Lenten Friday

A year ago I wrote this post about our way of saying the Stations of the Cross during Lent. Part of what I wrote was this:

I think that the sensory experience of the light and darkness, the flickering shadows, the hushed prayers of so many childhood Lenten Fridays, have given me a love for the opportunity to withdraw into a dark, shadowed corner, as it were, alone with the suffering Christ. I retain from those days a desire for these sacred stations to be hushed, a quiet personal examination of conscience, a whispered sorrow in the "heart's room."

I smile a little wryly as I re-read this post now. Our stations are so different this year! But how wonderful they still are, in their own way.

This year we are joining with friends, another family with a young toddler, to pray these prayers together, the three of them, and the four of us. "Alone", "hushed" and "quiet" it surely is not! The children argue (and sometimes cry) over whose turn it is to extinguish the next candle, the baby climbs all over, trying to touch the flames and pullling out toys to distract everyone, the adults, who are busy guarding the children/fire combination and mitigating disputes in loud whispers, forget which station is being said and barely obtain an inkling of a mediative thought.

But it's all good! We're introducing our children to the glory of this mystery and you can be sure they are soaking it up, even amidst all the seeming chaos!

Anyway, this year I made this "Stations Box":

for Turtle, and Rosebud, when she's old enough, to give her an additional way to follow along with each station. I got the idea from this forum and specifically from a mother there named Irene whose family had made such boxes for their little children. The pictures I printed out from this pdf file put together by this mother. The internet is an amazing thing, isn't it? :)

Each small object in this picture corresponds to one of the 14 stations, as follows:

Station 1: the rope, for Jesus' bound hands

Station 2: a wooden cross

Stations 3, 7 & 9: three bandaids for Jesus hurting himself as He fell (Turtle loves and really relates to this!)

Station 4: a small statue of our Lady

Station 5: a wooden heart -- "because Simon had a good, kind heart" I tell her

Station 6: white cloth on which I drew Jesus' face

Station 8: a small square of tissue for the women's tears (Turtle also relates to this as she is rather obsessive about having a tissue when she cries to wipe any smidgen of tears from her eyes)

Station 10: a purple cloth to represent Jesus' garments

Station 11: a large nail

Station 12: a crucifix

Station 13: a holy card of the Pieta (I wish I could find a tiny statue of the Pieta instead, but this is the best I could do for now)

Station 14: a rock to represent the stone rolled in front of the tomb

Each object is placed on each station:

The first time I presented the Stations Box to Turtle -- last Friday afternoon -- she was enthralled and wanted to repeat working with it over and over. She spoke over and over of Jesus' "boo-boos" on His knees and how the men near Jesus in the Fall pictures "needa help Him!" I think she is somewhat confused as to much of the details, but she will learn about all the suffering soon enough and I am happy to leave it simple and gentle for now. I like these pictures for small children (especially one's like my Turtle who is terrified of blood!) because they are beautiful and non-graphic.
I am so glad that she loves to say the Stations so much and I hope she will always have that love of this beautiful devotion!