Our Lady of Sorrows

I feel a little silly publishing this as this feast day was over a month ago...  but the arrival of this little guy made things like this take a backburner!  I've had these windows open on my computer since I figured this activity out the week before the feast day, and I figured I should either give up, or go ahead and post.  Since I thought it was a neat activity that I'd like to be able to repeat in the future, I figured I would go ahead and put together my notes so I could have some chance of remembering it for future years.

For an activity for the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, I printed out coloring pages for each of her seven sorrows as well as seven pictures of happier times in Mary's life.  After defining what sorrow is, I asked the kids which events were sorrowful events in Mary's life and asked them to identify the picture too, if possible.  Then we identified the happy pictures and put the pictures in chronological order.  After this, I let the children choose a picture to color.

I initially had a lot of trouble finding coloring pages I liked because I wanted ones that weren't too cartoon-y and also included depicted Mary in the scene.  She was there, after all!  Once I realized that there was a great deal of overlap between the Stations of the Cross, the Mysteries of the Rosary, and Seven Sorrows, I was far more successful.

The Prophecy of Simeon  (page 10)
Flight into Egypt  (I'd like to find a better one for this, but haven't found anything yet)
The Loss of the Child Jesus in the Temple
Mary Meets Jesus Carrying His Cross
The Crucifixion
Mary Receiving the Body of Jesus from the Cross
Jesus Placed in the Tomb

For the happy pictures, I used an assortment of pages from the Joyful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries, as well as this picture of Mary with St. Anne.  I'm so glad Jennifer made these lovely coloring books available as PDFs.  I am also very thankful that the Religious Education Department at St. John the Baptist Church has made available such a wonderful assortment of attractive coloring pages.