Some friends of ours welcomed their third child two weeks ago. Their daughter was born about eight weeks early, and while she’s thankfully doing well and will soon be coming home, they’ll spend Holy Week with her in the NICU.
Theirs is a dramatic form of what each of us faces in this holiest of weeks: Our Lord’s Way of the Cross will unfold against the backdrop of our own lives, our own struggles, joys, and everything in between.
All the while, we’ll have plenty of distractions to entice us into the “shallow end,” far from the cross and its depths. Yes, we may need to clean the house for an Easter brunch or get the kids’ Sunday outfits and Easter baskets ready, but we all know how easy it is to let “busy” be our excuse to stay in the shallows.
As our family lifted our friend’s daughter in prayer at Mass on Palm Sunday, we were moved by a homily that offered us a kind of roadmap for Holy Week. Fr. Michael Kelly, using a St. John Newman sermon—“The Cross of Christ: The Measure of the World”—as a jumping off point, urged us to embrace the Triduum and venture from the shallows of our culture (and our distracted hearts) and into the deep end.
Here is a prayer for Holy Week that we invite you to use—alone, or as a couple, or with your family—as you prepare your heart to receive the Risen Jesus anew in just a few days. Fr. Kelly’s words from the Palm Sunday homily are italicized. You may consider praying this antiphonally—with one person praying the italicized words, and the others praying the response:
Gaze upon the cross. Lord, this week, give me the grace to look upon you.
Join him in that suffering. Jesus, may I not stand far off.
Go with him to Gethsemane, and try to stay awake. Jesus, give me the grace to stay awake with you.
Walk with him. Jesus, give me the grace to walk with you.
Kiss his cross. Jesus, give me the grace to kiss your cross.
Take some of the burden of his cross on your own shoulders. Jesus, give me the grace to help you carry the cross.
Wipe the blood from his face. Jesus, give me the grace to attend to you.
Pull the nails out. Jesus, give me the grace of intimacy with your wounds.
Lay him in the loving arms of his Mother. Jesus, give me the grace to hold you.
Hold his face in your hands. Jesus, give me the grace to touch your face.
Just after the homily, as the gifts were brought forward, we sang the first verses of the great spiritual, “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” While the spiritual suggests a retrospective, a kind of looking back, each of us still has time this week to answer this question in the present tense with a whole-hearted “Yes, here I am!”
“Are You Here As They Crucify Our Lord?” is the stunning invitation to love that presents itself before our hearts, our marriages, and our families today, on the threshold of the Triduum.
> It might seem obvious…but one fitting way to prepare for the Triduum is to spend time in prayer with the daily readings. Here is the USCCB daily readings calendar.
> “Two Questions to Get You Back on Track for Holy Week” includes this insight: “When we seek to live Holy Week well, it’s not because we want to cross off some checklist of religious practices, but because our love for Jesus means we want to walk beside Him during this hard and beautiful week when He fulfilled His mission on earth.”
> Consider taking your family to pray the Stations of the Cross this week. This post, “Your Stations of the Cross” may help with uniting your own cross with his.
> There’s still time to join us and married couples from around the DC metropolitan area at the upcoming “Full of Faith: Your Marriage Is Hallowed Ground” day-long retreat on Apr. 13 at St. Bridget’s in beautiful Berryville, VA. We will share meditations and practical tools that have blessed our marriage of nearly 23 years. Invest in your marriage by setting this time aside to grow closer to one another and to our Lord! Reserve your spot here.
> Curious about starting a Trinity House Community Group in your parish this fall? Learn more here and schedule a 15-minute call/zoom with our team here. For just $499, your parish can access all the tools needed to host 5 transformative Gatherings for families, including videos, discussion questions, marketing templates, catechetical resources, ongoing support, and more.
“Our Trinity House Community Group has been a joyful experience for both parents and children. The kids look forward to having fun at church, while the parents have meaningful adult discussions about relevant, at home topics. Running a household doesn’t come with a manual, but this program is about as close as it gets to one.”
– Dan & Andrea Palcic, Leesburg, VA
