Hello, hello, hello! How are you all doing? Please tell me you are all fine out there.
In a few days, Holy Week shall begin with Palm Sunday. It will be quite different from the way we used to celebrate the first day of Holy Week. This time, there will be no palms to be given out. The Diocese has made it clear that we will not distribute blessed palms this year to mitigate the spread of the virus. We will live-stream Mass on Saturday and Sunday at 5 PM, with a simple blessing of the palm at the beginning of each celebration.
The question is: what shall we do during the Holy Week? First up, I would encourage everyone to continue joining us during the live-streamed Mass every day. Holy Week is still very special for all of us in spite of our need to stay at home. I ask you to keep the solemn spirit of the week and continue to think of our Lord Jesus whose suffering and death brought our redemption. The Diocese recommends that we download an E-book that can be found here:
https://instantflipbook.com/flipbooks/f872d73651/?page=1
It is FREE! It is an electronic book full of resources for possible activities during Holy Week. They call it Flipbook because you can keep flipping the pages electronically by clicking on the arrow at the bottom. If you find that this E-book a bit too comprehensive, please note that you do not have to comply with every instruction on every page. Just determine what suggested activities suit your family the best, and then do them. Of course, not all suggested activities will apply to our current situation, but most of them do. There are also suggested activities for children to enjoy doing, like making paper palms for this coming Palm Sunday. Another suggested activity is for families at home to set up an altar table covered with white linen, put a Bible on it, and 2 lit candles. Also put up Christmas lights on the wall in the shape of a Cross, then join the live-streamed Mass.
How about Washing of the Feet on Holy Thursday? Yes, the head of the household can do washing of the feet of all the members of the family at an appropriate time. Although this is a solemn remembering of the act of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet, it can also be fun for the family with Dad kissing Mom’s feet. She will probably “get a kick” out of it (not literally).
As I said, there are plenty of things that we can do during this Stay-at-Home Holy Week. The week should not pass us by without feeling the solemnity of the moment, especially during the Paschal Triduum (Holy Thursday evening to Easter evening).
So today, you may want to start assembling that altar in your house. To a certain degree, it will somehow help make you feel as though you are actually present during the Mass. We do what we can while hanging on during these extra-ordinarily challenging times. God will see us through this. Take care, everyone. God bless.