By Colleen Pressprich
Stations of the Cross at parishes are usually scheduled for nap time, dinner time, or bedtime, making them a rough event for families with younger children. In my early years as a parent, I felt such guilt over Stations - either I was wrestling tired and hungry kids in the pew and felt like I was distracting everyone else from their prayers, or I was home feeling guilty that my kids were missing this essential Lenten tradition.
Then I realized that it doesn’t have to be that way, and our family started praying Stations of the Cross each Friday at home. It doesn’t look the same as our parish Stations do, but it works for our family and has born such fruit over the years.
Here are my 3 tips for making Stations of the Cross work at home:
Make sure you have visuals.
Kids are very concrete. They need more than just the words of the meditations to help them enter into prayer. We also hang up pictures of each station around the room. Some years the kids have colored them, and some years I’ve printed them. But we have something the kids can look at as we pray every year. Check out the Stations of the Cross Panels if you want something that's ready to put up on the wall.
In addition to having illustrations of each station, I love having the Brother Francis play set because it means my younger kids also have something to touch. They can act out each station, and by combining the senses of sight and touch, they engage more deeply.
Find the right set of meditations
This one is key. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of different versions of the Stations of the Cross out there. Every set is not for every family, and that’s okay.
Some are short, others are long. Some are heavy on scripture, others ask listeners to embrace the scenes through the perspective of Mary or John. Some Stations are meant for adults, others for teens, and still others for children of different ages.
My best advice: read a few ahead of time and then test them out with your kids. See which one (or ones, you can switch it up) resonates with them.
Embrace the Wiggles and the Questions
Stations of the Cross at home look very different from Stations at the parish. It’s okay to let your younger kids move around and ask questions as you pray. If they do, pause, listen, and respond. You’ll gain invaluable insights into what’s going on in their heads and hearts.
Pro-tip though: having something for those little hands to do is key in maintaining peace. I always have a small basket of fidgets and Catholic coloring pages along with our Stations of the Cross Pray and Play Set. It keeps the younger kids busily occupied and allows the older children to enter into our prayer time more deeply (and with fewer distractions).
I absolutely love praying the Stations of the Cross with my kids each Friday, and I hope that you will enjoy the tradition too.
Colleen Pressprich is a homeschooling mom of five and the author of Marian Consecration for Families with Young Children, The Women Doctors of the Church, and The Jesse Tree For Families. You can learn more about her, order her books, and read more of her writing at elevatortoheaven.com.
