Celebrating Holy Week in Your Domestic Church

Margaret Dwyer Hogan offers ideas for marking the remaining days of Holy Week, together with your family.

Make Holy Week extraordinary for your family this year! We are challenging ourselves and our readers to embrace Holy Week in a profound way. If you are blessed in your home to already be Christ-centered — an oasis of hope and calm while the world turns in turmoil — consider sharing some of these resources with families who perhaps have not had the time to foster a deep personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Read how Ginny Kochis embraces the unique needs of her kids in her approach to Holy Week. It is full of wonderful ideas for parents of small children!  

Begin with the Rosary

Each day of Holy Week, recite and meditate on the Mysteries of the Rosary. Read the Scripture passage for each Mystery as you pray the Rosary. This is a wonderful way to evangelize others; invite a friend, neighbor, or family member to join you in praying and learning each Mystery.

Download and print our free Family Rosary Companion. Children can trace the names of the Mysteries, reflect on the colorful images depicting the life of Christ and His Blessed Mother, and color the beads while you pray. The back of the companion has simple, step-by-step instructions on how to pray the Rosary, complete with all the prayers. 

Which Mysteries of the Rosary do we pray each day of Holy Week?

Tuesday: Sorrowful Mysteries
Wednesday: Glorious Mysteries
Holy Thursday: Luminous Mysteries
Good Friday:  Sorrowful Mysteries
Holy Saturday: Joyful Mysteries 

Rosary Activities for Families with Young Children

Consider making your own Rosary for Holy Week: a fun activity for children ten and younger. Cut construction paper in strips and staple them together. You can write the prayers on each strip, or make the Our Fathers one color, and the Hail Marys another. Make it your own! Put it someplace central in your home.

Holy Thursday

If you are not attending the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday as a family — or even if you are — designate a time and place to recreate this event in the life of Jesus.

Learn about the foods that would have been eaten at this meal with the disciples.

Gather as a family and read the Gospel.

Re-enact the washing of the feet.

Find some music that will help you create a sacred space for this in your domestic church. 

Good Friday

How do you plan to keep Good Friday sacred this year? How will this day be different?

Even young children will understand the somberness of the day when we remove all electronics for a period of time — at a minimum, 11:45 AM – 3:15 PM on Good Friday. No television, computers, or phones. In place of these distractions, light a candle and pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary.

At 3:00 PM, pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.

If you do not attend the liturgy of the Lord's Passion on Good Friday, read the Scripture readings together at home.

Holy Saturday

In the morning, set aside a time to sit and just talk about what it must have been like for the Blessed Mother, and for all of Jesus’ disciples, after the events that had unfolded the week before.

Explore how they must have been feeling. Help your family see that many people today are experiencing these same feelings — and as God did not abandon His sons and daughters then, He will not abandon us now.

In the evening, if you do not attend the Easter Vigil, read the readings for the Easter Vigil Mass with your family.

Easter Sunday

If you have younger children, recreate the Gospel; have them act it out! Embrace this time to help kids really understand the events as they unfolded that day.

Make a word collage of all of the feelings that Mary and the disciples must have experienced.

Color the Gospel Coloring Page found in our Sunday Gospel Activities and place it in your window.

Call a relative who is not able to be with you today and share your joy! He is Risen! Alleluia!

On Sunday evening, consider watching a movie together as a family. We have so many to choose from: The Young Messiah, Miracles from Heaven, Jesus Christ Superstar, and more. Find something that works for your family to share together.

May the joy of this Easter Season fill your hearts and homes with confidence that you are loved and not forgotten; that God will provide for us as He always has provided for His people! May we resolve as a community to continue to foster daily prayer habits in our domestic churches to continue the mission of Jesus Christ given to each of us by our Baptism. Alleluia! He is Risen!