Praying the Stations of the Resurrection with KIDS {picture}

You spent weeks keeping your kids on track, preparing them for Easter Sunday…

“At the end of Lent, we will celebrate Jesus rising from the dead! It will be so amazing!”

You prayed the Stations of the Cross together (or not). You held fast to your family’s Lenten penance (perhaps a few breaks here and there). You triumphed through Holy Week liturgies (or perhaps avoided the ones you knew would be a complete wreck). Then finally…Easter Sunday!

But…what then? 

How do you keep the momentum going for more than the first few days of the Easter Season when candy is plentiful and spirits are still high after a long Lent? 

Here is the solution we found last year: The Stations of the Resurrection. 

This devotion SHOWS children how we celebrate through the entire Easter Season (not JUST Easter Sunday). 

It gives a unique devotion, one that you ONLY pray during the Easter Season.

Your children will learn 14 distinct instances of Jesus’ life after the Resurrection, that are each worthy of celebration, but that we often fail to give due honor. 

From Jesus giving the power to forgive sins to Mary and the Apostles waiting in the upper room, this simple devotion is a way you can bring children into the glorious moments of the Easter Season (and give them something to look forward to next year, too!). 

Now, how do you start praying the Stations of the Resurrection when you have never prayed it before?

I was in your shoes–wanting to pray this devotion with my family, but unsure how to do it. So, I spent a few weeks this Lent creating a beautiful Stations of the Resurrection prayer booklet with the goal of this being used in the home.

Here is a little peek into how we will be using the Stations of the Resurrection prayer booklet this Easter: 

During Lent, we issued a weekly invitation to friends and family to join us on Friday night for a casual potluck and Stations of the Cross. Each week, families of all ages and stages brought something to share, and after everyone had eaten, we used these Stations of the Cross booklets to pray together. The kids alternated between holding theses Stations of the Cross posters and running wild in our (small) yard while the adults prayed together. On the final Friday before Palm Sunday, I was able to grab a picture–as you can see, there is nothing fancy, and most of the kids were completely unaware of the prayers being said as they ran around the yard. I like to imagine that one day, they will look back on these Friday evenings as a beautiful witness to the faithfulness of lay people during the busy time of raising children.

So, that brings me to the Easter Season and the Stations of the Resurrection. Delayed by weeks of illness, we will finally host our first “Stations and Sundaes” this week. On Sunday afternoon, we will use these prayer books to pray the Stations of the Resurrection (probably while children, once again, run wild) and then eat ice cream together. Perhaps the bribery of ice cream means that we can convince some of the older children to hold the posters.

Will you join us in starting this devotion? You aren’t “too late” to start–we aren’t even beginning until Sunday!

You can grab a stack of booklets or you can get a FREE Stations of the Resurrection booklet with any order over $45.