Will begin to understand that awe and wonder at God and his miraculous works are part of our own personal faith
Will have read/heard Psalm 8
PREPARATION
Materials List
Bibles Cape, cloak, or poster board Chalk or markers Chalk board, white board, or newsprint pad Globe of the world or map of Ireland Paper Pattern for star Pens Picture or Icon of St. Brigid (if possible there should be a picture of St. Brigid’s Cross in the picture) or ideally a St. Brigid’s cross (available at most Celtic Stores) Safety Pins or fabric glue sticks Scissors
Advance Preparation Requirements
Read entire lesson.
Read and pray through Psalm 8.
Pray for the children that you will be teaching.
Print the words of Psalm 8 inside of a cape or cloak or on a piece of poster board. Or, write them on a piece of paper and pin them to the cloth or poster.
Cut star shapes from paper, at least one per child.
Practice telling the Legend of St. Brigid’s Cloak.
PRESENTATION
Open - Introduction
Warmly greet each child as he or she enters the room. Introduce yourself to any new children and make sure that the children and adults all know each other.
Open with prayer. Suggested prayer; “Dear God, Your ways are glorious and majestic. Help us today to learn more about You and how you take care of us.”
Explain that in some traditions some people are held up as examples of how we should act to show honor and glory to God. We may hear stories of how they lived and some miraculous things that God did through them. These people are often called Saint. Today we will hear a story about a woman from Ireland called St. Brigid. She lived during a time when there were many kings in Ireland and most people did not believe in God or Jesus. Point our Ireland on the globe or show a map of the country. There are many stories about St. Brigid, including one about how she taught her dying father about God and Jesus by weaving a cross out of straw. Note that is why we often see pictures of St. Brigid holding a straw cross. Show the picture/icon of St. Brigid and or the St. Brigid's cross.
Dig—Main Content
Storytelling
Say “Today’s legend is about a miracle that God did with a cloak.” Show them the cape/cloak and put it on.
Read the Legend of St. Brigid’s Cloak. Each time you come to each of the following characters, do the hand motions that follow.
St. Patrick - form cross with pointer fingers above your head Brigid - form arms in cross shape in front of you Mother - praying hands Father - shake finger at kids God or Jesus - point up Helpers - big smile King - put imaginary crown on head
The Legend of St. Brigid’s Cloak Adapted by Kim Harding
Once, long ago in Ireland during the days of St. Patrick, there lived a young girl named Brigid. Her father was a rich man, but her mother was a slave and that meant that Brigid was also a slave. She worked long, hard days taking care of pigs and milking the cows that were on her father’s farm. Often she was tired from all her hard work, but she never complained.
St. Patrick traveled all over Ireland telling everyone about God and His Son Jesus. Many people heard him and some of them, like Brigid and her mother became Christians. But some people, like Brigid’s father could not understand why people would want to serve God.
When Brigid turned 18, she was no longer a slave and could stop working so hard on the farm. It was also time for Brigid to find a husband. However, Brigid did not want a husband, she wanted to serve God instead. Soon she was working long hard days again. But now, instead of taking care of her father’s farm animals, she was taking care of the poor, the sick, and the elderly people that were all around her. Once again, she was often tired, but she never complained.
The news about Brigid and how she was serving God spread all over the country. Girls from all over Ireland came to the farm to help her serve God by taking care of other people. Soon it became too crowded for all those people on the farm. Brigid’s father began to grumble that he could not feed so many people. Brigid’s mother began to worry about there not being enough places for everyone to sleep. Brigid told them over and over again that God would provide for them.
Brigid’s father still did not believe in God and he could not understand how God would be able to provide a home and food for all these young women who wanted to serve God. He thought that only someone who owned land could take care of so many people, and he knew that God did not own any of the land around them since all the land around them was owned by the King of Leinster and he would never give away some land. But Brigid was not worried, she knew that God was more powerful than any earthly king.
One day while out walking with four of her helpers, Brigid found the perfect place for them to build a new home. There was a forest for firewood to keep them warm, a lake for water to drink and wash with, fields for planting corn and potatoes to eat and green grass for cows to graze on. Right then and there, Brigid got on her knees and said a prayer to God, asking him to help her get this land.
As she stood up, she saw horses galloping across the fields towards her. It was the king and some of his men who were out hunting. This was the king’s best land and it had been a day of successful hunting. Both these things made the king very happy so he rode over to share his success with the five women who were walking on his land. As he came closer to the small group, he recognized Brigid, who was well known for all the hard work that she did without complaining.
As he rode up, Brigid and her helpers curtsied to him. As the king was dismounting from his horse, Brigid told him that she needed this perfect piece of land. This made the king laugh since he would never give away his land. Not even to someone as famous as Brigid.
But Brigid knew that God was going to help her get this land, so once again she got on her knees and said a prayer asking God to help her. When she stood she told the king that she would only need as much land as her cloak would cover. This made the king laugh even harder. Brigid’s cloak was not very big and would not cover very much land. So he agreed since he was certain that such a small piece of land would not be very helpful to Brigid and that she would soon be discouraged and leave him alone.
So Brigid took off her cloak and put it on the ground. She asked her four helpers to each hold a side of the cloak and to spread it out so that it would cover as much land as possible. As they spread the cloak, it began to grow and grow. It soon grew so big that it covered many acres of land to the north, the south, the east, and the west.
Some of the kings men were frightened because they thought that Brigid had done some magic to make her cloak grew and they ran away. The men that stayed remembered that Brigid had said a prayer to God to ask Him to help her and they began to believe in God.
The king was astonished. He had never seen or heard of anything like this happen before. He was full of awe and wonder at this miraculous growing cloak. He turned to Brigid and asked her how she had done this.
Brigid just smiled at the king and said, “Thanks be to God.”
When the king heard these words, he fell to his knees and promised Brigid that she would indeed have all the land that her cloak covered. Soon, because of the great miracle he had witnessed, and the awe at the power of God that was in his heart, the King began to believe in God and His Son Jesus.
Reflect - Closure
Ask the children to list the main characters and to name what each of them did. List each character on the board.
Point to each character listed and ask: “Do we know if this person believed in God?” (The answers should be that all but Brigid’s father believed.) If the answer is yes, ask “Do we know how each of these people learned about God and began to believe in God?”
Say, “We know another man, who like the king, had a faith that was deepened by an awe and wonder of God’s miraculous works, King David who wrote many of the Psalms. Let’s look at Psalm 8”
Distribute Bibles and read Psalm 8.
Point out to the children that the Psalm begins and ends with the words “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name on all the earth.” Ask “I wonder why David began and ended his Psalm that way?” Encourage the children to share with you why they feel David may have written the Psalm that way.
Ask the children to share some of the things that they feel are miraculous or awe inspiring. Distribute paper stars and pens and ask each child to write word or draw pictures of things that illustrate the mighty power of God.
Point to the cloak and explain that God may not be able to make your cloak grow to cover acres and acres of land, but that we can spread it on the ground and make our own miracle cloak. Spread the cloak in the middle of the circle, making sure that you point out Psalm 8 printed on it. Have the children pin or glue their stars on the cloak around the psalm. Encourage the children to share with you what they’ve written on their stars and why.
Close with prayer. Suggested prayer “O God, you are an awesome God who can take of us any time we ask. Keep us safe this week and help us to see your miraculous works that surround us. Amen.”
Copyright. The content of the Exchange may not be commercially reproduced and remains the property of the individual authors. Send all content inquiries to coordinator@rotation.org. We could use your help maintaining and expanding this site! Learn more about us.
