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Email a FriendToo funny - I just blogged about this exact question here today! http://motheringspirit.wordpress.com/2011/04/19/a-holy-week-at-home/
I’m obviously looking at it more from the perspective of someone who will hopefully be at the Triduum liturgies but not able to participate fully in the way I’d like to (thanks to parenting duties, etc.), but I think some of this might apply to your situation as well. There’s so much we can do to live out Holy Week at home - in the domestic church - as well as at the liturgies!
You might also like to check out Creighton University’s campus ministry website for resources on the Triduum. They have wonderful prayers and reflections that help to prepare for these celebrations, whether or not you can be there in person: http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Lent/holyweek2.html
When You Can't Go
Posted by Arwen Mosher in Faith on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 11:03 PM
I’m enjoying reading the answers to Rachel’s question about your favorite Holy Week observances. But it is also making me a little wistful.
When I was a kid the Triduum seemed like an interminable parade of long, boring services. As an adult I’ve learned to love the sorrow and glory of this week’s liturgies, and I look forward to them every year.
This year I will be missing out. After a serious chat with my doctor yesterday, we came to the agreement that I can go to Mass on Easter Sunday as long as certain conditions are met that day (and I’ll be resting hard in preparation) but that - for various reasons - it is not a good idea for me to attend the other Triduum services.
I’d been hoping to make Good Friday at least, so this was a bummer, but I’m trying to focus on Easter morning. It’s going to be beautiful, and I can’t wait. In the meantime, I’ll be commemorating the rest of the Triduum from the couch.
I’m trying to plan ahead, finding things to read and pray so that I can participate in the Triduum celebration as much as possible from afar. But I’m not quite sure where to start.
I bet I’m not the first person who’s been forced by circumstances to stay home from the liturgies on the biggest weekend of the Church year.
If you’ve ever commemorated Holy Thursday or Good Friday from home, did you find a way to make it special? Do you have any special resources to recommend to me or others in the same situation? I’d love all the help I can get!
Comments
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This is a great question! I have an 11 month old whose bedtime is right when Thursday and Friday masses start. We have taken her to evening mass before, but it generally means I spend 90% of it in the lobby so she doesn’t disturb everyone. I decided not to go this year but I am bummed! Hoping to get some ideas for how to “celebrate” at home.
I am in the same boat, mostly because I now have kids who can’t sit through the marathon Easter Vigil service that I love. I haven’t been since I became a mom. My husband heads RCIA at our parish, so he’s always there, lucky guy. But in my first year as a mom, I realized that there were bits of the Easter story all around me if I kept my eyes open. Here’s an article I wrote about it a while back.
http://www.uscatholic.org/church/2008/06/babys-first-holy-week
Hang in there—as you know, your sacrifice is all for a great cause. 
Have a blessed Holy Week.
Thanks for sharing the article! Made me realize that I am not the only one struggling to experience the Mass while parenting.
Beautiful writing & great reflections, Ginny! I’m going to add this link to my blog - thanks!
Just beautiful, and so true. Thank you for sharing that, Ginny.
Missing those hours in Adoration, kissing the cross, and singing in darkness, instead I’ll be awaiting the cries of a needy teething baby and celebrating a 6yr old’s birthday. Not what I’d prefer, but just what I am called to
Almost 10 years ago now, I ended up in the hospital on Good Friday. I remember being so bummed! I did have a strong sense that I was missing out, but the beautiful thing about community is that you are lifted up by those who can attend. I found that comforting. Also, how blessed are we that we have wonderful media outlets (EWTN, CatholicTV, etc.) who can bring a taste of these liturgies to our couches? (Whether via TV or Internet.) It may not be the same as “being there”, but it does help unite yourself to the rest of the Church.
Prayers for you and your family, Arwen, this Holy Week! I will lift you up in a special way this weekend. I pray that you and the babies are well!
Holy Week has always been observed by our family. My husband closes his office early Friday morning and we are in Good Friday service at noon. This year, for the first time, my husband found out he has a court appearance at 3 pm on Good Friday. We are just so bummed, and a little more discouraged by the secular world we live in. The kids and I will say the rosary at 3. When my husband gets home we will watch the Passion of the Christ. We don’t watch it every year.
Most of us will be going to the Easter vigil, I am sponsoring my friend coming in to the Church. Our 7, 4, and 2 year olds won’t attend the vigil, so we will go to Mass on Sunday morning too; I don’t want them to miss the Easter morning experience.
I am really hoping to make it to Holy Thursday, but I know in previous years I have watched the EWTN broadcast when I couldn’t. Good Friday probably won’t be possible because it’s naptime for the littles and dh is working. I am planning to spend the afternoon quietly, and watch Passion of the Christ that evening. I can also remember a few years ago listening to the Easter Vigil live from Rome on the radio. It’s not ideal but I just keep reminding myself that all too soon these little guys will be big enough to handle it all.
Seven years ago, my husband turned 50…on Good Friday. But what made it different was not that fact. What made it different was that his Dad, my beloved father-in-law, passed away from cancer the day before. Good Friday found us making our way with our four heart-broken kids on a 400 mile road trip to his parent’s home for funeral arrangements and more. We took a missalette along and we read the readings on the road. It wan’t traditional at all…and yet it was where God asked us to be that Good Friday. And that really is what it is all about. Dying to what we would like to do and living what He asks us to do.
I am in the same boat. Currently 12 weeks pregnant and stuck on the couch with horrible nausea, I will also be spending Holy Week at home. My husband’s rotating shift has doled out day shift Friday, Sat and Sunday - phooey. My sister-in-law will be in town and has offered to help me with the kids during Mass on Sunday so we can go (there is no way I could handle them on my own in my present condition). I will be observing with the following:
~ watching Fr. Corapi’s video on the Triduum
~ catching all of EWTN’s broadcasts of event that I can
~ watching “The Passion of the Christ” on Good Friday (this will be the ONLY noise allowed in out home that day)
~ time spent in prayer and meditation
I will not be doing any reading (it makes me nausea), but would recommend reading the accounts of the Passion from the Scriptures.
And most of all, offer it up! 
Nothing brings you closer to Christ in these situations than uniting your sufferings with Him. And what a beautiful time of the year to be given to gift to do so.
My grandmother had 3 hours of quiet time in contemplation on Good Friday when my mother was young. I hope to observe this in the car on my way to visit relatives in TN for Easter this year. You could also site the prayers in the missalette that are sited during Good Friday services as a family.
You could also get your children involved in washing your feet for Holy Thursday! You could probably use a little pampering AND you would be teaching them about Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.
I second much of what’s been said—read all the Mass readings, watch what you can on EWTN or listen on the radio, maybe get Pope Benedict’s new book on Jesus and Holy Week (I’ve just started it and found it much easier to follow than the first book, if that is encouraging to you!). Pray and unite your sacrifices with those of Christ and your new life in utero with His new Life! I’m due to have baby number three any day, so this Holy Week has been quite meaningful to me—and while I hope not to miss Mass on Easter, I wouldn’t mind being sidelined sometime during the Triduum to give birth!
I’ve watched the liturgical celebrations I can’t attend (due to small kids) on EWTN. They are often the recordings from Rome with our Holy Father I love it, as a next best thing to being at our parish. I usually record them and watch them during afternoon naps, when kids are in bed, or even watch them while kids play. They enjoy seeing our Holy Father and know the different parts of the Mass to participate at times. It is also great to answer their questions—PAUSE the tv and answer, which can be hard to do at Mass!
I’m looking forward to another year of celebrating at home and know we’ll be able to go as a family someday!
What a great topic—thanks for bringing it up! I love to get ideas from other readers!
I love the CD compilation of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s recordings on “The True Meaning of Easter.” If you can’t attend Triduum services, I think it would be a rich spiritual treat to listen and meditate on the scripture and words of Bishop Sheen.
http://soundmindandspirit.blogspot.com/2010/03/true-meaning-of-easter.html
I can’t even remember the last time our whole family (that’s just four of us) attended both Holy Thursday and Good Friday services. It’s even possible we never have. Why? BEcause we are always sick at this time of year so those who are well go and those who are not watch the services on EWTN. We have illness here again this year so we are adding the old miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth, to the schedule. We will do Stations, the rosary, and the Office at home. We also observe absolute silence from the hours between noon and 3 pm on Good Friday (my kids are old enough for that). I always feel that even though I am sorely disappointed (when I was single Holy Week was my favorite week of the year) I feel we are doing our penance by just being sick
We aren’t able to attend any of the Tridium events. Holy Thursday Mass is at 7:30, and we wouldn’t get home till close to 9, which would push bedtime back too late. Good Friday service is at 3pm, and my son usually isn’t up from his nap by then. My husband and I will pray the Rosary during his naptime and abstain from any type of media/phone between noon and 3.
I won’t be able to go to any of the evening stuff because it’s so late and we are nearly 40 minutes away each direction….that wouldn’t be so bad in and of itself, but if my little people get a nap in the car that late then they are up until midnight! Yikes!
Plus, we have an epic-cold/flu combo that just WON’T. LEAVE. US. ALONE.
I think it’s best if we just stay here and pray as a family….rather than share our germs with all of the prayerful.
A Blessed Holy week to all!
I have a disabled daughter who cannot attend Church because large spaces and crowds make her ill. St. Ann’s Media, on the web, televises all of the Triduum services. They, also, have daily Mass from St. Ann’s Cathedral. Sunday Mass is televised by Sunday Mass.org from St. Malechy’s Chapel in Times Square. They both are presented by the Passionist priests and do a wonderful job!
A great way to celebrate the Triduum at home is to do a Christian seder meal, full of meaningful fun for the whole family and a great way to understand the holy days more fully. A great Christian adaptation of the Jewish Passover feast, complete with directions and script can be found at http://www.lightsmyway.com
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