BY JESSICA GORDON
The penitential period of Lent and its fulfillment on Easter Sunday serve as an effective reminders to the faithful of the price of our redemption. By disciplining our bodily appetites, we can then focus on our spirits and the life of Christ in our souls. As followers of Christ we take up our daily crosses, assured that in doing so we too will rise again as Christ did. During Lent or Easter parents and instructors can use teaching tools to deliver this reminder. One such craft is the creation of a “stained-glass” cross. Here participants can read or listen to the redemptive value of our Lord’s and our own crosses while crafting a unique art piece.
MATERIALS NEEDED
✱ Two 9-inch x 14-inch sheets of clear contact paper per child
✱ One pre-cut black construction paper cross frame per child (see photo for approximate dimensions)
✱ Tissue paper (various colors, cut into 1” squares)
✱ Scissors
WITH THE CLASS
✱ To begin, peel and set one piece of clear contact paper sticky-side-up in front of each child. Carefully place the cross frame onto each child’s piece of contact paper. Place a small basket of multicolored tissue paper squares within easy reach of each child.
✱ When the students are ready, they can begin to fill their black cross frames with the tissue paper squares.
✱ Once the crosses are completely filled with tissue paper, seal the tissue paper by carefully placing the second piece of clear contact paper sticky-side-down on top of the cross.
✱ Using scissors, trim the excess contact paper from around the outside edge of the cross to complete the project.
✱ The children can hang the completed crosses in a window for Easter.
LET US PRAY
Look down upon me, good and gentle Jesus, while before thy face I humbly kneel, and with burning soul pray and beseech thee to fix in my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, true contrition for my sins, and a firm purpose of amendment; while I contemplate with great love and tender pity thy five wounds, meditating upon them within me and calling to mind the words which David, thy prophet, said of thee, my Jesus: “They pierced my hands and my feet; they numbered all my bones.” — PRAYER BEFORE A CRUCIFIX
Jessica Gordon blogs at ShowerOfRoses.blogspot.com and CatholicCuisine.blogspot.com.
This article was originally published in Catechist, March 2017.
Image courtesy of Jessica Gordon.
