This Sunday is known as Palm or Passion Sunday, and it marks the beginning of Holy Week.  It is really important to prepare our families for this mass for several reasons:

1. There will be two gospels read, one at the beginning of mass with Jesus entering Jerusalem (with people waving palms) and the other during the Liturgy of the Word.
2. The gospel reading of Jesus' passion and crucifixion will be read and it will be long.  If children can follow along, it will be easier for them...well, for everyone!
3. As it is still Lent and the focus is on Jesus' passion and death, it is a solemn occasion.
4. Your children will be given a palm, which without any guidance, could will become a toy, a way to harass their sister, or an origami lesson.

I will hopefully remember to talk with my girls about what to do with the palms, which of course can be folded later...

There are also lots of great ways to prepare our kids for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter linked in the slideshow for this week.  I know my family is really anticipating them after all these weeks of Lent. :)

A simple and holy Holy Thursday!

So far this Holy Week I have been doing a lot of spring cleaning and working on my Lenten goals, as Easter is this Sunday!  Even though Grace has been home from school this week, I have to admit I don't feel like I've done enough with the kids for Holy Week, so I'm going to do the Easter Triduum right!  (That being Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday).  

Holy Thursday commemorates The Last Supper, where Jesus instituted the Eucharist and celebrated Passover with His disciples, on the day before His death.  Read more about Holy Thursday here. 

Here are some simple ideas I found for celebrated Holy Thursday with your family:

1.  Learn about the Last Supper.  

We will read about the Last Supper from our various Children's bibles.  There is also a simple reading here.  As Catholics, it is  important that any telling of the Last Supper is true to the bible and doesn't use phrasing, like "this is like my body"when discussing the Eucharist.  This wording leads the reader to believe Jesus was merely speaking of the bread and wine as symbols, and not His actual body and blood.

I also reviewed many Last Supper videos from YouTube before deciding on the one posted below.  Most of the videos exclude important parts of the story, like Jesus washing the disciples' feet or the institution of the Eucharist.  The whole thing is about 24 minutes long, but if you want the shortened version you can start around 14 minutes.

 

2.  Attend the Evening Mass of The Lord's Supper

Before mass, we will read the readings aloud as a family and discuss what we will see at mass.  It helps to explain in advance the ritual washing of the feet that takes place at mass and relate it to the gospel reading from John 13:1-15.

3.  Bake unleavened bread.

As He celebrated Passover, Jesus and His disciples would have eaten unleavened bread.  Here is a simple recipe that I plan to make tomorrow with the kids:

Unleavened Bread Recipe
Catholic Icing

4.  Color scenes from the Last Supper.

Print and color.  That is all!

Jesus Washes Feet Coloring Page
Coloring Book 4 Kids

Last Supper Coloring Page
Holy Bible Coloring

5.  Create a Holy Thursday craft.

I'm not going to lie, I probably won't get as far as crafts this year, but here are a couple that I might come back to next year!

Chalice and Eucharist Craft
Roses for Mommy

P.S. - Roses for Mommy looks like a pretty great little blog that I hadn't seen before.

Last Supper Craft
Catholic Icing

This one would be better for older kids, as it requires a lot of fine motor skills and cutting.  And if you haven't noticed already, Catholic Icing is pretty much awesome, and I should pretty much just forward everything she does there.  

Well I now feel a little more organized for Holy Thursday, and hopefully you have a few ideas, as well!