Comments on: The Stations of the Cross and Children

By: mallys

mallys — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:43:43 +0000

Isn’t it amazing that parents who will let their kids play violent video games, watch “Saving Private Ryan” because “that’s history,” wear suggestive clothing, etc. balk at “The Passion of the Christ” because it is too graphic?

By: fishman

fishman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:37:29 +0000

my 2 year old daughter knows that Jesus was crucified so everyone can go to heaven and that the father brought him back to life. You can’t shelter children too much from reality. There is evil out there, but Jesus will keep you safe even if mommy and daddy aren’t in the room.

I don’t know what to do about the fact parents don’t teach their children the truth.
I would think the priest should have a talk with the parents and ask them if they sincerely want to be catholics and teach their children the truth. If they don’t perhaps they would be better off not pretending they do.

By: LarryW2LJ

LarryW2LJ — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:04:33 +0000

To this day, I remember seeing a TV show when I was very small. I must have been 4 or 5 (I’m 53 now) and it was around Easter time. The show depicted some of the great works of art through the centuries that depicted The Passion.

Some of these were incredibly gory, bloody and violent; and it had a huge impact one me. Not a negative one – just a huge impact. And I knew exactly what it was all about; for even at that early age, I knew what Easter was all about. My Mom had taught me; just as Patrice has taught her children. But these images “brought it all home” as it were.

I guess in a way, it helped me to learn that life would not be all “Sunshine, Butterflies and Rainbows”. It wasn’t for my Savior; and it certainly wouldn’t be that way for me. But, even with that being said, The Promise is still there that there is something better to look forward to after this eartly journey is over.

Lord, please help me learn to do a better job carrying my cross!

By: Claire

Claire — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:46:08 +0000

I can totally relate to your experience. Several years ago I was teaching religion to a class of children who were old enough to make their First Communion, but who had never had any religious Ed before. When I started teaching about the Crucifixion, one little girl became very upset, and the next class she was crying and didn’t want to separate from her mother. Her mother told me that it was because she found the subject of the crucifixion too painful. To give her mother credit, she didn’t pull her from the class. But she could have done more to support what I was teaching (and I taught it in the context of the resurrection, emphasizing that God brought a “happy ending”).

Later in the year, in this same class, I told the children that I was engaged to be married. One of the boys asked if I was living with my fiance. I responded that God doesn’t want men and women to live together before they get married. His response was that his mother and father had lived together before they got married. I chose not to comment further. It’s so hard to teach religion when you have to teach truths that the children’s families don’t necessarily follow.

A little off the subject, but a couple of years later I substituted in a 4th grade religion class, and at the end of the class (when the parents were standing right outside the door waiting to pick up the kids), one of the kids out of the blue asked me something about the devil. I can’t remember the specific question, but I answered him honestly even though I wasn’t thrilled about discussing the devil, particularly in front of the parents. But, I felt that a Catholic religion class shouldn’t be too “politically correct” to acknowledge the existence of the devil.