Holy Thursday

In the past I was a Campus Minster at a college and so the Holy Week and Easter celebrations were a big deal. Now that I am a stay at home mom life has certainly changed. No more all-night adorations, retreats, or hours of reflection (or any reflection, LOL!)

Anyway getting to Church with 2 two years old with loud voices and attention spans of a few minutes hasn't really worked well for us yet. So last night instead of dragging everyone to a 90 minute Mass for Holy Thursday, I decided we would have our own celebration at home.

We held a Holy Thursday service in our living room. Stregga joined us for "Washing of the Feet" and "Breaking Bread" together. We set up a big purple sheet on the carpet. And I brought out a cross and a beautiful Easter book about Jesus that Stregga had given the boys. I showed the boys picture of Jesus's feet in sandals and explained how he walked everywhere so his feet got dirty. Then I told the story of how Jesus wanted to show his friends how to take care of each other by washing one anothers feet. Then we used a pitcher of warm water and a large bowl and took turns washing each other's feet and drying them with towels. The boys really got into it!

Next we talked about how Jesus shared food with this friends and then we shared pieces of bread and cups of juice with each other.

Then we took turns holding the cross and saying what we were thankful for. Surprisingly the boys really liked this part.

I think their favorite part was when I gave them palms to wave. They were waving away and then using them to "tickle" each other!!

It was nice to take time to celebrate Holy Week with my boys! Of course it was condensed into about 15 minutes, but it amazed me how much they payed attention and were able to understand. And they seemed to have genuine interest.