All posts filed under: Holy WEek

Holy Week at Home: A Pandemic Guide

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Thank you to Jay and Emelie Thomas for putting together this guide to Holy Week at Home. We are grateful to be able to share something tailored specifically for this year, in addition to the resources we already have. Jay and Emelie are young parents who are constantly learning how to “raise up their children in the way they should go” through the historic rhythms and practices of the Church. They both hold degrees in English Literature from the U.S. Naval Academy. Jay is a Postulant in the Special Jurisdiction of the Armed Forces and Chaplaincy (ACNA), and both Emelie and Jay are resident in the Anglican Diocese of Christ our Hope.  The COVID-19 Pandemic has brought with it an uncannily sheltered and isolated Lenten season. Many have commented that it is perhaps appropriate that we have endured this societal fast during a season of fasting. Although we do not intend to say the same, we will say that as we prepare for Holy Week, the Triduum, and Eastertide – as much as this season …

Holy Week in the Domestic Church

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I can hardly believe that Palm Sunday is in a few days. This is going to be a very brief post sharing what we have available here on this site to help us celebrate Holy Week at home this year. Family Prayer for Holy Week and Easter Last year, I put together a this family prayer booklet  to help families go through the collects and events of Holy Week. It’s essentially family prayer from the 1928 Prayer Book. The suggested readings follow the events of each day of Holy Week. I’m also going to print out the images above. I formatted an image a day with the collect for the day and we will look at the painting during our family prayer time. I’ll then display it on our “little oratory” throughout the day. Here is the Holy Week Family Prayer Booklet (and here it is as a PDF with pages arranged as booklet) Here are the Holy Week images with collects. (Please email me at thehomelyhours@gmail.com if you would like any of these files in another format …

Holy Triduum Coloring Page

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As we head into the Holy Triduum tomorrow, we have a new resource to help explain it to our children. Michelle Abernathy created this coloring page, focusing on the liturgical highlights of each day. Click to download pdf of Holy Triduum coloring page. As we color through the page, we’ll talk about it. Here is something along the lines of what I will say (if you’re interested in learning what we will be doing each day at our church): Maundy Thursday: On Thursday of Holy Week, Jesus and His disciples shared an ancient special meal called the Passover, remembering how God delivered the Israelite people from slavery and death. On this night, Jesus also shared with his disciples a new special meal: the Eucharist. All those who by faith take in His life — His body and blood in the bread and wine– trust that God also delivers us from slavery and death. At our church, we re-live this every week, but especially as we participate in the Eucharist on this night. This is also when Jesus …

Preparing for Holy Week and Easter, Part 2

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I divided this initial post into two parts. You can read Part One of Preparing for Holy Week and Easter here; it includes a Holy Week family prayer booklet, music suggestions, etc. In this post, I’ll share some Easter basket plans, but mostly children’s book recommendations for Holy Week and Easter. Preparing Easter Eggs and Easter Baskets Last year, Bley started working on Pysanky eggs and has been introducing it to me, too.  I’m looking forward to working on the eggs in the evenings after my kids’ bedtime– it’s such a calming, meditative practice. Like Holy Week housecleaning, it’s extra nice that something so practical and (potentially) refreshing can be gathered up into our devotion. On Holy Saturday, we will dye eggs with my kids. I plan to use natural Easter egg dyes this year. This year, we’re also planning to bring an Easter/Pascha basket on Sunday morning to be blessed. This will be our first time, so it may be a year of small beginnings, but this post is very helpful in learning what may …

Preparing for Holy Week and Easter, Part 1

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As I’ve been in the midst of preparing for Holy Week, my mind has been lingering on this description from Gertrud Mueller Nelson: The sacred mysteries of the coming week, the very apex of the Church year, are brought into our homes. Actually, we move gently back and forth from the sacred rites at church to folk and family traditions and then back again to the richness of the Church. The tangible signs of our inner transformations are found in materia in the ordinary and daily things around us, renewed and charged with meaning. . . Bread and meats, kiss and cross, oil and water, water and fire, passion and praise, candles and eggs and dress and chants, primal laments and bursts of thanks, fasting and feasting, silence and sounds, all these mix and point up the poetry of paradoxes which the sacred mysteries celebrate.  The simple objects are within our reach at home. The simple gestures done at church and then at home with reverence and consciousness can bring the mysteries straight to hearth …

Getting started with Pysanky

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Well, one more week until Holy Week, just enough time to consider whether you might like to try the traditional Easter art of pysanky!  Pysanky, or the creation of decorated Ukrainian Easter eggs, is a very old practice that originated in Eastern Europe.  Traditionally during Holy Week, and in some communitites throughout Lent, Ukrainian ladies would gather in the evenings to decorate these special Easter eggs to adorn the baskets that they would bring to be blessed Easter morning.  The baskets were a celebration of new life, often including things that had been given up during Lent, such as meat, eggs, and rich breads. Last year I was curious and decided to try this art for the first time.  My children joined me in learning, and we have all come to enjoy and value this quiet, simple, meditative activity.  Perhaps you might like to try it as well this year? The materials you will need are very simple and inexpensive: a kistka (writing tool) beeswax for pysanky a candle and holder matches eggs (you can …

Holy Week Hymns (Or, When Nothing Else Gets Through)

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If you, like me, are struggling with what it means to observe Holy Week as a parent, if you have little time to meditate in silence and find most of your observances to be hijacked by whiny toddlers, I was reminded today of the power God has given to music to reach and shape our souls (even when we are annoyed with our kids and foundering in Holy Week intentions). We sang the following two hymns during our Spy Wednesday service today and both managed to get through to my not-particularly-soft heart. Go to dark Gethsemane, ye that feel the tempter’s power; Your Redeemer’s conflict see, watch with Him one bitter hour, Turn not from His griefs away; learn of Jesus Christ to pray. See Him at the judgment hall, beaten, bound, reviled, arraigned; O the wormwood and the gall! O the pangs His soul sustained! Shun not suffering, shame, or loss; learn of Christ to bear the cross. Calvary’s mournful mountain climb; there, adoring at His feet, Mark that miracle of time, God’s own sacrifice …