40/40 – Lenten Activities: A Holy Week Gift Box

Joe Paprocki Lenten Activities

Throughout Lent, a number of catechists weighed in with contributions of their own. I’m pleased to share the following activity with you from a catechist named Greg in my home state of Illinois! Thanks, Greg!

Holy Week Gift BoxA Holy Week Gift Box

Hi Joe,

I teach my last class before Easter this week on Palm Sunday afternoon (to my 7th graders).

I would love to leave each of my students with something as both a “gift” and a daily devotional idea for each day of Holy Week since we won’t be seeing each other.

My idea is to take a gift box (cube shape….they are cheap enough at the craft stores) and put an idea on each face of the box for each day (Monday through Saturday) of Holy Week. They will have a message also on the box not to open the box until Easter Sunday. The inside of the box will likely have a simple votive candle and I think I am going to put in a personalized card (that I can cut and paste off the internet) with the religious (or Saint) meaning behind the name of each of my students as well as a plastic egg with something each student can do to carry on the spirit of Lent (got the plastic egg idea from you).

For the 6 faces of the box, Thursday, Friday and Saturday are obvious. Do you have any suggestions for Holy Week that I can put for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday? Any other suggestions to enhance this idea would be greatly appreciated. <I suggested to Greg that he look to the Scripture readings for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Holy Week to draw symbols from. -joe>

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About Joe Paprocki 2742 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.

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1 Comment

  1. What a neat idea. You may check to see when the Chrism Mass is in your Diocese. In our Dicoese our Chrism Mass is celebrated on Tuesday of Holy Week, so a symbol of the Oils woudl be a great sign. The priest also gather and renew their vows, so a prayer for priests may be abother item to add. In our program for people with disabilities, we gave out resurrection eggs with a symbol in each egg.
    We used a praying hands sticker and the scripture reference Mark 14:32-42 to remind us that Jesus went to the Garden of Gethesmane to pray with his dicsiples.
    Hope these ideas help.

    Reply

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