10 Ways for Families to Observe Holy Week

Palm Sunday
1. Attend Palm Sunday Mass together and invite each member of the family to take a palm to place over the doors of their bedrooms as a reminder of Jesus' kingship.

Monday - Wednesday
2. Go as a family to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation and celebrate your freedom from sin with a special family dinner.

Holy Thursday

3. Host an at-home foot washing ceremony. It is really powerful to wash someone else’s feet, and especially for children to wash their parents’ feet and each other’s. Use the account of the Lord’s supper in John 13:1-11.

4. Attend the Mass of the Lord's Supper at your parish where they re-enact the washing of the feet.

Good Friday

5. Participate as a family in the traditional Nine Church Walk and recite the Rosary and Stations of the Cross along the way.

6. With a group or family members, create “freeze-frame” Stations of the Cross. Form small groups and ask each to create a scene that illustrates a certain part of the Passion. Once groups are ready, have someone read the Passion narrative, allowing groups to do their freeze frame during the appropriate part of the story.

7. Host a movie night. Watch “The Passion of the Christ” starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus. Keep in mind the age-appropriate nature of the movie.

Easter

8. Put religious items such as small books and gifts in the Easter basket, not just candy.

9. Read “The Legend of the Easter Egg” by Lori Walburg (Zondervan, 2011), which presents the egg as a symbol of new life and the resurrection.

10. Before your family Easter meal, go to celebrate at the Eucharistic Table of the Lord by attending Easter Mass and memorialize the celebration with afamily photo.