All year, one of the ways I help my children prepare for Sunday Mass is to teach them the sung Psalm Response for that week. (Our musician sings exactly what's in the book, so that makes my job easy! It's also a fun exercise for me in sight singing, and Junie B. practices identifying time signatures and clapping out note rhythms as part of her music lessons. She also copies the Psalm Response and posts it on the kitchen door so we can see it during meals.) Whenever there is a reading that lends itself easily to it, we also may act out or do a flannel board story about it -- with the hope that the familiarity will increase the likelihood that they will pay attention a bit during Mass itself.
Of course, the Easter Vigil, with its gazillion readings and psalm responses, stretches us to the limit in this department! I wish I had started at the beginning of Lent, perhaps focusing on a reading and psalm response each week rather than cramming it all in during Holy Week (oh, well! Next year!), but this week we're doing 0ur best to at least make the stories and psalm responses fresh and familiar ahead of time.
Junie B. and Taz actually love and are looking forward to the Easter Vigil, long and late as it is. We've had to search far and wide to find a parish that actually "does it right" with all the majesty and music and emphasis on going from darkness to light, that together make the Easter Vigil the most awe-inspiring and beautiful liturgy of the entire Church year; and last year we actually found one! (I'd been telling Step 1 & Step 2 since we first met about how beautiful the Easter Vigil liturgy can be, and last year they finally said, "Now I get it!")
(Of course, the little ones also love that we'll be stopping at Tim Horton's after Mass for a late-night snack of doughnuts and hot chocolate, ending their 6-week wilderness experience of life without sugar!) (And I'll be very excited to have a cuppa joe, extra-large, heavy on the cream, myself -- I don't even care if it keeps me awake all night!) :)
If I were as wonderful as Alice at Cottage Blessings (and no matter how hard I try, I have resigned myself to the reality that I will never be :) ), I'd have followed her beautiful path for preparing the children for the Easter Vigil that she completed with her older girls a few years back. Especially memorable to me is the beauty of the children taking home the Easter Flame! That Alice. (Actually, I hope to do this at least with Junie B. next year, and maybe a simpler, but equally gentle, version of it with the little boys as well.)
Meanwhile, here's a peek at some of what we're doing this week to prepare for the Easter Vigil.
- Sung responses: Instead of singing the Psalm Response at the end of grace before meals every day (as is our usual practice), we're singing, "Christ our light: Thanks Be to God!" Then, at the beginning of prayer and story times, we're singing "The Lord Be With You/Lift up your hearts" sequence in the Exsultet (I intone, they respond). It's actually kinda fun! (And it's very exciting for me to hear my children's little voices raised high during Mass itself!) To make this little practice even easier, I've found an online recording of the Exsultet. It's such a beautiful, almost mesmerizing chant.
- Psalm Responses: Oh, there are so many to learn! We're just taking the opportunity to generally familiarize ourselves with each of the Psalm Responses by praying one or two of them each day from start to finish. Again, I wish I'd had the foresight to start earlier; but at least they won't be completely new when they hear them at Mass on Saturday night.
- Readings: There are three OT readings that lend themselves to easy preparation: The story of Creation, Abraham & Isaac, and the Parting of the Red Sea. We are focusing on these three stories using the flannel board, paper bag puppet & figurine reenactments and role play (this is so much fun! I don't think they'll ever forget last week's role play of Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem, starring Junie B. as the donkey, Taz as Jesus and SB and I laying blankets and throws along their path while we all sang our parish's version of "Holy, Holy, Holy!"). We'll also focus on the NT story of the women finding the empty tomb, and completing a few coloring pages and crafts, as well. It doesn't have to be complicated to be memorable!
- Of course, we'll also be discussing the order of the service, with emphasis on the lighting of the Easter Flame and its gorgeous symbolism as that flame is passed like wildfire from person to person throughout the Church! The triumphant ringing of the bells during the Gloria is inspiring and wonderful, too. And it's also such a blessing to see RCIA candidates entering the Church at the Easter Vigil -- their presence always give me hope for the future of our Church, and it's something I am only too happy for our children to see. The parish we'll be going to on Saturday night will surely have candidates; our parish almost never does. (We really don't have to discuss too much more of the Liturgy than that; by this time it'll be close to 10:00, and certainly the boys, at least, will be drifting off to sleep!)
Imperfect though it may be, I'm confident that this bit of preparation will help Junie B. and Taz be joyful participants in this lovely Liturgy on Saturday. It is an experience we are profoundly happy to share with them!
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