Palm Sunday at Home .....2012

Palm Sunday in our home this year was a fairly quiet but busy day.

Due to the lack of our family van still being fixed (have I mentioned this lately?No probably not, as it has been out of commission for over 5 months now leaving us with just Stephen's work car that until last weekend had no baby restraint fitted allowing mine and Trahaearn's Mass attendance to be virtually nil.)

Anyway most of the family went to Mass in the morning requiring two trips, with the older children going first  (and being the waiting children on the return trip) while Autumn, Trahaearn and I went to an evening Mass.

Eden was the orchestrator  of our display  this year. Which I was so thankful to her for.

Our palm crosses were not as successful this year as the sags we have used in the past were not very pliable and hence hard to form. So these were our few paltry attempts that managed to survive.
I did love how Eden put them in a pot that I had ready for another activity (that we did not get done by the way) thus making it seem as if that was the idea all along.

Autumn had fun setting up the disciples and Jesus in the Upper room ready for the week and especially Maundy Thursday for the little children to play with. I am pretty sure she had a very nice time playing with them as well.

She even improved it for us with a sign and windows for the apostles to look through

I so love that the children can re-enact these special events with the materials we have for them. It really makes the learning so much easier!

Our Palm Sunday painting we have up all year round with a couple of the new non palms  
palms placed on it prior to being covered up with purple cloth.

All our statues and religious pictures have either been covered or taken down and placed away for now until Easter.

Our Home altar in Red which is the Liturgical colour for the day.

Believe it or not we actually have pulled ALL our thorns from our salt dough crown and filled the  jar with our sacrifice beads and all before Holy week. I think this is a first for us.
Well done children !!

Well that is our Palm Sunday in a nutshell I pray you all have a most Holy week as we begin this final countdown to Easter!

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Palm Sunday - Hosanna, Hosanna

Palm Sunday truly is a most exciting day in our Liturgical Year!
It is the day when we share in the triumphant entry into Jerusalem by our Lord, where he was welcomed with such honour and glory, hope and joy by the people there.
A wonderful welcome they gave him as he came into their midst.

Today marks the start of the most important week in regards to our faith.
Holy Week is the culmination of the life of Jesus and his teachings.
This is the week that we truly see the range of emotions present in our lives as we go from excitement (Palm Sunday) to the servant hood of Jesus ( Maundy Thursday-Washing of the disciples feet and the Institution of the Eucharist), to despair (Good Friday) and finally absolute happiness in the risen Christ on Easter day.

From Catholic Culture: Holy Week is the pinnacle of Lent. We must instill in our children the importance of Holy Week. "The first efforts of all members of the family, then, will be to readjust their schedules at home in order to enter more fully into worship at their parish church on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening of Holy Week."

"So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!" And Jesus found a young ass and sat upon it; as it is written, "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on an ass's colt (Jn 12:13-15)!"

Here is a beautiful tradition that can be done from  the palm crosses that we make:
(How we make Palm Crosses each year)
As this is the day of the public homage to the kingship of Christ. The procession in church is an impressive act of loyalty to Christ the King. Christ reigns as king of the Christian home also, and so a family prayer service within the house is a memorable part of this day. After the family meal, the members gather in the living room.
From the palms received at the parish Mass, they prepare small crosses of palm to be pinned above the doorway of each room or woven palms to be placed behind the crucifix in each room.
(Or if your parish does not have palm crosses make them like we do)
Then the father reads the account of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem from the family Bible (Matt. 21:1-11).
Thereupon the mother, with a lighted candle, may lead a procession from one room to another. As they proceed, all sing "All Glory, Laud and Honor" (the hymn Gloria, laus, which is printed in the Holy Week booklet). Appropriate psalms may also be read aloud during the procession, especially Psalm 147, which is likewise in the Holy Week booklet, and Psalms 23 and 46. During the procession the children joyfully wave their blessed palms.
 After the rooms of the house have been visited, all return to the living room. Here the father reads the final prayer of the procession rite used in church today (to be found just before the beginning of Mass in the Holy Week booklet), asking God to bless all the places to which these palms have been carried. The small palm crosses or a woven palm should be kept visible in the home for the rest of the year as a daily reminder of our loyalty to Christ the King.

On Ash Wednesday of the following year it is proper to burn the remaining palms and to sprinkle the ashes on the good earth about the home or in the garden.
( the above activity is from Lent and Holy Week in the Home by Emerson and Arlene Hynes)

Don't forget to change your home altar to red cloths and any other aspects (like chasubles) to reflect the  liturgical colour for today

Ideas I had from last year
Palm Sunday in our home 2010

More information for your interest about Palm Sunday
Catholic Culture
Fisheaters
Wikipedia

Blessings to you and your homes,
 

Palm Sunday Ideas

So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!" And Jesus found a young ass and sat upon it; as it is written, "Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting on an ass's colt (Jn 12:13-15)!"

Ideas for Palm Sunday:
I have been thinking about our Holy week Plans and trying to get some ideas together.
Here are a few thoughts that I thought I would share especially for Palm Sunday~

Information about Palm  Branches and Palm Sunday

We will be definitely making Palm Crosses.

I am so keen to try to make these Palm Sunday Crosses (below in scanned form) from the book The Children's Year.

 There are so many great ideas to make with the children from this book and the others like it: All Year Round and Festivals Family and Food

Another lovely Palm Cross Idea

I will be printing this out for  our little ones to read with them as well as from the Picture Bible's we have.

Colouring Page 1
Colouring Page 2
Colouring Page 3

Word Search
Small Word Search

I seriously think this is a really good idea from Tiffany~ I think each child could have one of  these

You simply tie together a few sticks in the shape of a cross with hot glue and pipe cleaner.  We added a little drape with purple ribbon.  They will be a nice Good Friday reminder for our home altar and also to tack in the children's bedrooms later on.

From Tiffany's blog

We will be finish putting up our Three Crosses on our Hill that we traditionally do each year.

Corbyn started this one in March and was so keen to have it up.

So tomorrow we will put up two more.

Seriously I cannot think of anything else to do, and I am trying not to over burden myself or the children.

I will be posting more ideas we are doing for Holy week....Our theme will be focused on Egg crafts and ideas as well as making chocolate eggs and chocolate.

Blessings to you and your homes,

Making Palm Crosses for your Home for Palm Sunday

Perhaps you are luckier than us but we do not access to palm branches to make traditional Palm crosses for this most special day. I think that even though most of us cannot have access to Palm Branches that we can still make Palm Crosses. The task of making them together as a family is really a very special way to celebrate Palm Sunday

We have made them from native grass like materials and I do believe you could use any natural materials you have on hand.

We keep ours around the house and often use them for book marks (I in my Bible) and place one in each room of the house. We have even pinned them to the curtains and then on Ash Wednesday we burn them (like we did this year). 
I think it is great for the children to see the link from one year to the next.

We have made these Palm Crosses for a few years. We have used this version for years on how to make them even though I know there are lots of links out there. Here is a You Tube version too

I am planning on sharing some other ideas for Palm Sunday activities too.

Here is how we made Palm Crosses for our Home - Abbreviated from From Last Years Post

As we don't know where to get Palms from, Autumn came up with the idea to use the sags we have on our property. I don't know what they are exactly but they are very sharp and hard to get rid of.
Today we, Autumn and I made these palm crosses, well Autumn made most of them as I had to feed and comfort the sick baby.
Once she remembered how to make them, after a few 'stressful' moments when she couldn't get what I was showing her. Autumn really enjoyed making them.
We decided to make one for everyone and one for each room of the house. In total we made about 60.
After finishing the regulation size Autumn was keen to make as big a one as possible . These were what she came up with.
Earlier in the day I told the story of Palm Sunday using this Betty Lukin's Felt Display.
This is Rogan's turn at using the figures in his retelling .
I love how they put their own version together after my showing it first.
Father Pine with some of the palm crosses.
Our family altar for the day.

We hadn't covered up our religious pictures and statues in purple cloth at this stage but got to it afterwards. This is a very good explanation of why we do this.

I pray you have a Blessed Holy Week.

Blessings to you and your homes,