We Adore You, O Christ...

"Dear Jesus, I adore you. I love you and thank you for dying on the cross for me... Today I want to follow You up the hill of Calvary and to understand a little better at each station all that it cost You to make me God's child. If I had been the only person in the world, You would have been willing to suffer in just the same way... Thank You for loving me so much. Please teach me every day to love You more and more."
   -Stations of the Cross for Children, Preparatory Prayer.

Paul and I have tried to make a commitment this Lent to pray the Stations of the Cross with the boys every Friday. I am overwhelmed by the idea of bringing the kids to St. Joseph's parish Stations of the Cross, because although it doesn't last too long, I feel like the time would be spent more on shushing and juggling wiggly kids than praying and teaching. So instead, we have decided to go to the church by ourselves in the evening and walk the Stations as a family. We found a great children's version of the Stations at a blog called Family Feast and Feria. The link to the printable booklet is here.

This week, we are heading out of town today so we won't be able to make it to the church. Instead Paul came up with the idea of having Max draw each of the stations so that we could pray it in our living room! It turned out to be a great idea for our little artist- he took some creative license (Mary ended up with a pirate's hat, and Simon of Cyrene has a toy pirate ship), but he got the basic idea. The best part was that it gave us a great opportunity to discuss each of the stations as he was drawing them! When he drew Jesus being stripped of His garments, Max's big question was whether Jesus would ever get a new robe. We talked for awhile and decided that in Heaven, Jesus would make a brand new shiny robe for Himself! When he drew Jesus falling the first time, his immediate question was, "Who's going to help Him??" Out of the mouths of babes...

When we were done coloring, we placed the drawings in a line through our living room and up the stairs. Then we walked from station to station as we would at the church, stopping to pray at each picture. It turned out to be a beautiful way to pray the Stations right in our home!