byJacqueline Tetrault Pilot Staff
Matthew and James Kreisberg pictured with their paper Mass kit and the processional cross made by the grandfather. Pilot photo/courtesy the Kreisberg family
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BRAINTREE -- With the suspension of Masses still in effect and social distancing still being encouraged to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the Catholic faithful throughout the archdiocese had to find ways to celebrate Holy Week in their homes.
"I think it puts us in solidarity with Catholics worldwide who don't have access to the sacraments as frequently as we do," said Jonathan Bishop, campus minister and theology teacher at Presentation of Mary Academy in Methuen, April 10.
Bishop said he planned to observe Holy Week by watching Masses televised by his home parish, the Parish of the Transfiguration in Wilmington, which consists of St. Dorothy Church and St. Thomas Church.
"In some ways, it's much like early Church (because) we're celebrating Mass at home," he said.
Jason Aluia, a lifelong North End resident, said April 9 that he would usually celebrate Easter with members of his extended family, numbering about 15 to 20 people. This year, he said, he planned to spend Easter with his mother, who lives a few blocks away from him, and join the rest of their family in a Zoom meeting over dessert.
"It'll be a much different Easter. But maybe this will teach people to value more than just the Easter basket," Aluia said.
Mary Hofmann, a parishioner of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Norwood, said her children were "mindful of the fact that it's Holy Week." They talked about the significance of each day, and they participated in virtual activities organized by their parish's religious education director, Leah Ramsdell, through Facebook.
On Holy Thursday, Ramsdell gave a virtual lesson on the Last Supper. On Good Friday, she led the Stations of the Cross. She also held an Easter coloring contest, which two of Hofmann's children participated in.
Speaking to The Pilot on April 13, Hofmann admitted that teaching the faith is more difficult away from their school and parish.
"We're at St. Catherine's so much, it's an environment of faith, the teachers are constantly reinforcing it, and I think the people around us reinforce it," she said.
She added, "I think it's harder because we're not around our community that reinforces all the faith (activities) we do."
Another St. Catherine's parishioner, Heather Kreisberg, devised some creative ways to engage her three children during Holy Week.
"Obviously we very much miss being physically in our own parish church, but it has given us the opportunity to start new traditions and kind of cultivate our own domestic church, which I've found to be a blessing during this time," Kreisberg said in an April 14 interview.
Her sons, Matthew, 6, and James, 4, have a pop-up Mass kit that they set up whenever they watch Mass on television. Matthew once tried to fashion a crucifix, which prompted his grandfather to make him a processional cross.
During Holy Week, Kreisberg and her family made bouquets of paper lilies as decorations, an activity from their school's STREAM program. Kreisberg also watched live-streamed church services during the Easter Triduum.
On Holy Thursday, her family held a Seder meal to teach the children about the context of the Last Supper. Kreisberg made homemade matzo and found a prayer service that could be done with children. Later they had a Zoom Seder with her husband's Jewish relatives.
"I wanted my children to have a context for what the Passover meal was and how what we celebrate at Mass is connected to the Last Supper," Kreisberg said.
On Good Friday, her family usually would go to church for the Stations of the Cross. Instead, they watched the Stations on Formed.org, an online platform with Catholic resources. Her children liked it so much that they asked to watch the Stations again later that day.
While watching the Easter Vigil, Kreisberg fashioned a Paschal candle for her family. Afterward, they built a fire in their yard, and her husband lit the Paschal candle as Kreisberg read the blessing of the fire from a prayer book.
"That was a really special thing. We had never done that before, but we're going to continue to do that now," she said.
On Easter, her family watched Mass together in the morning. Before it started, Matthew processed around the house carrying his processional cross, and James followed with the Paschal candle.
As a second-grade religious education teacher, Kreisberg has also been thinking about First Communion for children in her parish, which has been postponed to a date yet to be determined.
"I think that's also going to be a very emotional and beautiful moment because not only are these children receiving Jesus for the very first time, but we've all been waiting to receive him," Kreisberg said.