Your family can follow in the Way of the Cross any time during Lent, but especially on Good Friday, the day when the entire Church remembers the last day of Jesus’ life.

Please note that these stations are adapted for use at familiar family places, and are not the same stations as those used in a church.

"..adapted for use at familiar places "

Stations

• The First Station: In the Garden (backyard)
  Lord Jesus, we remember here the good times you spent with your friends, the times of healing and celebration, the times of prayer and the times when some forgot how to love you. We too, have known such moments in our family. May our love for one another always be the way to bring us together again. Amen.

• The Second Station: Standing Before Pilate (kitchen)
  Lord Jesus, we remember the times when we have been misunderstood or accused of doing something we really didn’t do. May the trust we share in our family help us to be patient and loving and not to be angry at such times. Amen.

• The Third Station: Jesus Begins to Carry the Heavy Cross (gate to your yard)
  Jesus, sometimes we get tired and irritable, sometimes more tired than we think we are, and we make the way difficult for each other. May we learn patience with ourselves, to make an extra effort to help one another and to admit to others our lack of rest, in the hope that we may be forgiven. Amen.

• The Fourth Station: Jesus Sees His Mother (in front of a pretty plant)
  Jesus, you loved your mother very much and knew about the hurt she felt inside. Sometimes we hurt our mother by saying we don’t care or by lying. But through all of that hurt , our mother’s love for us shines. Thank you, Lord, for the steady love of a mother. Amen.

• The Fifth Station: Simon Helps Jesus Carry the Cross (outside the garage)
  Lord, the time when friendship is very special is when we need someone else to help us with the problems in our lives. Send your blessing upon our friends, our helpers in life. Amen.

• The Sixth Station: Veronica Wipes Jesus’ Face (walk back to the house)
  There are so many ways, Lord, when we can refresh one another. Just holding hands, or getting one another a cool glass of water on a hot day, or rubbing someone’s back, or being with someone who is having a hard day, can be ways of refreshing one another. Help us to know when someone needs us. Amen.

• The Seventh Station: Jesus is Stripped of His Clothes
  Jesus, as we see you stripped of everything you ever owned, help us to see that our clothes, our bodies, and our health are not our possessions but the gifts of God. Amen.

• The Eighth Station: Jesus is Nailed to the Cross (walk in procession back into the house to the living room, where there are some boards on the floor placed in the shape of a cross. There should also be a hammer and some nails)
  Simon put the cross on the ground, and Jesus was ordered by the soldiers to lie on it, with his arms stretching outwards. Then one of the soldiers took some nails and a hammer, and nailed Jesus’ hands and feet to the wood. It must have really hurt, because even a splinter in a finger can hurt us. (Pound some nails partly into the wood). Lord Jesus, we can imagine how much the blows of the hammer must have hurt you, because we have often felt pain in our bodies too. May we remember in such times that you let others hurt you because you loved them; perhaps our pain will then not feel so bad. Amen.

• The Ninth Station: Jesus Dies (each member of your family can hold his/her arms out to their side, in the shape of a cross, for a minute of silence. You will begin to feel how heavy your arms can get. When they get too tired, just let them drop to your sides)
  Jesus, we have let our arms drop because our muscles were tired. We remember that your body relaxed as you died on the cross. We feel a bit rested now, which reminds us that death must be a kind of rest. Amen.

• The Tenth Station: Jesus is Buried (go to a bedroom, close the door, blocking the entrance to the room)
  And so, Jesus, you were buried by your mother and your friends. Sometimes we spend time in our rooms, to be there alone - to think or to read or to study or even to dream. Sometimes we may be sent to our rooms because we haven’t been nice. But our time in our rooms is special to us, and we come out of them to greet our family and friends with gladness in our hearts. We remember that you came out of your tomb on Easter morning - to be with your family and friends again, very much alive and glad to be with them. Amen. (Each person leaves the room in silence and goes back to the wooden cross for a few moments of reflection).

Beginning Lent
First Week of Lent
Second Week of Lent
Third Week of Lent
Fourth Week of Lent
Fifth Week of Lent
Sixth Week of Lent - Holy Week
Easter
Family Seder Meal

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