Just a few fun things to remember from our Holy Week & Easter...

Spy Wednesday: treasure hunt for the 30 silver pieces representing the ones Judas betrayed Christ for. We used the money to give to the poor.

Tracing and colouring pictures from Holy Week.

 

Our Stations of the Cross we coloured this year. 

  

Mine and Joseph's chalkboard writing to remember the Lenten themes.

Holy Thursday: baking pretzels that recall the Lenten penance of dairy, egg, sugar-free eating and are made in the form of arms crossed in prayer. Colouring Da Vinci's Last Supper. 

Good Friday: the boys' annual Lego recreation of the Passion scene, complete with poor Judas who despaired of forgiveness.

Easter!! An Easter egg hunt. 

 

We spent Easter weekend in Saskatoon and Humboldt. Saturday night was at a great hotel, swimming, eating delivery Pizza Hut, more swimming, and watching Ten Commandments. Sunday morning we attended the Latin Mass for Easter and were blown away by the beautiful music. Sunday afternoon we headed to Humboldt to eat (an amazing Easter supper!), visit, and play with cousins. We arrived home late and tired, but oh so happy! Christ is Risen! Truly!

Notable Easter Kids' Quotes:

Our town Rodeo was on Good Friday.
John Paul: "Probably Jewish people are at the rodeo right now."

Holy Saturday morning:
"What do you want for breakfast?"
Emilie: "I want a meat stick!"

Catholic Culture Renovation: Palm Sunday and other Tidbits

A blessed Palm Sunday to you, if you are indeed reading this on Palm Sunday. Otherwise, a most blessed and suffering Holy Week to you.

We had our Palm Sunday Mass last night, and let me tell you we pulled out all the stops for it! Not organ stops (we'll get to those later). All the stops to get Emilie to behave. I was scheduled to narrate the Gospel, which meant Becca and the boys had to contend with the little "doll". Holy cards, objects, toys, treats... they lasted her all the way through to the homily! Later on I had the joy of chasing her around the church. That little girl can run when she wants to!

Speaking of the Gospel. As I read: "Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last," and then we all knelt down, John Paul turned to his mother: "Do we wave our palms NOW?"

Well we got through Mass. I stayed up late working with the palms. And we're stuck in Tisdale today. There's another snowstorm, of course. Following this storm will be a couple of weeks of cold temperatures. Highs of 13 below. Lows of 20 below. Not counting wind chill. We're skipping Spring this year, apparently. The Easter bunny will freeze his ears off.

Back to organ stops. Sort of. Before Mass our priest asked me if we should sing All Glory Laud and Honor, or The King of Glory Comes. I tried not to choke as I replied that All Glory Laud and Honor would be just fine. Here is a fine organ version of it.

There is a reason why the Church speaks so highly of the organ. Not the guitar. Nor piano. Nor even the theologically rich Trinitarian triangle. And this hymn, written by the great St. Theodulf, was created specifically for the great procession of Our Lord into Jerusalem. Fr. George Rutler, in his book The Stories of Hymns, explains that for St. Theodulf, a great defender of the faith was imprisoned for various false reasons: "it was the loveliness of 'Gloria, laus, et honor' that won Theodulf release after he was imprisoned on charges of treason against King Louis the Pious" (p. 59).

One final liturgical note as we enter Holy Week (ours has a birthday for a four year old in it!). The Collect from the Extraordinary Form on Friday was rather to the point.

"Mercifully pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we who restrain ourselves from sin by voluntary chastisement may suffer for a time rather than be condemned to eternal punishment. Through Our Lord."

Amen to that.

One final note. The boys have been keeping fit with me. I cannot wait until they get even older. I'll have spotters for my weight workouts! A blessed (with some suffering) Holy Week to you indeed. Remember, no pain, no gain(s).

A Meditation for Holy Week

Source

 It is rare that anyone should lay down his life for a just man, though it is barely possible that for a good man someone may have the courage to die. It is precisely in this that God proves his love for us: that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. {St Paul to the Romans}

This passage from St Paul's Letter to the Romans appeared in Monday's Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours. I was later struck by St Paul's words: that it would be almost unheard of for anyone to give their life for a "just" man or a "good" man. Never mind a sinner.

I applied it to myself. Who would I be willing to die for? Hopefully, I would have the courage to give my life for Dan or Joseph, if it came to that. But they are those most dear to me. Would I be willing to give my life for someone outside my family? For someone I don't love so dearly? For someone seen as degraded and contemptible in my eyes or in the eyes of society? I cringe when I consider dying for a prostitute, an abortionist, or Luke Magnotta - the Canadian man accused in the murder and dismembering of a Chinese student in Montreal last year.

Yet, I am not so very different from these people. Sure, they might be sinners, but so am I. Christ died for them and for me. My sin is repulsive to God, just as the seemingly more heinous sins of others might be repulsive to me. I might naively believe I am more "just" or "good" than they are. I might naively believe I am more worthy of Christ's redeeming death than they are. But I am in exactly the same situation: in need of a Saviour.

What unbelievably love of our God, to die for mankind "while we were still sinners". Regardless of our sin, regardless of our station in society. His love, mercy, and forgiveness are infinite. Even though I find it difficult to imagine offering my life for someone degraded and contemptible, Christ did just that when He offered His life for me.