Holy Week at Home

Christians all over the US are now in a position that they probably never imagined. The biggest holiday of the Christian calendar is only a couple weeks away and many of us will not be in church. Easter, the reason for our faith, feels like it’s been canceled. I assure you, it is not canceled. As St. Paul says (1 Corinthians 15:14), the resurrection is the foundation of our faith. And Christ is always risen.

But how can someone celebrate this most Holy Week without the traditions that you are used to. Here are just a few of the great ideas I’ve seen:

1. Create your own Stations of the Cross. Since you can’t go to your church to pray, make your own art to represent the stations or print pictures and put them on the wall. Travel from station to station using any of hundreds of prayers you can find online.
2. Wash each other’s feet. Imitating what you’ve seen on Holy Thursday, take a pitcher, towel and bowl and wash one another’s feet. Social distancing doesn’t count for family and having your feet washed and washing the feet of others is a profoundly humbling experience that everyone should have.
3. Do art with the previous year’s palms. Technically, many churches ask for palm leaves back before Lent to make the ashes for Ash Wednesday, but most Catholics I know still keep a hold of them. Take old palms and wrap fresh grass or whatever you can find outdoors to make a pretty cross to remind you of Jesus’ passion and resurrection.
4. Make a home altar and deck it out in white. Collect all your favorite religious art and statues in a special place on a table or short bookcase or dresser. Fill that place with white cloth, lace, and flowers. Just decorate it like you’d like to see your church look right now. Keep it through the season as a special place of prayer and mediation.
5. Make Resurrection Cookies! Who can say no to cookies? Google it because there are dozens of different ways to make them. They all are generally a fluffy cookie or pastry wrapped around something that will melt in the oven like a marshmallow. They are yummy and a great tactile way to teach little ones about the Resurrection.
6. Stream church services and Eucharistic Adoration. Even though you can’t be there, you can hear the readings and the homily from your living room couch. Participate as much as you feel comfortable. Some people just have to do the “Catholic Calisthenics,” others just do the verbal responses, and some don’t do anything at all. There is no right or wrong way. Just give it your attention and pray for the ability to join together in community again. Pray the Spiritual Communion prayer.

Have a good Holy Week and I hope that this time apart from the physical church makes us all more appreciative of what we usually have. May this time be a time of closeness to God for you and yours.