Philadelphia, PA –
It
started in 2010, with a simple gesture of appreciation during
the Year for Priests. Fr. Peter Huynh, LC (then a
theology student a few years from ordination) received an envelope
of drawings and letters from a 3rd grade class in
Georgia. This sparked an idea: why not combine the creativity
of children and the spiritual depth of seminary life into
a tool of evangelization for the season of Lent?
Fr. Peter held an art
contest for primary school students, in which each young artist
drew an illustration for one of the Stations of the
Cross. He then had fellow seminarians vote on the drawings,
and each winning drawing was paired with a reflection from
one the seminarians to create a guide for the Stations
of the Cross.
For
that first art contest, Fr. Peter – who was ordained
this past December – brought together reflections from 15 seminarians
and drawings from 15 young students, and created a single
volume of prayers and pictures for the Stations of the
Cross.
Fr. Peter held
his second contest last year, and published three volumes to
accommodate even more of the drawings. All three volumes are
now available for purchase online at createspace.com (links below). Proceeds
will all support seminarians studying for the priesthood.
This year, Fr. Peter is launching
his third Lenten art contest, and hopes to have more
contestants than ever. The art contest is open to any
child in 2nd – 5th grade, and this year, 6th
– 8th graders are also invited to submit a personal
prayer or reflection on one of the Stations of the
Cross. The contest deadline is May 9, 2013 – Ascension
Thursday – and the winning submissions will be published for
Lent 2014.
Fr. Peter
hopes that both the published volumes and the contest itself
will help children and adults to delve into the season
of Lent.
“Children have a
richness; that combination of profound faith, simplicity, and innocence,” he
says. “A child can express in an illustration his deep
feelings of what Christ endured on his way to Calvary.
What you see is their unadulterated view of what Christ
did for them.”
For contest guidelines
or more information, contact Fr. Peter at phuynh@legionaries.org.
Download the 2010 Stations of
the Cross guide here.
The 2012
Stations of the Cross guies can be purchased here:
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