by Fr Gabriel-Allan Boyd
The Boyd Family Home Altar
This year, we’re observing Holy Week and Pascha from our homes, but we don’t need to feel anxious about that. Christ tramples down death by death and rises from the tomb whether we’re together inside the temple of our Church or not, and no viral pandemic will change that. There have been many circumstances throughout history (including times of plague) where Christians have had to celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection away from Church, sometimes even in prisons, concentration camps, and gulags. Periodically, Christians have had to pray through Holy Week in makeshift “chapels,” in their homes, under trees, or in army barracks, and they have had to be resourceful in finding supplies, turning bedsheets into vestments and tin cups into chalices. In some situations, oppressed Christians could do little more than whisper memorized prayers and use whatever they could find on hand to imaginatively re-create the Church experiences their hearts remembered. And looking back on those times, they sometimes found that these became the most profound kinds of Paschas…whereby God sent His deepest joys just when we needed them most…when our praises and worship weren’t easy, but required our effort and imagination.
So, since this virus forces us, let’s joyfully make the most of it and enthusiastically embrace a different sort of Pascha, a first of its kind, history-making, digital Pascha, to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection more quietly at home. Let’s be creative with the gifts God has given us during this time, to engage with our timeless faith and with each other.
We only have a few short days to prepare, so let’s look ahead to see if any trips to the store would be necessary right now. Let’s make this coming of Holy Week at home as tangible as our experience could possibly be, using all 5 senses in worship. Make sure that you have plenty of incense and charcoal and candles ready at home, so you can approximate a worship experience there as closely as possible, bringing memories of all those beloved previous Holy Weeks to your senses. Let’s dig out our Holy Week books now, so that we and our families can follow along with the services. Also, let’s set aside all the times of worship during Holy Week…planning for your whole family to be there engaging with the other beloved parish members digitally. By God’s grace, with our focused effort, we’ve got this!
PRINT NOW this Holy Week Home Guide resource to help take you and your family through each day.
NOTE: Send me photos (FrBoyd.StBasil@gmail.com) of what you and your family are doing at home to commemorate each day of Holy Week and Pascha. I’ll post these photos on our St Basil FaceBook Site as an added way for us to be together during Holy Week and Pascha, while we, out of love for those around us, are staying apart.
If you are able, make a habit each liturgy of lighting some incense and having each member of your family light their own reusable candle, similar to how you would do when you enter the Church. Then, watch the services together. You can read along from AGES Digital Chant Stand on your phone if you don’t have a Holy Week Book.
Lazarus Saturday
· Preparation before the Liturgy. If you have an icon of the Raising of Lazarus put it in your worship space where you’ll be engaging with the digital liturgy. If you don’t have one, you can print one of your own by clicking here. Then, adorn your home’s worship space with flowers and greenery. It doesn’t have to be much. Whatever you find in your yard that’s beautiful will be a lovely offering to God.
· Breakfast After watching the online liturgy together, prepare a traditional Lazarus Saturday pancake breakfast. Talk together about the story of Lazarus. If you’re by yourself, then call another parishioner to discuss with them. When Jesus received news that his friend Lazarus was dying, why did He wait so long before coming? When He finally did arrive to the scene, why did Jesus weep at the death of Lazarus? If He had the power of life over death, what made Him cry? Why is this story from Jesus life put right before we enter Holy Week? Does it have anything to do with Holy Week?
· Palm Folding Click here for a video tutorial on folding palm crosses to prepare ahead for liturgy the next day. If you don’t have any palm leaves to use, go out into your yard or in the neighborhood to see if you can find any kind of long-leaf plant that you can substitute to make your own palm crosses for each member of the family. If you can’t find any long-leafed plants, then use pieces of green ribbon, or green construction paper, or white paper that you color green with crayons. You get the idea. This is a time for us to be creative and resourceful with our Holy Tradition. Decorate your worship space with some. For slightly more ambitious ideas to do with the kids, you can also go here and here. The kids can wave these during the next day’s procession.
Palm Sunday
· Use the palms that your kids have made to wave during the entrance.
· Have a fish lunch.
· Talk about: Why did the people give Christ such a welcome into Jerusalem? What were they expecting from Him? How was Jesus different from what they expected?
Bridegroom Services – Sunday, Monday & Tuesday Evenings
· On Sunday, print out and put an icon of the Bridegroom to put in your home worship space. Talk about why a bridegroom would be dressed in such a “bridal garment” with His hands bound, a crown of thorns on His head, a reed for a king’s scepter, and a robe of mockery. What does this mean? How does this relate to our pre-communion prayer, “How shall I, who am unworthy, enter into the splendor of your saints? If I dare to enter into the bridal chamber, my clothing will accuse me, since it is not a wedding garment; and being bound up, I shall be cast out by the angels”? What does this prayer mean that we’re supposed to be mystically/spiritually wearing when we approach the bridal chamber of the chalice?
· Memorize Matthew 25:6 “Behold the Bridegroom is coming, go out to meet Him.”
· Get some figs or Fig Newton cookies to eat together. Talk together about the Sunday evening reading about Christ cursing the fig tree and it withering, because it wasn’t bearing fruit. Why kind of fruit are we supposed to be offering from our lives?
· On Monday evening, the Gospel Reading has Christ giving woes to the scribes and Pharisees. This Holy Week is especially challenging in taking out of our Tradition’s comfort zone. Talk about the ways our lives might unfortunately be more like those Scribes and Pharisees, where we put too much focus on the form and miss the spirit of what Christ is asking us to do.
· On Tuesday evening is the Hymn of Kassiani – do a Google search to find out about who she is.The Gospel Reading for Tuesday night is John 12:17-50, where Jesus at the end of the reading talks about coming as light into the world. As a reflection, turn off the light in the room for a few moments and let the room get dark. Then turn the light back on. How quickly did the darkness go away? Were the light and darkness in a battle with each other, or does light completely overcome darkness? Talk about the effects on the world when we decide to live our lives joining ourselves to Christ and His light, bearing the fruit of doing things that He asks us to do. What kind of effect do those things have on the darkness in the world?
Holy Wednesday
· Put some Olive Oil in a little bowl inside a bigger bowl of flour.
· Create a list of anyone you know that’s sick.
· Put a candle in the bowl of flour and pray along in the service for all your sick friends.
· At the end of the service, using a Q-tip, you can anoint each other with the oil.
Holy Thursday
· Place an icon of the Last Supper, found in the “Holy Week From Home Guide” to put in your worship space.
· This is the day we traditional dye our eggs red to get ready for Pascha.
· Last Supper – bake a loaf of bread using the bowl of flour you used for the Unction Service last night.
· Consider washing each other’s feet like Christ did for His disciples. Talk about what it means for us, as followers of Christ, to become servants of all. What would that look like for you?
Holy Friday
· Print out a copy of an Epitaphios (the tapestry icon we normally process on Holy Friday, of Christ lying dead). There is a great photo of an Epitaphios in the “Holy Week From Home Guide”.
· Collect rose petals from your neighborhood to spread around your worship space. Reflect upon the myrrh-bearers who prepared Christ’s body, wrapping Him in a clean linen cloth, to be buried in the tomb.
· Choose an hour or some time for each family member to stand by, guarding “the tomb,” while each reads their favorite Psalms.
Holy Saturday
· This morning service is the first time we proclaim “Christ is Risen!” Gather flower petals and small leaves from your yard or neighborhood to scatter around your worship space. The priest traditionally uses flower petals from the Kouvouklion and bay leaves. Be ready for when he comes out, throwing them into the air. Then you and your family do that too.
· Decorate a candle for the evening service.
· Make and decorate a sign saying, He is Risen! He is not here! for your home-made “empty tomb”.
· Use the day to prepare your Pascha basket and fill your home with good smells.
Pascha
· He is Risen! He is not here!
· Get dressed for church.
· Have your Pascha basket there at the ready in your worship space for when we do our blessing at the end.
· Turn off the lights in your home and make it dark just before midnight. When the Priest comes out at midnight with the holy light be ready to also light your candle at home, then lighting everyone else’s candle in your family, filling your home with the light of Christ. Sing “Christ is Risen!” and all the other hymns that you know. Your kids might even enjoy ringing bells (or substitute clanging on pot lids or whatever you find at hand) to make joyful noise at this point.
· Follow along with the Gospel reading of Mark 16:1-8 (the one we traditionally read outside the doors of the Church).
· Then follow along online with the Divine Liturgy. Participate with the responses during the reading of Saint John Chrysostom’s Pascha Homily.
Agape Service – Sunday Afternoon
· Tune in to our live feed for this joyful service where the Gospel is read in several languages. Imagine yourselves being with those tired disciples of Jesus on the day of His resurrection. Did they feel joyful, confused, afraid, and did they wonder what this meant for the future?
· From the Church, we’ll be reading English, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew and Romanian. This is the only Orthodox liturgical service, with a priest present, where laypeople are permitted to read the Gospel as well. Does anyone in your family know a different language? Have them read the Gospel in the language they know.
· After the service, spend the day feasting on your favorite Pascha foods and wonder about what this all means. What does the Lord have in mind for us to do and to be from this point going forward?