4Real Forums: rosary and stations of the cross

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Topic: rosary and stations of the cross

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mommylori
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Posted: Jan 14 2007 at 5:12pm \| IP Logged

I have been trying to get back in the habbit of dong a rosary with my family every night, so we are doing 1 decade a night at the moment.lol I can't wait to get the rosary book for kindergarteners on MA.lol
But I also wanted to get into doing the stations on Fridays, does anyone else do this and how do you do it with the little ones? I have a little picture book with the stations in it, one of those little cheep ones they have in the Catholic Book Store, would that be the way to go? My oldest is now 7.

teachingmyown
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Posted: Jan 14 2007 at 6:01pm \| IP Logged

My kids each get there own Stations booklet, like the one you mentioned. We have the Stations of the Cross prints from Catholic Heritage Curricula.

A friend has a nice tradition in her home that we have not adopted, yet. They have a votive candle for each station and snuff the candle out after that station, so that they are in darkness at the end. Very moving for the kids.

I think her husband or son took a long piece of wood and made holes for each candle to go in.

The one decade thing is great! For the little ones, it is just enough to introduce them and get them involved, without going so long that it gets crazy and you either get mad or give up!

By the way, CHC also has beautiful Rosary prints.

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Tami
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Posted: Jan 14 2007 at 8:49pm \| IP Logged

We also did just a decade with the children when everyone was young. Dh decided though to have the decade cover all the mysteries of a rosary, because he wanted the children to learn them as a whole. He dubbed it the "Mini-mysteries" and we changed after every 2 Hail Mary's. He explained this to them, telling them that normally every mystery was followed by 10 Hail Mary's.

It really helped us to get present the rosary as a form of prayer, and keep sanity around the dinner table!

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saintanneshs
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Posted: Jan 15 2007 at 6:06am \| IP Logged

I've only done this during Lent but would like to try it throughout the year on Fridays...

I use the small Stations prints from CHC. My 7 and 5yo hold their own and we like to do the stations with EWTN. (It holds my 4yo's attention that way and keeps things moving in spite of the 2yo.) The older boys find the card (picture) of the Station that matches the one we're doing and they lay them down on the floor in front of them, in order, as we pray. They really got the progression and learned the Stations easily this way and it kept their little hands constructively occupied.

I love the candle idea, Molly! I think we'll try that this year!

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Kristine

ALmom
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Posted: Jan 15 2007 at 4:19pm \| IP Logged

We have the station pictures from CHC (8X10), laminated them and have them taped to our walls - going up the stairs and through the upstairs hall. The oldest boys carry candles and the youngest boy carries an inexpensive and unbreakable crucifix. With lights off and other boys with flashlights to hold so Dad can read, we keep everyone under 10 with a job to do. We basically follow the booklet - Stations of the Cross for Children (dumb ox sold it when we bought but it is a 1920 copyright and very beautiful and traditional while still shortened and worded for children. When our children are really young, we may shorten it even more and certainly don't dawdle. Being able to move around helps a lot. Our dc have found it easier to participate in stations at the parish now - though that has always been harder for them because they cannot see the pics up close and they cannot move.

Janet

KathrynTherese
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Posted: Jan 19 2007 at 7:13pm \| IP Logged

Just a thought - for I think $1.50, you can download a Way of the Cross coloring book (drawings done by my deacon friend, meditations by me) and print as many copies as you need.

Find it here:
my books at Lulu

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KC in TX
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Posted: Jan 19 2007 at 8:03pm \| IP Logged

KathrynTherese wrote:

We used these last year and loved them!!! I'm hoping the kids will enjoy them again. It really helps.

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JodieLyn
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Posted: Jan 19 2007 at 8:21pm \| IP Logged

Our Parish does stations on the Fridays of Lent and about half the people get up and follow to each station around the church.. kneeling on the floor rather than staying in a pew with a kneeler. Others do not. Those of us with kids almost always follow around. It really does help keep the kids occupied.

We follow it with a soup and bread supper at the parish hall. Knowing that is following Stations I'm sure also helps the kids. But my children look forward to doing this each year.. at least the 5 yr old and up do.. I'm not sure the just turned 4 really remembers from last year.

I can see you're talking about doing this in the home.. but I thought I'd mention that the moving around at our Parish really helps and if you have room at home to do it.. it could well help the littler ones stay focused.

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Cay Gibson
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Posted: March 07 2007 at 11:38pm \| IP Logged

We're doing the stations every Friday this Lent. I'm trying to vary our experience with it.

Last Friday was at our local church.

This Friday will be outside at our local retreat center. Our hs group is having the children act out each station along the way. Garrett will be Simon the Cyrene, Chelsea is Martha, and Annie is an angel by the tomb. They are so excited to be doing this.

When our group isn't meeting, I plan to take the children to our church's prayer garden to walk the stations there.

There is another prayer garden at another Catholic church in town I hope we can get to.

I'd love to do the candles at home too but Lent is going by too quickly. With us participating with our group in the live stations, it just about completes the observance for us.

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MaryM
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Posted: March 08 2007 at 1:35am \| IP Logged

Cay Gibson wrote:

This Friday will be outside at our local retreat center. Our hs group is having the children act out each station along the way. Garrett will be Simon the Cyrene, Chelsea is Martha, and Annie is an angel by the tomb. They are so excited to be doing this.

Cay, please let us know how this goes. I've been considering having our group try to do this and would love to hear your experience. It sounds like your kids have parts in different stations. Is there one Jesus throughout all the stations? One thought I had was to have each family prepare one station. Has anyone else done anything like this with a group. How was it set up?

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JodieLyn
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Posted: March 08 2007 at 2:33am \| IP Logged

small parish here.. the 3rd and 4th grade ccd classes do the Passion as vingettes.. same kids in same parts.. and it'll be dark.. then the kids are spot lighted in postion.. sometimes they have a bit of pantomine.. then the lights go dark and they move to the next vingette light comes on etc.

not quite what you're asking but I thought it could be used

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alicegunther
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Posted: March 08 2007 at 6:10am \| IP Logged

We do the Living Stations of the Cross every year with our parish, and it is a beautiful and moving event.

This year my nine year old daughter is playing the Blessed Mother! : )

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onemoretracy
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Posted: March 08 2007 at 7:05am \| IP Logged

We do a Stations of the Cross for the kids here at home during Lent. We have been doing this instead of our night time decade rosary.

The book we have been using really is child friendly the kids really like this so far. I have some pictures and more description of our new little tradition up on my blog. We are doing the candle thing too.

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Maryan
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Posted: March 08 2007 at 10:30am \| IP Logged

Mommylori,

Trying to do both is hard. And our local stations are too late for my kids too. So this is what we've been doing on Fridays for the past couple of years:

Stations around 3 pm then Rosary after dinner with Daddy (so the nightly family rosary remains constant).

For the stations: I lead (I pick the meditation from my book) and the boys look at their picture-book stations (Way of the Cross for Children by Fr. Winkler that we bought at the Shrine in DC -- beautiful pictures).

Since (I think) movement is involved with the indulgence, we do something similar to Janet (ALmom) and place 14 little crosses (with numbers) around the house -- although we avoid the stairs!!. At each cross:
- I announce each station
- We genuflect at "We adore you, O Christ...,"
- We stand for short reading/prayer
- And sing a verse of Stabat Mater as we move to the next station.
- We kneel for the whole 12th station.
- We finish with prayers to the Holy Father.

For the rosary: we say it at night after dinner with Daddy (when he's home). Our start time determines how many decades we say. But normally 5 yo. and almost 4 yo. lead a decade and then look at their "holy books" for the rest of the rosary. (I hold baby and Daddy holds 2 yo.) But there are nights where we just say the 2 decades (or less) and then put them to bed.

We may try to do the Stations at the local Church as our boys get older.

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onemoretracy
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Posted: March 08 2007 at 4:11pm \| IP Logged

Maryan wrote:

Mommylori,

Since (I think) movement is involved with the indulgence, we do something similar to Janet (ALmom) and place 14 little crosses (with numbers) around the house

Seriously?! Uh oh. I have all of the pictures in one place. Of course there is plenty of moving around with 5 little ones.......

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Maryan
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Posted: March 08 2007 at 4:51pm \| IP Logged

onemoretracy wrote:

Of course there is plenty of moving around with 5 little ones.......

Tracy -- I'm laughing so hard.

As far as a source for the "real" indulgence requirements for the Stations devotional --

I just have this VAGUE recollection from college studies. I remember an explanation that went something like this: if you visited the Holy Lands, you would go around physically as a pilgrim to each of these sites, and that gained you an indulgence. But the Pope (?) also granted the same indulgence to those of us -- who couldn't haul our little guys off to the Holy Land to do this -- who made the stations by visiting a pictures of the stations etc.

I'll try to look this up just for FYI -- but I'm sure there's someone who probably knows for sure. But I don't want to make things up either!

And honestly -- if roaming wasn't working for us, we would sit still.

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Maryan
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Maryan
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Posted: March 08 2007 at 5:03pm \| IP Logged

A quick google sent me here:

wikipedia
Miracle rosary misison
Catholic Encyclopedia online
Catholicculture.org

Well, I'm lacking a little sleep to figure these out. Some explanations are pickier than others. All of them mention movement as part of the plenary indulgence and most of them mention wooden crosses and some of them mention that the stations must be okayed by a bishop.

The miracle rosary site mentions that those who legitimately cannot fulfill the indulgence as required will gain it by meditation for a set time (I think moms of littles are definitely in this category IMHO) and Catholicculture lists the requirements simiply.

So I'm not sure what qualifies for a plenary indulgence...anyway, whatever we do is good for our children and gains grace.

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JennGM
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Posted: March 08 2007 at 5:14pm \| IP Logged

I didn't look at Maryan's links, so I apologize if this is duplicated. The definitive source for indulgences is Enchiridion of Indulgences which replaced the Raccolta. And here's the info for Way of the Cross.

And being a mom, we are a bit impeded. What's important is that there are 14 little crosses, and the images are extra. But at home, we do what we can. We have our images in a flip easel and do almost exactly like Maryan.

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Maryan
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Posted: March 08 2007 at 7:30pm \| IP Logged

Oh thanks for the link Jenn! You were my "someone who probably knows for sure."

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Maryan
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Cay Gibson
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Posted: March 09 2007 at 8:25pm \| IP Logged

Whew! Lots of loading pictures but it was worth it.

Here is how we spent the afternoon at our retreat center, living the way of the cross..

The children did a wonderful job!

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