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Michaela
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Tonight, I attended the Stations of the Cross at our Parish. It was the first time I've ever gone and I really enjoyed it.
 I admit I went without my family so I could focus without the distraction.
It doesn't seem to be something children attend. (I know they could) Only one dad brought his four children.
Does Stations of the Cross take place on Friday at all parishes during Lent?
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Michaela
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mary
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it does in my parish. when growing up, it was on wednesday and we all attended during lent. i miss that. i would love to find a parish nearby where they did the stations during the day. friday at 7 is a horrible night and time for us (my dh gets home after 6:30).
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Cay Gibson
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It does in our church parish.
I meant to go with my 1st communicant and forgot. Every yr I say I'm going to go and every yr I forget. That only gives my dc ammunition to tell me, "You say that every year, Mom, and we never go." 
I'm sooooo bad about that. Stations is at 4 PM and by 3 PM we are putting away all traces of school and crafts and projects and MESS. By 4 PM the dc are wanting to know "What's for supper!!!" So much seems to happen after 3 PM. Still I really do have time to make it...I just forget. 
Does anyone have a way to help a busy mom remember Stations are at 4 PM at, say, 3:45 PM instead of that morning and that night???
I forgot my Adoration Hour this week as well. What's the deal!!! 
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Cay Gibson
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momtomany
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I would like to go to Stations at church but it doesn't always work out timewise.
So every Friday during Lent, we do our homemade ones. We made them last year making 14 grottoes similar to the Illuminated Ink Blessed Mother ones. We have a long hallway, so we do walk the Stations and use a children's Stations of the Cross book.
We do have an outdoor Stations of the Cross walk at our parish that we can go to anytime. Though right now they are snow covered. 
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Mary Ann in PA
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Michaela
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momtomany wrote:
So every Friday during Lent, we do our homemade ones. We made them last year making 14 grottoes similar to the Illuminated Ink Blessed Mother ones. We have a long hallway, so we do walk the Stations and use a children's Stations of the Cross book. |
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That sounds like a wonderful way to do the Stations, especially for families who may not be able to attend during the time it's offered at their parish. Actually, I like the idea so much I may just implement it here. I'm really glad that I posted it now. Getting a glimpse inside a home is very nice.
momtomany wrote:
| We do have an outdoor Stations of the Cross walk at our parish that we can go to anytime. Though right now they are snow covered. |
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Our parish also has outdoor Stations of the Cross in the garden. I've taken my children there to walk to each station and talk about them. Hmmmm, I've just had a lightbulb moment  to pick one day and do the outdoor stations at church ourselves each week.
Thank you, ladies, for your comments. It really helps to talk to other mommas about topics like this. I grew up in a very very loving home, but we didn't do anything for Lent except no meat on Good Friday.
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Michaela
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JSchaaf
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Our parish has Stations on Fridays during Lent at 6:30, followed by Mass and then Fish Fry! We go as a family-the children are invited to walk around with Father to each station. Last night was the first night, my 5 and 6 yr did great-the 3 yo made it to the Ninth Station before she started singing and talking and had to come back and sit with me. The promise of Fish Fry afterwards was a great motivator for good behavior! We have the Stations of the Cross art prints from CHC and I hung them up around our dining/school room. We are trying to go around each morning and at least talk about each one.
Jennifer
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Michaela
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JSchaaf wrote:
| Our parish has Stations on Fridays during Lent at 6:30, followed by Mass and then Fish Fry! |
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 Our parish has Friday Fish Fry, also.
JSchaaf wrote:
| We go as a family-the children are invited to walk around with Father to each station. |
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That sounds like a wonderful idea! Our parish had three alter servers walk around to each station.
JSchaaf wrote:
| We have the Stations of the Cross art prints from CHC and I hung them up around our dining/school room. We are trying to go around each morning and at least talk about each one. |
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See, all the great ideas! I"ll try to find the stations online to printout. If not, I'll head to the Catholic Bookstore and hope to find something there. Thanks.
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Michaela
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momtomany
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Here's some children's Stations. These are actually the pictures we used for our grottoes.
Stations
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Mary Ann in PA
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Angie Mc
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Every year we do Stations of the Cross differently. This year we will do Stations of the Cross at home. We have the 8X10 prints from CHC in a binder. The binder is placed on a chair set upright for viewing. One child is in charge of turning the page. We take turns leading the readings. We do this on Fridays.
On another day of the week, we focus on 2 stations in particular. The children color Stations of the Cross coloring books. We pull out other related books too. My sister told me yesterday about online Stations of the Cross coloring book and more.
Our church offers Stations at 5:00 on Fridays with soup to share afterwards, bring your own bread.
Love,
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Getting to the Stations will be hard for us, so I am hoping to do them at home in some way ... I really like Angie's binder idea!
As for outdoor Stations, if you do them at home, could you share how you make them? Do you make them weather-proof in some way? How do you physically set them up?
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Our homeschool meets every Friday during lent at 11:00 a.m. to pray the stations, then we have soup and bread for lunch. We have been doing this for 3 years. The children lead the stations, along with parental help, they are all very good during the stations. This has helped up to remember to pray them each Friday.
God Bless
Robynn in Lancaster, CA
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MaryM
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Michaela wrote:
It doesn't seem to be something children attend. (I know they could) Only one dad brought his four children.
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It really is something that many Catholic families did together during Lent - the fact there weren't alot of children at the one you attended is just indicative of the loss of this as a family tradition in many places. We always grew up doing it and for many years with our kids, but in recent years haven't been able to do it as the times at our parish make it hard to get there. We tend to do ours at home as many have mentioned.
I would like to get the homeschoolers in our area together during the day at one of the locations with outdoor stations at least a few times during Lent. I loved the idea mentioned earlier of having a soup lunch together afterwards. I was also thinking of trying to have one be a "Living Stations" with each attending family taking one or two of the stations to silently act out as we go along.
There is a traditional service of prayers called a Tenebrae in which 15 candles are are snuffed out one at a time following readings from the divine office. There is a variation which someone came up with adapted to the Stations of the Cross. It was recommended to me several years ago and is one that I think really is a dramatic illustration of Christ's suffering and death. There is mention of it in many places on the web (Catholic Culture, Women for Faith & Family) Basically you take 14 candles (one to represent each station). Before beginning, all candles are lit. After each station is prayed and meditated on, one candle is blown out. It slowly gets darker and darker. After the 14th station the last candle is blown out and we are in darkness. A stark reminder of the darkeness of the world without the light of Christ. It really keeps the children involved as they like to blow/snuff out the candles.
This is an article with some background and information on the practice of the Stations of the Cross with info on the family tenebrae.
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Mary G
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We don't get out much , so since my littles are so well, little, we print the Stations from Catechetical Resources (the catechetical arm of Ignatius, I think). The kids took turns coloring them on Ash Wednesday and Thursday, as we talked about them and what Jesus' Calvary is all about.
We then posted them on our Dining Room walls, then put together the "Stations Box" that Irene's husband created. Now everyday we see the Stations -- they go right near our altar (in a corner of the dining room) where we have our "Rice Bowl" box and the Stations Box, the bread dough crown of thornes, etc. This is a great daily reminder of our Lenten Journey.
Every Friday, we'll do the Stations in our House (using the box to help the non-readers remember what the station is) and then read a portion from Joslin's Story of the Cross.
It just makes it so much easier to do this at home where I can ensure the kids are paying attention - stopping to change a diaper or whatever  and then getting right back to where we left off.
On Easter Sunday -- the thorns (hopefully) will be gone from the crown; the stations will be removed and we'll have feasting and partying for the next week or so!
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Angie Mc wrote:
| Every year we do Stations of the Cross differently. This year we will do Stations of the Cross at home. We have the 8X10 prints from CHC in a binder. The binder is placed on a chair set upright for viewing. One child is in charge of turning the page. We take turns leading the readings. We do this on Fridays. |
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Our family did this, but found a flip easel in the size of the pictures. We put the Stations easel on the family altar, lit candles and had the ceremony at home, with genuflections and all. Mom had so many littles that I never knew there were stations at the church until I was a teenager.
We used the same flip easel for the mysteries of the rosary, on the other side. Taking turns to turn pages was always the highlight.
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Michaela
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momtomany wrote:
| These are actually the pictures we used for our grottoes. |
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You've got my interest....am I understanding that you've made grottoes for each station? I'm to ask, but how did you make them?
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Michaela
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KathrynTherese
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Can I put in a plug? (Well, call it shameless self-promotion) - a seminarian friend of mine and I put together a children's coloring book for Lent this year, and several local parishes are using them for their children's Stations (usually in the afternoon, as opposed to eveing Stations for the adults).
You can see them here.
For a few dollars, you can get the download version and make as many copies as you need.
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MicheleQ
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KathrynTherese wrote:
You can see them here.
For a few dollars, you can get the download version and make as many copies as you need. |
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I just blogged this today! Love 'em kathryn!
God bless!
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KathrynTherese
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Thanks, Michele. I finally checked out your blog (it took this message to get me there - good morning) and am grateful for the mention.
Incidentally, they have been selling very well. It is ranked number 37 in sales at Lulu for this month. I think we are always looking for something new (and orthodox) for our children.
The download version is a good option (and cheap) if you don't mind them not being bound.
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ALmom
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We do stations at home as well because our toddlers just cannot see what is going on in the church and they are at 7PM on Friday night - but because there is Benediction at our parish after stations, we do take the dc at least once during lent.
At home we took the pictures of the stations - someone sold just the laminated pictures and tape them along the walls throughout the house. We bought enough station books for everyone in the family. Our older boys (11, 8 and 6) carry candles and the 3 yo carries a crucifix - mostly to keep them focused. The stations are taped along the walls of our house so we can walk from station to station and as the dc are old enough, we get them to arrange the pictures in the proper order and help tape them up. My dh throws a sheet over the bathtub and tapes the picture of Jesus laid in the tomb over the bathtub. We try to do it as much like church as possible so that when we go, the youngest dc know what is going on. We bring our station booklets so that they have a picture to look at even if they cannot see the stations.
The other thing we have done, has been to show up at the church on a Friday afternoon when no one is around and walk the stations in the church together where we can take time and talk about each station. In the church, brevity helps so we don't push the 3yo too hard. He likes blowing kisses at Jesus.
Janet
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MichelleW
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Janet, your wording cracked me up. How like a 3yo to blow kisses "at" someone rather than "to" someone. Love your dh's idea to throw a sheet over the tub. I'll have to try that.
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Stations of the Cross --
