From our Director of Religious Education, Laura Hollinrake:
I hope you and your family are doing well and staying healthy (and sane!) in the midst of all the life changes brought about by the pandemic.
We can’t gather this Sunday for Palm Sunday nor for the rest of our Holy Week and Easter celebrations, but I encourage you to pray and celebrate each day with your family as best you can. This might include reading together the Scriptures and doing the rituals for each day (e.g. having a procession of “palms”, washing each other’s feet, venerating/honoring the Cross). I’ve included some links to resources to help you observe this holiest week in our Church year.
1. The Mass readings for every day of the week can be found at http://usccb.org/. Just click on the calendar on the home page.
2. This 3-minute video from Busted Halo gives a good overview of Holy Week. Watch it with your family sometime before Sunday as a way to prepare. https://bustedhalo.com/video/watch-holy-week-in-three-minutes
3. This article, “How to Make the Most of Holy Week at Home,” has some good background on Holy Week as well as ideas for prayer and activities. Click on the embedded links for more resources (e.g. a playlist of music for Holy Week).
4. Teaching Catholic Kids is a great year-round resource for at-home prayer and faith-formation activities. Check out the Holy Week resources at https://teachingcatholickids.com/category/lent-and-holy-week/. While you’re on the site, sign up for the weekly email/newsletter to get ideas connected to the week’s Church calendar.
5. Catholic Icing has a ton of crafts, activities, recipes and ideas for how to celebrate the Church’s feasts and seasons. Check out the Holy Week resources at https://www.catholicicing.com/. You can also sign up for a weekly email/newsletter.
6. I know many of you have been participating in online Masses, which is great! If you’re doing this, I encourage your family to really participate (rather than just watch) by setting up a prayer area for your viewing device (e.g. with Bible, candles) and saying the responses, doing the gestures, and singing the songs just as if you were at Mass in person. Another option is to lead a Liturgy of the Word (the first half of the Mass) service in your home (your “domestic church”). Here’s a link to step-by-step directions and resources (prayers, readings, videos) for this Sunday (Palm Sunday) https://worship.pastoral.center/day/2020-04-05
7. The Diocese of Davenport has a resource page for ideas on how to observe this week at home: https://www.davenportdiocese.org/ff-family
8. The Well Des Moines Women’s Ministry has some good idea for how to mark each day of Holy Week at home to keep it holy: https://www.thewelldesmoines.com/the-triduum-in-domestic-church
Last, please regularly check back here at our website https://www.knoxvillestanthony.com/ for more resources and the latest news from the parish. Also, if you’re on Facebook and haven’t yet liked our page, please do so https://www.facebook.com/saintanthonyknoxville and comment on and “like” our posts.
Stay well,
Laura Hollinrake
Director of Religious Education and Youth Ministry, St. Anthony Catholic Church
St. Anthony Catholic Church 