Holy Week reflections

It's early in the morning of Good Friday. In French, Maunday Thursday is called jeudi saint ("Holy Thursday") and Good Friday is vendredi saint ("Holy Friday"). In the Christian calendar, this is often the most "holy" (i.e., "set apart") of weeks as the Church commemorates the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

During our first year of marriage, my wife and I went to daily services of the high Anglican community St. George's Church in Paris. It was enjoyable and meaningful to engage in the drama of each day's services. All the senses were involved.

Compared to that year (1998), 2006 has been a difficult one to focus a lot of reflection and "holy" time on the Passion Week. Eight years and three children later, our thoughts and energy often center on more banal events like potty training, bed times, and nursing.

Our thoughts this week are focused on this coming Easter Sunday. After attending the Sunday morning service, we traditionally invite friends in Paris who don't have family here for Easter lunch in our home. At this point, we will have 6-9 adults besides ourselves in our salon for the meal. For us, it's a way of honoring them and following the Passover tradition of families taking in those without families to celebrate the event.

I went grocery shopping today for this meal. Besides the provisions for the meal, I also bought some Easter chocolate for the kids and wifey. We're still creating our own Easter traditions with the kids. I found some white eggs today (which are pretty rare in grocery stores, as most are brown), so the kids may color eggs tomorrow. My wife found a new and reasonably priced Easter outfit at the local market today. She'll probably make sure that we're all wearing something bright and springy on Sunday.

Of course, we want our kids to associate Holy Week (including Easter) with more than just chocolate eggs, rabbits, and hens (more French). We want them to personalize the death and resurrection of Christ into their own personal faith and practice. One of the purposes of the annual feasts in the Old Testament was to provide teaching tools for parents to communicate their faith to their children.

One 21st century technological tool that is helping us teach biblical truth and values to our children are Christian videos and DVDs. These include a good portion of the Veggie Tales collection (which has a very well done one on Easter called "An Easter Carol").

One priority for us in this season of life is being in a church that is kid friendly. And not just for our kids, but also for their friends and their families too. Of course, we need to put our money where our mouths are and be more involved in these children's ministries. Perhaps rather than sitting in on a Tuesday morning staff meeting, my time would be better invested in regular involvement in a children's ministry?

Anyway, I hope that our kids will already start associating Easter with joy, celebration, and sharing fellowship and food with others from around the world. That will help make the historical events upon which Holy Week is based events that they will want to personalize.