Teen Way of the Cross

Last night, for our Sunday night youth group, we did a Stations of the Cross with the teens to prepare for Holy Week. As part of it, we used clips of "The Passion of the Christ" movie for each station and reflections from LifeTeen's Stations of the Cross for Teens (Come Walk: A Teen Guide to Stations of the Cross). Although it went on a lot longer than I had planned (better planning and preparation: things I could always get better at!) not only was it really intense with the clips from the Passion, but it was really reflective for these teens and where they are at in their faith. This small book really blew me away with some of the reflections it gave for the stations. Here's the reflection from the Ninth Station, Jesus Falls for the Third Time:

"Everyone wants to quit at some point in his or her life. Maybe you’re exhausted. Maybe you’ve tried and tried and nothing has changed. Maybe you’ve lost your joy and you’ve begun to lose your hope. “It’d be easier to just give up” you think to yourself. You’re already down and you don’t think you can fall any further. Falling is human; rising is divine. It’s natural to want to stop but it’s supernatural- it’s by God’s grace- that you can keep going. It’s when you’ve been knocked down and feel you’ve hit your limit that you look to Jesus, once again. Let His breath- His Spirit- fill your lungs. Let His grace fill your body and strengthen your legs to get up and walk again. It’s when you just can’t move any further that you realize you aren’t moving... but Christ is moving within you."

Really thought this was an awesome experience and a lot of my teens really liked it. Just thought I'd throw it out there for a suggestion to use for a teen's guide to the Stations. Truly a powerful prayer and really applicable to these teens lives. Hope you all have a great holy week! Praying for you all.