The Stations of the Cross – Catechist Lesson Plan

Ignite Lesson

January 10, 2016

OBJECTIVES To help teens understand how the Church remembers and celebrates the events of Jesus’ Passion (Last

days of suffering, death and resurrection).

To promote the Stations of the Cross as an outlook for life—an outlook that sees beyond the suffering,

through hope, to new life.

To encourage our Ignite students to understand and to participate in the Living Stations of the Cross

to be performed on Friday, March 13th.

OVERVIEW

I. 4:00-5:15pm- Teen Mass

II. 5:10-5:20pm - Hospitality in the Narthex

III. 5:20-5:30 - Large Group/attendance in Church

IV. 5:30- 6:00pm Small Group Lesson Plan – read through catechist background and create your skit

V. 6:00-7:00pm Large Group Presentations of Stations

Background for Catechist

WHY PRAY THE STATIONS OF THE CROSS? 8 REASONS FROM POPE ...

STATIONS OF THE CROSS DATE BACK TO THE FOURTH CENTURY ... – SHORT HISTORY

STATIONS OF THE CROSS VIDEO BY BUSTED HALO – Gives a contemporary interpretation for each station Might be helpful for your class to watch their assigned station https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apAb4HAW3c8&list=PLpf_aMH0QS6kclYGeAu83T

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Key Ideas to present

1. The Stations of the Cross are a prayer form that the Church has used since the 4th century.

2. It is comprised of short meditations on 14 specific events that occurred during the Passion and Death of Jesus. There are many versions of this prayer.

3. We pray the Stations of the Cross to remember the sacrifice Jesus made for us to save us from sin. We also pray it to help us live as Jesus taught us to live.

4. The Stations are most often prayed during Lent but can be prayed at any time.

Explain to your students before practicing that acting out the Stations of the Cross is another way to pray, especially during the Lenten season, but can be prayed at any time. To help us live as Jesus taught us, we can reflect on his great sacrifice for us. Our way to do this is by meditating on the Passion. The Stations of the Cross, or Way of the Cross, is an important prayer in which we meditate on fourteen events of the Passion, beginning with the moment Jesus was condemned to death and ending with the moment he was laid in the tomb. You have probably noticed images of the fourteen events, or stations, surrounding the walls of our church. In the Stations of the Cross, we walk with Jesus as we look at the images that help us follow the story of his Passion. This week we will be walking with the Ignite students through Stations of the Cross in the church. Each class is assigned one of the Station’s of the Cross

1. to act out as a group. 2. Each class will write a 3-5 sentence reflection on what their station means to them and what

lessons it provides for modern day believers. These reflections will be incorporated into the Script for the for this year’s Living Stations (find the writing prompt in your hanging file – you will turn these in tonight.

You will have approximately 30-35 minutes to complete these two tasks as a class and we will all meet in the church at 6:00pm. Please be sure to be in the church at 6:00. Each class will then act out their station, one at a time for all the other classes. At the end we will have a group discussion about the Stations and ask for the students to sign up for the Living Stations of the Cross to be presented to the parish on Friday evening, April 4th.

Directions for performing the Stations

1. Each class will be assigned a station to present to the larger group. This is the exact format that is used for the Living Stations that the Jr. High school presents on a Friday during Lent.

2. You will need to have one student to be the narrator, and one student to be the reader of the reflection (be sure to choose two students who are good readers and can read slowly and loudly enough to be heard by the entire Ignite group).

3. The rest of the group will act out your station (please be sure everyone is involved, even if you have to get creative – add townspeople/crowd, onlookers, etc).

Please stress to the students that this needs to be done in a very reverent way as they are re-

enacting the Passion of Jesus Christ. So the first group will present the first station, “Jesus is

condemned to death.” The narrator will read the first paragraph. The students chosen to act out

the first station will begin doing so as the narrator reads the story. As soon as the narrator finishes,

the reader of the reflection will begin. After both readers are finished, the remainder of your group

should read together the prayer at the bottom of the page(along with the audience). Your

presentation should be no longer than about three minutes in length (14 Stations @ 3 minutes each

= 42 minutes). We will use the last fifteen minutes of class for discussion on and sign up for the

Living Stations. Please try to encourage your students to sign up and participate in the Living

Stations to be performed on Friday, March 4th.

Your specific station will be assigned to you on Sunday Night. There will be a script in your hanging file. This Sunday, we will be hosting the 6th graders as well, so please be courteous and welcoming to them!