HOLY WEEK
What is the focal point in your home? Having a home Altar that changes with the liturgical season will put the focus on the right things.
Home Holy Week Altar
Lent and Jesus in the Desert - The Cactus
Palm Sunday - Palms
Holy Thursday - Chalice
Good Friday - Cross
Easter, the Resurrection! - Jesus
(Monstrance-Jesus is always there)
Do you have a home altar!? It's a great time to start! What is the focus of your life? What is the focal point of your house! Make it Jesus! Choose a table, mantle, or a space to put religious items that fit the liturgical year.
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday Home Procession!
Kick off the week with a home procession
Sing “hosanna to God in the highest”
Matthew 21:9 "The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Display your palm leaves proudly for Holy week!
Put them in a vase as a center piece today!
Then you can display them on your home altar.
This is a great alternative to leaving these holy and blessed objects and reminders to get strewed around.
Palm Sunday-Palm Crafts!
Construction Paper Hand Palm!
-Fold Green construction paper in 6 or 4 equal parts depending how small of big the hand is.
-Trace the hand
-Cut the green construction paper traced hand
-Glue middle part
-Glue hands like a palm!
2 year old hand palm leaf!
Handprint Painted Palm!
-Make a central green line to go off of
-Paint green paint on hand with paint brush
-press hand facing up like palm leaf onto paper
-repeat until you make a palm leaf!
Dates grow from palms! A fun sweet treat tradition my husband started years ago for Palm Sunday!
I think this book is great for the little ones to take them through Holy week in a simplistic way with pictures.
Jesus Lives
The Easter Story
By Laura Ring Derico
Holy week craft PDF print out instruction sheet provided below !
Ordinarily, we have designated painting clothes for each child, and we always have a plastic table clothes, and we do a good job of not getting paint everywhere. Today, We decided to use trash bags with holes in them for the head and arms as easy disposable painting aprons! (We absolutely talked about bag safety, and that they should never attempt this without mom) It works in a pinch though to keep clothes from getting paint on them!
Holy Thursday (Maundy Thursday)
"He broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." (Matthew 26:26)
On Thursday of Holy Week (Maundy Thursday) the Church celebrates the three pillars of the Catholic Church instituted by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper: the priesthood, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Holy Eucharist.
"He took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." (Matthew 26)
Jesus washed the feet of His disciples to show us humility and to show us that we must not only be clean on the outside, but most importantly clean on the inside within our souls, trying to be free of sin only through Him.
if you have any girls, this would be a fun time to groom toes and paint nails, and the act of service with love. For boys, you could groom/clean their toe nails!
Good Friday
Friday before Easter. Without Good Friday Easter loses fullness and completion. We must understand that our Lord died on the cross on Good Friday to appreciate His resurrection from the dead on Easter.
Today, I have the kids dress in all black as a symbol of death and mourning. It is a somber day, and we recognize the day that Jesus suffered and died on the cross for our sins.
Matthew 27:27-31 "Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him."
Remember, every Friday is a mini good Friday, and so we abstain from meat on this Friday and every Friday in honor of the flesh the Lord gave up. Here we are makng cheese pizzas! What a fun family activity!
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
Make a habit of doing Stations of the Cross at church or at home together.
Each child can have their own book or print out to follow along to the passion or our Savior.
Good Friday Liturgy
The Good Friday liturgy consists of three parts: the Liturgy of the Word, the Veneration of the Cross, and the Holy Communion.
This is the stations of the cross simplified for children. Print it out, and go over the stations of the cross! Use this worksheet. Have them color it in as use as is, or you can have them color it in and cut them out and have them glue it to stapled paper in creating their own stations of the cross book! 10 pieces cut slightly bigger than each rectangle to accommodate for the staple binding!
Cross Crafts
Focus on Jesus on the Cross Today.
Good Friday is the day that Jesus was arrested and put to death by crucifixion on the wooden cross. Why did Jesus who is God have to suffer and die on the cross for our sins? Sins are all of the bad things we do, not following the 10 commandments, not doing things with love, and not being obedient. On the cross Jesus taught us how to forgive others, and how God forgives us, in saying, “Father, forgive them” referring to the people that hurt him and hung him up on the cross to die. Jesus showed us how to live in this world, so that when we die we can be united with Him in heaven.
Activity:
Stick Cross
1. Collect little sticks
2. Fill a cross with glue
3. Put the little sticks on the cross
On a budget!? You make crosses out of anything! What supplies do you have at home that your children could use to make creative crosses with?
If you want to buy a cross craft, the Dollar Tree and Hobby Lobby have lots of great cross painting opportunities!
Divine Mercy Novena & Chaplet
We begin our Divine mercy Chaplet on Good Friday until Divine Mercy Sunday
About the Novena
In her Diary, St. Faustina recorded a number of conversations she had with Jesus during which He made promises to those devoted to His Divine Mercy. We selected a few of the most powerful of these promises for this article, with a special focus on praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
Promises for Praying the Chaplet
"Oh, what great graces I will grant to souls who say this Chaplet. Write down these words, my daughter. Speak to the world about My mercy; let all mankind recognize my unfathomable mercy. It is a sign for the end times; after it will come the day of justice. While there is still time, let them have recourse to the fount of my mercy; let them profit from the blood and water which gushed forth for them." (Diary, 848)
Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance”. (Luke 5:32) For the same reason He appeared again on earth to Saint Faustina, to save sinners from eternal damnation. His message of Divine Mercy is a warning to mankind to exercise their conscience, come back to God and live by the Commandments.
Who are the sinners? – sinners are those who offend human nature, God’s creation, and the dignity of man.
The Divine Mercy
To learn more about the Divine Mercy message, Saint Faustina's diary, how to pray the Novena and more you can go to https://www.thedivinemercy.org/message/devotions/pray-the-chaplet
or click below.
Happy Easter!
Today is a FEAST DAY, it is EASTER! This is the reason and fulfillment of the old testament and of Jesus saving us from our sins in showing us through forgiving on earth and through our heavenly Father. The death and resurrection of Jesus is Easter! Easter celebrates the beginning and foundation of Christianity. Jesus was raised from the dead, and it goes to show that He conquered sin and death. Every Sunday is a Celebration of this! Every Sunday should be a mini Easter from now on. Celebrate the Resurrection and feast! Have a true sabboth and be with your family. We TRY to do all our chores or shopping Saturday, so that we may rest on the 7th day, like our Lord commands us to on the 4th commandment. “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy” and reserve this day for the Lord, for church, for family, for some down time in the world that insists that we should not and should remain on a mouse wheel.
Before this special day, it is exciting to prepare what you will wear the day before, either by buying new Easter outfits, or picking out and cleaning or ironing what will be worn in celebration of this day! Schedule haircuts and such before so you and your kids can have that feeling of newness and preparation for this special day! To make it known and feel different and exciting!
Decorate for Easter, meaning, for Jesus, for the resurrection, Liturgically, for what the day actually is. Get rid of those pagan bunnies and eggs! Simplify and make the resurrection of Jesus the center of your day and life! No eggs on this wreath!
Have you noticed how the Easter bunny is just a deterrent from kids actually seeing what truly the day is all about?
Easter Bunny's Amazing Day By: Carol Benost Illustrated by: Jonathan Sundy
In my opinion this is the greatest book for the kids in trying to make sense of the pagan Easter bunny and the real day that Easter is, the resurrection of Jesus! (I am not getting paid to say this, just sharing this awesome find with you!) We simply cannot take the pagan Easter bunny out of the world, but we can certainly make sense of it.
I once read, "It is said that the bunny is special, because it was. the first creature to see Jesus resurrected!" Brilliant! This book ties the Easter bunny with Jesus for the children!
It is a daunting task to find something Jesus related for Easter baskets, but well worth the hunt to bring your child's mind back to Jesus in a time when Jesus is being removed from society.
Feast! Not just today, but every Sunday in celebration and remembrance of this amazing day we get to celebrate as Easter and a mini Easter every Sunday!
Saint Catherine of Siena, April 29
Saint Catherine was the 25th child. Saint Catherine said that she saw her father as a representation of Jesus and her mother as Our Lady, and her brothers as the apostles, which helped her to serve them with humility. Despite Catherine's religious nature, she did not choose to enter a convent and instead she joined the Third Order of St. Dominic, which allowed her to associate with a religious society while living at home. Her parents wanted her to get married, however she began fasting and cut her hair short to mar her appearance. Today is a good day for a haircut and to talk about vanity, what it is, how the world promotes it and how we should not fall into it. Vanity is excessive pride admiration of one's own appearance or achievements. To think of one’s looks more than God is vanity.
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