Family Activity:

Prepare for Holy Week; this week should not be treated like every other week of the year. Make preparations to show by your actions (or lack thereof) that this week is set apart. Take a few days off work, decline to participate in secular activities and choose spiritual ones such as attending daily mass, the Diocesan Chrism mass, the Triduum masses which begin on Holy Thursday and culminate at the Easter Vigil on Saturday night, go to confession, make a holy hour.

Weekly Virtue:

Scripture study. Have each member of the family select a part of the Gospel reading for Palm Sunday and study it this week.

Family Reflection

Click the link below to read the scriptures from Palm Sunday. The model we use in the Lenten exercise is detailed in this article. For the readings today we will be reflecting on the Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced

Isaiah 50:7

reflection

I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise you

Psalm 22:23

Reflection

He humbled himself

Philippians 2:7

reflection

Truly this man was the Son of God!

Mark 15:39

There is so much in the Psalm Sunday Gospel. It is a very long reading in which the whole congregation takes active participation and there are multiple readers covering the entirety of Passion of the Lord.. We are invited to enter into the scene which goes from the Last Supper to the rolling the stone in front of the tomb where Jesus was laid on Good Friday. Meditating on the individual parts of this Gospel passage prior to Sunday mass bears much fruit.

For many, the readings are familiar. Select one or two of these stories and retell them to your children in your own words, ask questions to see what the children find significant in them, what emotions they feel, who they identify with. This is the the culmination of Jesus three years of public ministry. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your family to what God is wanting you to hear this year at the beginning of Holy Week.

• Jesus being anointed with costly perfume
• Judas conspiring with those who wished to kill Jesus
• The Last Supper in which Jesus prophesies that one of His disciples will betray Him
• The institution of the Eucharist
• The prophecy that all the Apostles will have their faith shaken and each will abandon Him.
• The Garden of Gethsemane and the inability of the Apostles to stay awake and pray with Jesus for an hour
• Judas’ betrayal with a kiss
• The trial before the high priest
• Peter’s denial
• The release of Barabbas
• The crowd shouting Crucify Him!
• The mocking of Jesus by the Roman soldiers
• Simon of Cyrene
• The Crucifixion
• The last words of Christ
• The Veil of the Sanctuary torn in two
• The holy women at the foot of the cross
• Joseph of Arimathea
• Jesus laid in the tomb

For families with little children, we have several coloring pages from our 33 Day Family Consecration which are themed around the events of the Passion narrative and these may be helpful for little children to enter into the mysteries and ponder them in an age appropriate manner.