For families ready to push it forward, add in one new prayer each week until you have a complete decade. Follow the outline:
Hold the Crucifix in your right hand. Make the Sign of the Cross properly, using the right hand only.

Still holding the Crucifix, state what you believe as a Catholic by saying the Creed.

Move to the first bead. Pray one Our Father.

Move to the next beads. Pray the Hail Mary three times, once on each bead.

Move to the next bead and pray one Glory Be.

Stay on the same bead. Announce the Mystery by saying these words: The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery, The Crucifixion. For three hours our dear Lord hung on the cross. He was taking on Himself the punishment for our sins. After some time, He knew that God had forgiven our sins. Once more, we had the right to enter Heaven. So He dropped His head and died. ​God, His Father, allowed this punishment. We praise and thank Jesus and God our heavenly Father for the glorious victory the Christ gained for us through His death and resurrection: Father, although this glorious triumph was completed more than 2000 years ago, it is still as potent and powerful in the lives of believers today as it was when the angels declared, "He is not here - He is risen." Keep me ever looking to Jesus, knowing that this glorious victory has not lost any of its ancient power, but is the single means of overcoming the world, the flesh and the devil. I pray that I will run the race that is set before me looking to Jesus, and that I may finish the course that You have given to me, as I yield through word and deed to the working of the Holy Spirit within. This I ask in Jesus' name, Amen. (Source)
​
Stay on the same bead. Pray one Our Father.

Move through the next ten beads, praying the Hail Mary on each one.

Move to the next bead. Pray one Glory Be.

Stay on the same bead. Pray the Fatima Prayer.

Make the Sign of the Cross using the Crucifix. AMEN!

Dear holy families,

Through your meditations of the Sorrowful Mysteries over the past five weeks, you have encountered the Passion in the Scriptures several times. On Palm Sunday, we will participate in the Gospel reading that recounts the events of the Passion, Mark 14: 1 through Mark 15: 47.

Starting with Mark 15: 34, we are told that Jesus speaks while He hangs on the Cross. I invite you to use this resource to meditate on the Seven Last Words of Christ, words of great meaning that I want you to know. This devotion may be spread out over a week, commemorating one of the Seven Last Words each day (different links are available for each day), or you may pray it as a whole devotion in a single day. As always, you choose what is best for your family, but I encourage you to participate fully.

Please, bless your Lent with prayer and meditation.

​In Christ's Love,
Mary Acevedo, Director of Religious Education

There are two figures that really pop out of this scene because they are so bright. Can you point to them? One is a man, the other is a woman. Can you tell me their names?

Read the title of this painting. Do you know what is happening here? I'm sure you remember the story we've been reading the past few weeks: Jesus was in Jerusalem celebrating the Jewish holy day of Passover with His friends. On Holy Thursday, He knew that the time had come to fulfill His purpose. While He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He was arrested. He was brought to many places and accused of many things; while He was there, He was beaten in many ways.

Pontius Pilate, the Roman authority in the Holy Land, presented Jesus to the crowd and asked them, "Should I free Jesus, or should I free Barabbas?" Barabbas had committed horrible crimes; Jesus committed no crime. It didn't matter to the people in the crowd. They shouted that they wanted Barabbas to be set free.

This painting shows the moment when the soldier broke the crowd apart to make room for Jesus to walk forward to pick up His Cross. 

There are so many people in this crowd. It would take us a long time to count them all! But we could do it if we wanted to. I would count pretty slowly because I would want to look carefully at each person. Can you see how each one is so distinct, so set apart from the rest of the crowd? Each one is his or her own individual, reacting to the judgment of Jesus in his or her own unique way. There's also a lot of moving: running, falling, talking, jostling. Take a minute to just look at the people. Talk about some of the people you see. Who are they? How do you know? What are they doing? Can you see their faces? How do you think all of these people feel?

I see a man holding the cross. How do you know that he's not Jesus? Who is walking with Jesus? How do you know who he is?

The only calm faces in this emotional scene are those of Our Redeemer and His Blessed Mother. This surprises us because they are the ones who are suffering the most here-- they should be the ones crying out, pushing to escape! But they don't because they have complete faith in this work of God. Jesus and Mary look noble, dignified, and perfect.

Do you remember how we talked about Jesus' glow when we studied our Advent art? Jesus is glowing here, too, isn't He? Jesus' body seems unusually long to me. The artist may have chosen to draw Jesus this way to emphasize Jesus' supernatural and divine quality.  

​Let's look at a statue now.

I enjoy sculpture even more than I enjoy painting because I find it so amazing that artists can turn a solid slab of hard, cold stone into something that looks lifelike, soft, warm, and human, so I am really excited about sharing this one with you! Look at the hands and fingers, hair, and muscles that the artist Michelangelo was able to carve! It all looks so real! Everything looks so respectful of God's creation!

Two weeks ago I told you about the symbol for St. Mark's Gospel. Do you remember what it is and why? The lion, because it is powerful and noble. Jesus looks powerful, noble, and perfect here. This statue shows Christ carrying the cross, but there is no evidence of the wounds Our Savior suffered at the scourging or crowning. Both Michelangelo and Doré, who painted the work above, chose to show Jesus without wounds because they wanted to focus on Christ's nobility, dignity, and perfection as well as His perfect sacrificial offering of Himself so that we could be redeemed (or saved) from our sins.

Jesus is not only carrying the Cross in this depiction; He hugs it, reminding us that He was happy to do this for us. How grateful we need to be for that! We must show our gratitude and love by improving ourselves every day and by participating in all of the sacraments of the Church: being baptized into God's family, going to Confession and receiving Communion as often as we can, being confirmed, being married in the Church-- or maybe becoming a deacon, priest, or religious-- and asking for God's healing oils when we are sick or dying.

If you look carefully, you will see a rope wrapped around a staff. The rope indicates that the devil is now bound and under the feet of the risen Christ. The wooden staff that you see the Good Shepherd holding originally had a cloth banner attached to it: Jesus rose from the dead and is the King of the Universe!

Jesus was arrested, then He was questioned over and over by different authorities. A judgment was made: everyone then knew that He would be crucified. Behind the scenes, the torture continued. Do you know where we are now? Here He is, in a prison, being made fun of with a crown of thorns.

This painting is dark, isn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if you needed to step a little closer if you were in the Museum-- or zoom in here on your phone or computer-- to see all the details. But wait. Let's look from a distance first. I see seven people with Jesus. All of them look really worked up. Despite that agitation, the dark colors that the artist Anthony van Dyck uses cause a very quiet pause. We hear nothing, we might feel our souls reaching out, as we reverently look at our exhausted Jesus, Whose Heavenly Father bathes Him in light. That light isn't coming from the window, is it? Look out the window; it's still twilight outside. God is always with Him, and us.

Let's lean in.

Jesus is surrounded by five men. They are probably soldiers who just finished scourging Him. Now they are jeering Him; they are making fun of Him.

Do you remember the Jusepe de Ribera painting called The Adoration of the Shepherds painting that we looked at during Advent? One of the shepherds was genuflecting as he recognized God in the Holy Infant. His hands are held in prayer, and his knees and feet are respectfully placed.

The man who helped torture Jesus is genuflecting in front of Him, too, in the same exact position and the same exact placement on the canvas as that shepherd, but this genuflect is not sincere. He is in bare feet, and one of those dirty soles is shown directly to us. This was a common technique Renaissance and Baroque artists used to show rudeness and disrespect. ​How different their attitudes are! The man makes fun of Jesus while he hands Jesus a pretend scepter before he yells, "Hail, King of the Jews!"

o Jesus.... He is so weak from the scourging. Through it must be painful beyond imagination, He does not scream, groan, or even show pain on His Face. He just sits there as the soldier dressed in a suit of black armor places the crown of thorns upon His divine Head. We can see how painful the thorns must be because the soldier is wearing iron and heavy leather gloves rather than using his bare hands to drive the thorns into Christ's Head. 

Soldiers living in the Holy Land during Jesus' lifetime did not wear suits of armor. So why is this soldier wearing something that was invented a thousand years after Good Friday? There are several possibilities why the artist chose to include this anachronism. Sometimes artists include contemporary items to remind us that we are a part of the ancient Christian scene. Sometimes artists include objects that viewers are familiar with to express an abstract idea; here, van Dyck may have wanted to remind us of the constant fight between good (symbolized by the innocent, loving, accepting Jesus) and evil (symbolized by the cold, hard, unyielding armor). The battle axe held by the man behind Jesus is also an anachronism. In religious art the battle axe is used as a symbol of martyrdom.

Hello to all families who are walking with me this Lent! ​

Speaking of walking ... What about the Stations of the Cross?

The Stations of the Cross, also known as Via Crucis, Via Dolorosa, and Way of the Cross, is a devotion that began in the 1600s to commemorate the Christ's last day on Earth as a man. It mimics the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem that many modern-day Catholics walk nowadays. That pilgrimage was reverently mapped under the Emperor Constantine and has been walked by pious Catholics since the earliest times. Catholic Pilgrims stop at 14 places where 14 significant events happened to Jesus on Good Friday while they walk the same path that Jesus walked from the praetorium to Calvary.

Local Catholic parishes have made the Via Dolorosa accessible to their parishioners by creating a path on parish property with 14 stops along the way. While the original Via stops at 14 buildings and gates, parishes have some form of art depicting each scene from that day. Most churches have plaques, but some have statues or paintings. Participants move from artpiece to artpiece. They stop at each one and say a series of prayers; as they walk to the next artpiece, they sing the "Stabat Mater" hymn (linked below). The stations are most commonly prayed during Lent on Wednesdays and Fridays, and especially on Good Friday, the day of the year upon which the events actually occurred. 

At Holy Family, we have Stations plaques inside the main church, inside the chapel, and outside near the gazebo. You may pray these with our community; times are on the website, and you'll receive a little booklet of prayers on your way in.

Alternatively, you can pray these on your own time with just your family. If you don't have a Stations booklet, you could use these Stations of the Cross written for families.

Kids and grown-ups of all ages are able to pray this devotion. I encourage you to be creative and active with your prayers!

​Blessings,
Mary Acevedo, Director of Religious Education

Sing this ancient hymn as you walk between plaques. In this video, it is sung in Latin first followed by English. Lyrics are on the screen, and you only need to choose just one to sing: