Tercets

Monday, March 3, 2014

2 Ways for Children to Participate in Stations of the Cross

I’m participating in the Keeping LOVE in LENT Blog Link-Up 2014, hosted by the Catholic Bloggers Network. We’ll be sharing different ways, tips, stories and real-life experiences that will help us focus on Lenten sacrifices, prayer and good deeds

and how to carry them out with LOVE instead of a GRUMBLE. Please scroll to the five hostesses’ contact information at the bottom of my post so that you can click over to one of them and join in if you’d like!

Walk a Way of the Cross Path together.

Last year, our parish built a Mary Garden on the grounds that includes a Way of the Cross walking path. Lately, my children have asked to visit the path after mass several times. While we have yet to pray the stations during our visits, walking the path enables us to reflect on the events of the stations informally. My youngest even uses the opportunity to practice reading the names of the stations imprinted on the stones.

During lent, we may visit the path to pray the stations, but we can also use our familiarity with the path to help us meditate on one or two stations at a time. The advantage of concentrating on one or two stations is that children can stay focused on the intent of prayer time. For my youngest, knowing that we plan to pause on only a couple of the stations will keep her interested in participating, since her favorite thing to do is run through the path.

Even if you don’t have access to a Stations pathway, you could ask your children to draw or design one on paper. What would they like to see in a Stations garden, in the form of plants, flowers, statues, crosses, or benches?

Make a Stations of the Cross Box of objects.

Last year, for our contribution to weekly Stations of the Cross hosted by our Catholic Moms group, I collected a portable set of objects we could carry with us, one object for each station. This is not a new idea; I learned about it from several other blogs, and based our collection pictured below on the list at Family Feast and Feria.

As you can see from the contents of our collection, Jennifer’s list of portable Stations objects uses items you probably already have on hand, or could easily make. I gave the list to my oldest daughter and asked her to look for the objects. She even drew the face of Jesus herself on a piece of old t-shirt. The list is only one of the activities you will find at Jennifer’s post. She also includes a long list of resources for printable images and coloring pages of the Stations.

If you pray the Stations in a group, the younger children can take turns holding up the object that represents each station while an older child reads the prayer. This way, everyone can get involved.

Many blessings to you for a prayerful Lenten season.

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