: This blog may contain advertising links to venders I have an affiliate relationship with.  This means that if you click on one of these links, a window to that vender’s website will open.  If you shop for products on the vender’s site and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission on what you buy, even if you purchase items during a later visit.  I appreciate your support of this blog.  You can read more about how I choose my affiliate relationships here.

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Trinity Link up Reopened

I have a great craft in mind for Trinity Sunday that I will post soon, but in the meantime I wanted to announce that I have reopened the link up I hosted last year for the feast of The Most Holy Trinity.  This link up contains some great ideas for teaching the Trinity to children, but there is always room for more ideas, including reflections and meditations, so please add your links at the bottom of this post.  The link up will remain open until June 8 so you have plenty of time to link up your posts written on Trinity Sunday or even after.  

You will notice a number of links below from Saint Patrick’s Day because he used a trefoil or shamrock to represent the mystery of our One God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.  If your post about Saint Patrick also mentions the Trinity you are welcome to link below.

Last year we made a lapbook about the Trinity and some Trinity stick puppets; you can read that post here.

I am looking forward to reading your links!  Include the button or a text link so others can find the party.  Please share this link up with others who may be interested.

Linking with: Catholic Bloggers Link up Blitz, Faith Formation in Young Children, Weekly Kids Co-op, For the Kids Friday, New Evangelists Monthly

Notice: This blog may contain advertising links to venders I have an affiliate relationship with.  This means that if you click on one of these links, a window to that vender’s website will open.  If you shop for products on the vender’s site and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission on what you buy, even if you purchase items during a later visit.  I appreciate your support of this blog.  You can read more about how I choose my affiliate relationships here.

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A Review of My Chapbook

My friend Katherine Hoerth, who is exploring and educating about the poetry chapbook (what, why, and how) on her blog, posted a review of my book Entre la claridad yesterday.  I am still feeling so excited about this!

If you have been wondering what someone besides me has to say about this collection of poems, here is the start of her review.

“In her second poetry chapbook, Elisa A. Garza explores timeless questions of identity: Who am I? Where do I come from? And where am I going? Through the lenses of gender, culture, language and landscape, Garza paints a portrait of what it means to be a woman, a Chicana, in this contested space. She does so with both candor and lyricism – and as a reader, I couldn’t help but be drawn into this world, both the familiar and the foreign.”  The “contested space” Katherine refers to is the South Texas borderlands, the setting for most of the poems in my book.

Read more of the review here.  If you are now convinced you have to read my poems (and I hope you are), you can buy my chapbook directly from Mouthfeel Press.

I am so grateful to Katherine for the publicity, and for the enthusiasm she has for my book.  Mil gracias, Katie!

Katherine is also a poet, and her new collection, The Garden, Uprooted is on the printing press right now at Slough Press.  

It will be available for purchase at Amazon very soon.  You can learn more about Katherine Hoerth and her books here.  I plan to post a review of her first chapbook, Among the Mariposas (also from Mouthfeel Press) in a few weeks.

If you live in the Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, or Houston, you can hear Katherine read her poetry in person (and buy her book) at one of the reading events scheduled in the next two weeks.  I will attend her reading on July 24^th, 7 p.m. at the Barnes and Noble in Webster (Houston area).  I hope to see you there!  

You can find the details of the other readings in the right sidebar of her blog.

Have you liked the Entre la claridad page on Facebook?  I post notices about writing, readings, publications, and literary events there, including things that I don’t have the chance to blog about.  Do go like the page if you are interested in those topics, or if you just like my book!

Holly at A Life-Size Catholic Blog hosts a monthly Pay It Forward Link Up, so I am connecting there in July also.  Her link up is a great forum for sharing the inspiration you have found on other blogs, and she highlights one of her favorite bloggers this month.  I hope you will go see what others are paying forward this month at the link below.

L.L. at Seedlings in Stone hosts the weekly On,In, and Around Monday Link up, “an invitation to write from where you are… [with] a sense of place.”  I hope this post qualifies!  Please go visit the collection.

Jennifer at Mommy Y hosts a weekly Mom–Me Link up, encouraging Mom bloggers to write for or about themselves (and not their children at least once a week).  I think this is a great idea, and I am so glad I finally have a post that qualifies.  Please go read about how she starts her day in solitude and visit the other bloggers’ entries!

Karri at My Life’s a Treasure hosts a weekly My Favorite Things Link up, so I am linking there (just gotta love publicity for my writing).  I hope you will go see other bloggers' favorite posts this week.

MyPlate Birthday and Recipe Review

MyPlate, the government’s replacement for the food pyramid, is celebrating its first birthday with a revamped website that includes new resources and recipes, as well as tips for celebrating events with healthier food and by including movement and exercise as part of the festivities.  You can find the links to the celebration resources and more, including the place to wish MyPlate a Happy Birthday by clicking below.

A year ago I promised to review the original recipes from the MyPlate site when I wrote my post about the change.  You can find their original recipes here.  So, in honor of MyPlate’s first birthday, I present my reviews of the salads from their original recipe list.  So far, we have liked everything we have tried.  I explain my adjustments for each recipe below, if any.

As I mentioned last year, we like the Outtasight Salad (page 5).  We use whatever fresh vegetables and fruits we have on hand, usually doubling the amount to two cups each.  The more vegetables and fruits, the less noticeable the greens are, and my children prefer the salad this way.  Also, fresh pineapple is our choice over canned.  And for the dressing, we leave out the vinegar, keeping the dressing thicker and creamier, so it can coat the chunks of vegetables and fruits.

We usually eat this as a light lunch, with nut butter or cheese toast.  Leftovers make a good side salad for dinner.

The Fire and Ice Watermelon Salad (page 9) is a refreshing and new way to eat watermelon.  I really like the kick of the dressing, but my children prefer to eat the fruit mixture without the dressing, so I just reserve it on the side.  We were almost out of white vinegar the first time I made this, so I used half white and half apple cider vinegar.  You could probably use all apple cider vinegar too, although I have not tried that yet.

This recipe makes a lot, so you may be eating this watermelon for a couple of days; it is good as a snack, or a luncheon side dish.

We have also tried the Bulgur Chickpea Salad as a side dish (page 10).  I actually prepare my bulgur off the stove, using warm water.  I use fresh parsley instead of dried, and shredded carrot instead of chopped.  This dish offers an interesting flavor combination that is light and fresh, perfect for summer.

These last two recipes are great ways to use the green onions we grow on our windowsill.

If you have tried any of the MyPlate recipes, let us know how you liked them.  You can find additional new recipes and resources at this page.  With so many links, I have plenty of new recipes to try, so look for more reviews in the future!

Linked with Catholic Bloggers Network,  Welcome Home, Making it Count, Tea with Saint Anne, Pay It Forward, Your Green Resource, My Favorite Things, Tiny Tip Tuesday, Healthy 2Day Wednesday, Try aNew Recipe Tuesday, Food on Fridays, and The Better Mom.