"Behold, behold, the wood of the cross, on which is hung our salvation. Come let us adore."
On this Good Friday the big kids and I were able to pray the Stations of the Cross while hiking to the top of a mountain at a local shrine dedicated to St. Francis Xavier Cabrini. It was moving to see hundreds of the faithful making the way along side us. The young couple climbing the nearly 400 steps on their knees, the teenaged boy weeping manly tears at the 12th station, the family praying the Divine Mercy Chaplet at the foot of the crucifix, this are the images I want my children to have of living the Triduum as a child.
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| The inspiring view at the top of the mountain. |
When we arrived home shortly after 3:00 I had the kids shroud all of the images of Christ throughout our home, just like they do at our churches. This is a tradition we've held since our first, and only, Easter before Bean was born.
And I was happy to see, that after weeks of sacrificing, our crown of thorns only had one lone thorn, which I believe has already been pulled by a pair of little hands.
In the morning we made a chocolate crown of thorns out of almond bark and pretzels, which will be eaten of Easter. While we made it we didn't eat any of the chocolate, not even the melted goodness on our fingers. For a five year old, this is a real sacrifice. On Easter I'll fill the center of the crown with dyed eggs and turn it into a nest to remind us of new life.
We also crafted our paschal candle today. While typically we would do this on Holy Saturday (because the paschal candles for our churches are marked and used for the first time at the Easter Vigil on Saturday night), we have guests coming for Pysanky tomorrow and I don't think we'll have time. Using an illustrated guide from FOCUS and these instructions from Catholic Culture we taught the kids about the candle as we created it.
And before heading out for a 7:00 Passion Service (which we had to leave early from, but at I'm glad we tried!), the kids pulled out the Resurrection Eggs. Bean put on a "show" for us by telling the story of Holy Week in her own words. It's nice to know things are sinking in.
