A Slice of Smith Life: Palm Sunday Videos, Easter Triduum, Holy Week Happenings 2014

Palm Sunday Videos, Easter Triduum, Holy Week Happenings 2014

This week is our Spring Break in our homeschool and it is a very Holy Week as we get closer to commemorate our Lord's passion, death, and resurrection!

Last year I posted information and videos about Palm Sunday, which is tomorrow, and about the 3 holiest days in the Church year, Easter Triduum. I also reflected on why Holy Week and Easter is such a special time for our family. You can read all about it HERE.

After we get our palms at the Palm Sunday Mass we traditionally try to make a cross with them. However, I might try one of these creative braids as posted by Jennifer at Catholic Inspired or one of these creative ideas as posted by Lacy at Catholic Icing.

Here are our plans for this Holy Week 2014...(IF all goes as planned) :)

Palm Sunday (that's tomorrow!): We will burn last year's blessed palms and plant our Easter grass so it will be ready for Easter Sunday. You can read about this easy and fun tradition HERE.
Our family is hosting our monthly homeschool family rosary gathering. Our homeschool families will gather in our home to lift up prayer intentions then recite the Glorious Mysteries. Then we have a potluck dinner and the kids get to run around while the parents chat. It is always a blessed time!

Monday: My kids and I are going to watch my Mom play Pickle Ball as she tries to qualify for the Senior Games. I have never seen Pickle Ball, but my Mom says it's a fun game. We are looking forward to cheering my Mom on! Also, on Monday I hope to make this Holy Week Watercolor Art with my children. It's just beautiful and looks easy too!

Tuesday: I plan on taking my children to visit “Via Cruces”, a meditation garden to pray the Stations of the Cross at the home of parishionsers from our parish. The couple made this garden for anyone for reflection and devotion to our Lord during the remainder of Lent. I'm looking forward to sharing this experience with my children and some other families in our homeschool group.

Wednesday: Kendra at Catholic All Year has some great ideas for this day during Holy Week so maybe I'll try her "Spy Wednesday" activities or the other Holy Week ideas she shared HERE.

Photo Credit: Catholic.org

Holy Thursday: Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper. We attend Mass as a family in the evening. As my music minister stated in our church bulletin, "On the night before Jesus suffered, He celebrated the Passover with his disciples. He demonstrated a "new commandment to love one another" by washing their feet, then gave His own Body and Blood for the new Passover mean by instituting the Holy Eucharist. It is the beginning of the mass, the beginning of the ordained priesthood, and the last night of Jesus' mortal life. " You can read all about Holy Thursday HERE. I hope to start a new Holy Thursday tradition this year by making unleavened bread following Lacy's recipe at Catholic Icing.

Good Friday: The Passion of our Lord. We are going to watch my Mom play table tennis for her Senior Games qualifications. I am looking forward to watching my Mom do these activities that she loves! In the afternoon we will attend Good Friday service in the Church that my husband's cousin, Sharon, said was so beautiful on Good Friday before she passed away. We attend this particular Church as a way to honor and remember Sharon.

As stated by our music minister, "On this day, the altar is bare and the crucifix is veiled. The ministers process in silence and lie prostrate on the floor in sorrow and humility. There is no official "beginning" because on the night before, there was no dismissal. We hear the Passion narrative and venerate a simple wooden cross. We receive the Eucharist consecrated the prior evening, and depart in silence."

After the service, our family plans on attending a live presentation of the Stations of the Cross performed by the Latino parishioners. We saw this several years ago and it was so well done and so powerful. My children still have vivid memories of this moving remembrance of Jesus' Passion and Death.

Holy Saturday: It was Holy Saturday 2006 at the Easter Vigil that my husband and his cousin, Sharon, came into the fullness of the faith and entered the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church instituted by Christ.

On Holy Saturday our family has done these traditions for many years now...

We always enjoy changing our salt dough crown of thorns that we made at the beginning to Lent...

....into a beautiful crown of jewels. See how we decorate the crown with paint and jewels HERE. The golden crown makes a great centerpiece along with the pot we plant with rye grass at the beginning of Holy Week filled with soil and burnt palm branches. You can read how we prepare our real Easter grass and watch it grow HERE.

Our family always looks forward to making and eating resurrection rolls...

We also dye our Easter eggs...

On Holy Saturday evening we usually make Easter story cookies which are easy and delicious and like the resurrection rolls, they symbolize Jesus' empty tomb after He rose from the dead. You can get the recipe at my post HERE.

And if you need a quick Easter decoration, be sure to check out how my Cupcakes made Easter egg garland HERE.

So this brings us to Easter Sunday when we can rejoice in the resurrection of our Lord! We plan on going to Mass as a family and eat a potluck breakfast at the Church we will be attending, then enjoy a fun Easter egg hunt! I hope to make these colorful eggs for the potluck breakfast.

May you have a blessed Holy Week and Easter!

4 comments:

Kendra Tierney said...

I LOVE the planting real Easter grass! I want to do that in Easter baskets! But I won't because my mom got the kids all very adorable personalized fabric ones.

April 13, 2014 at 12:41 AM

asliceofsmithlife said...

Thanks Kendra for stopping in :) You are creative...I'm sure you could find a way to plant real grass in fabric baskets without ruining the baskets :) LOL! Personalized baskets...that is something I would love to have for my kiddos!

April 13, 2014 at 8:10 AM

Chris said...

wow, what an amazing and full week your family has planned Tra!
I just adore so many of your ideas here~! It's funny, bc we subscribed to a few of the same blogs( CI!) and
I love seeing how you weave the same creativity that I read about and think about how to adapt into YOUR family's life.
I plan to make the resurrection rolls on Saturday Am for breakfast....we've never done that
though I see it on CI every Holy Week...and I think those eggs are adorable....good grief....I HAVE to make those too!
Ok, I'm checking out a few of the links you shared that I haven't seen.....And how can it be a year since Palm Sunday last? I remember that post like it was yesterday!

We are not taking a full on break this week with my older son....we do need to cover more ground with him...those state tests are looming. I long for the days when we had no contact with the SD and we could make our own schedule and create our own curriculum.....

Thanks for the fun and reverent peek into your family's Holy week...
"see" you soon, friend!

April 13, 2014 at 9:18 AM

asliceofsmithlife said...

Hi Chris!

Thanks for stopping in to check out our Holy Week Happenings :) It's a busy, but blessed time of year for sure in the beautiful liturgical calendar! Have a blessed week!

April 14, 2014 at 7:56 AM