Family Fun: Celebrate the Fruits of the Spirit

Monica Portogallo shares three activities to help families celebrate the fruits of the Spirit this Pentecost.

One of the best parts of late spring is all the delicious fruit that is in season. So since Pentecost falls during this time of year, why not do some activities with the kids using literal fruit to celebrate the fruits of the Holy Spirit? 

What are the fruits of the Spirit again?

It depends on who you ask! In Galatians 5:22-23 (NAB 2011 edition) St Paul lists them as these nine:

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church #1832 lists twelve of them, apparently using an older translation of Galatians:

Charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control, and chastity.

Either way, they are what shines forth when we allow the Spirit to work through us. 

So as we celebrate Pentecost, try one of these fruit related activities with your kids!

Twelve (or nine, if you prefer) Fruit Salad

As the name suggests, make a fruit salad using twelve different types of fruit. You can get the kids involved in different ways: having them come up with the 12 different fruits, picking out the fruit at the store or farmers market, and/or washing and chopping the fruit.

If you need ideas for fruit, here’s a list of what is in season. You can always use different varieties of the same fruit: green and red apples could count as two separate fruits.

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3 activities to help families celebrate the fruits of the Spirit this Pentecost. #catholicmom

Fruits to Fruit Game

This is one for the older kids—a variation on the game Apples to Apples.

List the fruits of the Spirit on a piece of paper, with definitions if you like. For each characteristic, every player chooses a fruit that they think best represents that Fruit of the Spirit. Then the players try to convince the other players why their choice is the most fitting.

For example:

“I say watermelon represents generosity because it’s big.”

“I say pomegranate for generosity because it has so many seeds to share.”

You can either vote all together or rotate which player makes the final decision about which fruit is most fitting.

Tongues as of [Fruit] Fire

Spread a thin layer of cream cheese on a slice of toast. Prepare any yellow, orange, and/or red fruits, such as mango, mandarin orange sections, yellow raspberries, apricots, peaches, cantaloupe, papaya, cherries, pomegranate, red grapes, strawberries, red raspberries. Let the kids arrange the fruit into a flame shape on the toast, to look like the tongues of fire over the disciples’ heads on Pentecost.

Whatever way you celebrate Pentecost, let’s pray that the Holy Spirit comes more fully into our hearts and lets the fruits of the Spirit grow abundantly in us!

Copyright 2022 Monica Portogallo
Images: Canva; (bottom) copyright 2022 Monica Portogallo, all rights reserved.