Living the Liturgical Year Well – April: O Come Holy Spirit

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The month of April is dedicated to the Holy Spirit. This year April will also host Holy Week and Easter as well as Divine Mercy Sunday. It will be a full month! Spring has also arrived, a delightful season in which all things become new both physically and spiritually. The Church is amazing in its wisdom, Easter would not have the same impact if it was in the depth of winter. But with Easter in the spring, it allows nature and earth to proclaim the truth of this grandest of feasts  in a wonderfully tangible way.

The Holy Spirit

I feel like the Holy Spirit is the neglected person in the Holy Trinity in my own spiritual life. I often feel that my focus on the Lord as Father and Son is greater than on the Holy Spirit. We usually deep dive into the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit during Confirmation preparation, but He is an otherwise neglected member of the family. This year I want to change that. I have pulled out a very small book, more like a booklet, that we have read before, but not for quite some time. The Holy Ghost: Our Greatest Friend, He Who Loves Us Best by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan, O.P. (E.D.M.).
I chose a short book because of Holy week and Easter taking place this month as well. I want this focus on the Holy Spirit to lead us all the way to Pentecost and to a greater devotion to Him.

The plan

 The Holy Ghost: Our Greatest Friend, He Who Loves Us Best by Fr. Paul O’Sullivan, O.P. (E.D.M.) is very short and has 11 chapters. The plan is to read a chapter a day and to create a simple journal entry each day on what we have learned and to review the importance of a well made Sign of the Cross. That’s it. I want to keep it very simple, as this liturgical season is already so full and abundant. But I do not want to neglect the Holy Spirit any further!
In the long term, I want to add a Pentecost lapbook including some of our journal entries as well as the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit. I am saying long term as Pentecost is not until June 8th this year! I will keep you posted on this project and make it available if it comes to fruition.

Palm Sunday

Palm Sunday ushers the holiest of weeks during which we will be meditating on our Lord’s passion and his love for us. It is a joyful occasion. After attending Mass and collecting our new palms, they are displayed throughout the house. We pull out our Palm Sunday picture books:

• Humphrey’s First Palm Sunday, by Carol Heyer
• That’s My Colt: An Easter Tale, by Dandi Daley Mackall

We will read them while enjoying a dessert containing dates. This year the in-house baker has declared that this Sticky Toffee Bundt Cake should be it. It does look perfectly delicious! As a family, we have made palms of palms in the past, we will see if it happens this year (some of the “children” think that they are getting too cool for crafts like this.). We try to keep it to a simple celebration. We will also start on the book: The Art of Holy Week and Easter by Sister Wendy Beckett. Our family has really enjoyed the Lent one and I would recommend it. Families with younger children might have to paraphrase the meditations, but the art is still beautiful and thought provoking.

Holy Week

The first three days of Holy Week are busy ones with house cleaning, egg decorating and Easter preparations. 

On Holy Thursday we will plan on having Alice Gunther’s Lenten Tea for lunch. This simple, yet powerful way to prepare for the upcoming Mass of the Last Supper and the institution of the Eucharist is always very moving and somewhat solemn. We do not usually all sit down together at the same time for lunch, so sitting down altogether and having a more formal lunch makes it very special. Some years we have done it on our own, others we have invited friends to join us. For many years we did this in the evening before Mass, if there were many littles too young to attend Mass, but as everyone is now old enough, we have moved it to lunch. 

After Mass we will all attend some time of Adoration in the Garden of Repose at our parish.

On Good Friday, we try to maintain a certain level of quiet: no screens, no audiobooks, no music. For the last few years, a family in our community has hosted a Second Lenten Tea, and it has been a wonderful experience to share. We do it potluck style  with each family bringing some of the elements of the Tea. We then all gather and head to our parish for the service. This gathering of families has been such a profound opportunity to share our faith altogether. It has united the participating families in a way that just seeing each other at Mass on Sunday had not quite accomplished. It has deepened our friendships, for parents and children, and we have been a stronger prayer community thanks to this. We also start the Divine Mercy novena on that day. 

Holy Saturday is another quiet day without screens, most of the Easter preparations were accomplished by Wednesday and there is a waiting feeling that is hard to describe.

Easter

Whether we attend the Easter Vigil Mass or the first Mass on Sunday morning, all the pretty dresses are out, and the feeling of joyful anticipation is palpable. We are blessed that our parish likes to celebrate in style and Easter Mass is always triumphant!. Once we return home, an Easter egg hunt is always the first thing that happens. The eggs have been many things from sweets (always) to Easter picture books and spiritual books. Some years Easter ornaments have been found as well. It is always a fun and exciting time. We also try to take a family picture, sometimes the only one of the year, lol! I am not very good at this! Then a wonderful Easter brunch follows either at home or shared with friends and family. Everything remains simple and joyful.

The Octave of Easter

How I wish that our world would still follow the Church rhythm… It would make the Octave of Easter so much more peaceful and fulfilling. Unfortunately come Easter Monday morning duty calls and we have to get back into the swing of things. We try to maintain a joyful atmosphere at home with special food. Sometime during the week we will have a third Tea, the Easter Tea! Again we try to share it with friends and to make it an opportunity to rejoice as a community. I just looked at the date of Alice’s post and it’s from 2006! That means we have been doing this, on and off, for almost 20 years!! It really doesn’t feel like it! We also keep up with the tradition of the Garden of the Good Shepherd, but that is harder to share as it has been out of print for many years. The Garden of the Good Shepherd needs to come back! It was so very beautiful and fun! It helped keep the 50 days of the Easter season set apart.

Divine Mercy Sunday and the Easter season

Divine Mercy Sunday is another simple celebration, usually with a dessert inspired by one of the recipes on Catholic Cuisine. Attending Mass should always be the greatest part of any liturgical celebration, and sometimes that is enough.
The rest of the Easter season will be spent back in our school rhythm, usually accompanied by the Garden of the Good Shepherd (which I feel bad bringing up since it is no longer available, but maybe if enough of us start asking for it, it might happen, lol! Not sure who to ask though…)

Farm life is usually in full swing by now and much of our time is spent outside. Having an image or icon of the Resurrection front and center on the home altar helps remind us of the season and its glory.

The Liturgical Board

The Liturgical Board is a little different for this month with a lot of changes happening during the month. 

• Purple surrounding: the first 12 days will focus on the Holy Spirit. 
• Red: Holy Week, I will most likely change the image based on the day or have all  of them in a row, not sure yet. 
• Yellow: Easter season and Divine Mercy, I will place the image of the Resurrection on the board on Easter Sunday and leave it there. Then I will add the Divine Mercy Image on Divine Mercy Sunday. 

I will change the ribbon from purple to yellow on Easter Sunday as well.

I wish you a beautiful end of the lenten season and a magnificent Easter season!
Love,
Mattie