Holy Week Devotions

Holy Week Customs for the whole family (Quarantine Edition)
Maundy Thursday-Holy Saturday
Seven Last Words of Christ
Prayer to our Lady of Sorrows
40 Hours Devotion
Seven Mysteries of the Precious Blood
The Holy Hour
Below are excerpts from the traditional Catholic Prayerbook Blessed Be God.

Holy Week Customs for the whole family (Quarantine Edition)

The following family customs are given by the excellent site Old Soul Rad Trad. This site is absolutely essential to living a Catholic family life in today’s world. Please subscribe and support them.

• Palm Sunday (April 5): There are a couple of things to do with the palms you receive today (and hopefully you are able to receive one!). You can hang them over crucifixes and holy images, place one in a sick call set, weave it into a cross or something beautiful to display (a great quarantine craft!), or set aside a piece of one to burn (while praying to St. Barbara) for relief in times of storms or natural disasters (an Italian and French custom). If you want something to do with last year’s palms to make room (and your parish doesn’t ask for them to burn for Ash Wednesday), bury a piece in the four corners of your property for protection. As for food, the customary food to eat for Palm Sunday is figs. 
• Holy Week (April 6 through 11): Traditionally, this is not only a time to increase Lenten penances, but many used to abstain from all servile labor this week (it used to be obligatory). This week there was a total suspension of ordinary routine, and that time was normally spent in prayer at the church, where people would keep long vigils. Consider making this week as special as you can by removing unnecessary work and entertainment and picking up extra prayers and readings (the Divine Office would be good here) and visiting the Blessed Sacrament where possible. This is also a time (on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) to get the house spotless for Easter so that the Triduum can be completely focused on prayer. 
• Spy Wednesday (April 8): Tonight begins the haunting Tenebrae services, where the next day’s Matin and Lauds are sung in a kind of funeral service for Our Lord. If you can’t get to one in person, there are lots to watch online as a family.
• Maundy Thursday (April 9): An old folk’s tale that would be fun for children begins today. After the bells ring at Mass for the Gloria (the last time they will be rung until Easter), they all fly away to Rome to visit the Pope, staying on top of St. Peter’s. When they return on Easter, ringing wildly, they bring back decorated Easter Eggs (these could appear in your children’s Easter baskets.) Today also begins the custom of visiting seven Tabernacles (each in a different church) from now until Holy Saturday. This would be a great activity to do if the family seems to be going stir crazy—you could even do it if you are unable to get out of the car (if the church is locked). Just park as close to the Tabernacle as you can and spend a little time in prayer before leaving for the next one. Remember that the idea of this tradition is to keep vigil with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, a good thing to remind your children of. Finally, recite a Tantum Ergo today for a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions (new conditions that temporarily apply can be found here). 
• Good Friday (April 10): Today has an air of somber silence. If you can’t get to any church services, here’s what you can do at home. It’s tradition to wear black today, a great reminder of today’s importance for those quarantined. It’s also tradition to cover mirrors and extinguish votive candles. Socializing, entertainment, and even talking are kept to a minimum, especially from the hour Jesus was nailed to the Cross (noon) to the time He died (3 p.m.). Try to observe an even more extreme silence and somberness for those three hours—no talking, phones and computers put away, etc. It’s tradition to eat Hot Cross Buns in the morning, kissing the cross on the top before eating it. It’s also tradition to perform the Way of the Cross—if you can’t go to a church, do it at home, even just by printing out the pictures and using painter’s tape to hang them around the house. If you want to perform an adapted Veneration of the Cross (because you are unable to get to church), here is a possible way to do it: the father of the house will say “Venite adoremus”, and the whole family will kneel three times, one for each time Jesus was mocked (in the high priest’s courtyard, in Pilate’s house, and on Calvary). Then everyone will kneel and kiss the cross, men first and then women. During this, the Improperia is sung. You can find it on YouTube here and directions to say the English translation yourself here. Finally, end the day by putting on a Passion play in your home or watching Mel Gibson’s movie, The Passion of the Christ.
• Holy Saturday (April 11): Depending on your parish, Easter baskets full of items to be eaten on the Easter feast will be blessed today or after the Easter Mass tomorrow (there are special blessings for eggs and bread). If you cannot make it to Easter Vigil, light candles or pray around a bonfire that evening. The father of the house can read the Exultet. A good activity for children on this day is to make Resurrection Cookies to be eaten on Easter. 
• Easter Sunday (April 12): Today begins an entire season of rejoicing, and an octave lasting eight days. Everyone and everything should be decorated its best, from new Easter clothes (if you can afford it—if not, try reserving your nicest outfit to wear this day each year) to a beautifully decorated table. Even if you can’t go to Mass, we highly recommend dressing up as you normally would. The centerpiece of your table should be a Paschal candle that will stay up until the Ascension. You can adorn it with flowers (as we mention in our Liturgical Gardening post) and decorate the candle as they do in church (instructions here—another great quarantine craft). For more decorating ideas, here are a few of the season’s symbols you can use: lilies, bells, eggs, butterflies, and peacocks. The food eaten today is everything traditionally foregone during Lent: eggs, dairy, and of course, lamb! Another tradition is to watch the sunrise this morning to see if you can catch the sun dancing for the Resurrection. Also, from now through the Saturday in the Octave of Easter the Regina Caeli will replace the Angelus. 

 

Maundy Thursday-Holy Saturday

Seven Last Words of Christ

Prayer to Our Lady of Sorrows

40 Hours Devotion

Seven Mysteries of the Precious Blood

The Holy Hour