40 Ideas for 40 Days – Lenten Activities: Holy Week Basket

This Lenten activity is an opportunity for catechists to connect Holy Week and the end of Lent to the celebration of Easter.

easter-basket

Holy Week Basket

  • We are all familiar with Easter Baskets. This activity takes the Easter Basket and transforms it into a Holy Week Basket in preparation for the celebration of Easter.
  • Place a traditional Easter Basket (filled with that fake green grass!) in the center of the room.
  • In the basket, place a number of plastic eggs that you have filled with slips of paper that have suggestions for how to make Holy Week more holy. Suggestions:
    • each day of Holy Week, read the Gospel for the day
    • spend 15 minutes in silence each day
    • pray the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary
    • Get to church early for each of the Holy Week services and spend some quiet time in prayer
    • rent an inspirational film such as Jesus of Nazareth, King of Kings, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Passion of the Christ, Fr. Barron’s Catholicism, etc.
    • listen to some inspirational music
    • fast from one meal each day
    • fast from watching TV
    • fast from surfing the Internet, spending time on Facebook, etc.
    • fast from your iPod
    • gather up loose change and donate it to a charity
    • volunteer to work at a soup kitchen or shelter
    • volunteer to help at a parish activity
    • volunteer to participate in a special role at one of the Holy Week services
    • go through your closet and drawers and gather up some clothes to donate to charity
    • begin some spring cleaning in and around the house, starting with your own room
    • make Easter cards for your family and godparents and for anyone you know who is ill
    • visit someone who is sick or lonely
    • plant some flowers
    • help your parents do the Easter food shopping and preparation of Easter meals
    • keep a quiet atmosphere on Good Friday: no TV, radio, or computer for a few hours in the afternoon.
    • pray the Stations of the Cross
    • other ideas? PLEASE SHARE THEM!
  • Have each young person take one of the eggs and open it to get their Holy Week suggestion.
  • Go around the group and ask them to read aloud the Holy Week suggestion they received.
  • Announce the times of Holy Week services at your parish and encourage the young people to attend and participate.
  • Play some quiet instrumental music and invite the young people to come forward one at a time to place their egg back in the basket in preparation for the celebration of Easter.
  • Remind them that the egg is a symbol of the tomb of Jesus from which he arose.

40 Ideas for 40 Days
Download the PDF version of this activity.

40 Ideas for 40 Days
Check out all of the activities for Lent.
About Joe Paprocki 2758 Articles
Joe Paprocki, DMin, is National Consultant for Faith Formation at Loyola Press, where, in addition to his traveling/speaking responsibilities, he works on the development team for faith formation curriculum resources including Finding God: Our Response to God’s Gifts and God’s Gift: Reconciliation and Eucharist. Joe has more than 35 years of experience in ministry and has presented keynotes, presentations, and workshops in more than 100 dioceses in North America. Joe is a frequent presenter at national conferences including the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, the Mid-Atlantic Congress, and the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership. He is the author of numerous books, including the best seller The Catechist’s Toolbox, A Church on the Move, Under the Influence of Jesus, and Called to Be Catholic—a bilingual, foundational supplemental program that helps young people know their faith and grow in their relationship with God. Joe is also the series editor for the Effective Catechetical Leader and blogs about his experiences in faith formation at www.catechistsjourney.com.

3 Comments on 40 Ideas for 40 Days – Lenten Activities: Holy Week Basket

  1. This is the world’s stupidest questions, but here goes! How do I read the whole post? I went to Lenten Activities under Liturgical Seasons and Feasts, then clicked on several of the titles, but I still can’t read anything but the first few words.

  2. HI! I love your ideas…going to try this today with our Sunday Children’s liturgy of the Word group…big age range. We have 4 year olds and 6th graders. I am planning to have the bigs help the littles read and understand the messages after from the eggs after we do a Reader’s Theater of today’s gospel.

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