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| COOMPIA77/GETTY IMAGES |
Throughout the Easter Cycle, which includes the Season of Lent, we are provided sacramentals much like in the Christmas Cycle. On Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, we are given ashes. On Palm Sunday, we are provided blessed palms. At the Easter Vigil, we are given Easter Water specially blessed by the Priest. Just as during the Christmas Cycle, these sacramentals help bridge the gap between the parish church and the domestic church (the Christian family). When one takes these sacramentals for use in the home, one helps to sanctify the home.
Ash Wednesday
On Ash Wednesday, ashes are either applied to the forehead in the form of a cross or sprinkled in the hair, accompanied by the solemn admonition, "Remember, O man, that thou art dust, and into dust shalt thou return." The ashes for use on this day are made by burning the palms left over from the previous Palm Sunday. In a way, they are doubly blessed -- blessed both before burning (on Palm Sunday) and after burning (on Ash Wednesday). As Maria von Trapp says in her book Around the Year with the Trapp Family:
I am sure it would be the case in every family, as it was in ours, that the children are the ones who most eagerly want to carry into the home as much of the holy liturgy as they possibly can. For instance, when I answered their question as to how the ashes that are blessed on Ash Wednesday are obtained, telling them that the blessed palms from the previous Palm Sunday are burned, they asked a most logical question: "But, Mother, if you burn a blessed object, aren't the ashes already blessed? And if so, shouldn't we burn all the blessed palms around the place too and sprinkle the ashes over the garden?" And so we did! After we had established this as a firm family custom, I read that this is done in many places in the Austrian Alps; only there the people strew the ashes not over the garden but over the fields.
In our home, we burn the palms the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, known as Quinquagesima Sunday. Since they are not blessed by the Priest in the liturgy, these are not "doubly-blessed" ashes. Because of my starting time at work, I am unable to make it to Holy Mass in the morning on Ash Wednesday. For this reason, my wife and I bless eachother with the ashes, using the same solemn admonition. I am a big proponent of the ashes being crossed upon the forehead, so that one can be a witness to others in the workplace and elsewhere that the holy Season of Lent has begun. It can also spark some great conversations with those who have no idea what the ashes mean. In this way, it brings to life the old method of evangelization: face-to-face, one-on-one conversations. When I come home after work, we sprinkle the ashes from the blessed palms over the yard, and since I am now working on building an Our Lady of Victory Garden, I will sprinkle them over the garden next year.
Palm Sunday
The palms blessed by the Priest on Palm Sunday are sacramentals worthy of respect. There are two distinct blessings for the palms, one from the TLM, the other from the Novus Ordo, both of which make the palms a sacramental. From the TLM:
O Lord, bless + these branches of palm. Grant that the sincere devotion of Your people may make them victorious over their enemy and zealous in works of mercy, and thus spiritually complete the ceremony which they outwardly perform this day in Your honor. Through Our Lord...
From the Novus Ordo:
Almighty ever-living God, sanctify + these branches with your blessing, that we, who follow Christ the King in exultation, may reach the eternal Jerusalem through him who lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Then when the branches are brought home, they can be braided or formed into crosses. Since I was a child, I have made crosses with the palm branches every year (except for 2020 when the churches were shut down due to fear of the coronavirus; at that time, I was forced to cut branches from the tree outside our apartment and sprinkle them with holy water to have some semblance of order during those disordered days; I know this is not the same as a blessing by a Priest, but it was the only thing I could do as a layman without access to the Sacred Liturgy).
It is traditional to cut away a section of the palms to burn during storms to ask for God's intercession to lessen the severity of the storm, or to protect your property during the storm. In fact, the father of the von Trapp family used to put the blessed bouquets from Palm Sunday in every lot on their property "as a means of protecting his property against the influence of evil spirits, against the damage of hailstorms and floods" (Around the Year with the Trapp Family, by Maria von Trapp). Of course, one could also use the candles blessed at Candlemas during frightful storms because this also asks God's protection. And then there is this prayer for blessing against storms.
Finally, there is an Italian tradition I learned from my grandmother, that small sections of the blessed palms are sent throughout the year to various people. What it means is, "Please forgive me if I have offended you." It is a way to heal friendships and familial relationships by offering a token of apology. I imagine this has something to do with the words of Christ from the Cross when He asked God the Father to forgive those who crucified him. In any case, the crosses we make with the blessed palms will remain on our family altar until Ash Wednesday rolls around again next year.
Holy Saturday -- The Easter Vigil
Easter Candle
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| Our family Easter Candle from 2021. |
The Easter Candle is a sacramental we most often associate with the Easter Vigil and it is lit in the sanctuary of the parish church throughout the Easter Season. But we least often think about this sacramental being in our homes. This can be built using a simple pillar candle and red ribbons with white lace and some sewing pins that are cut down in length. For now, I make the family's Easter Candle, but in future years, this will be our children's art project for Holy Week, since we are homeschooling. This year, we purchased a pillar beeswax candle and had it blessed at Candlemas, so being lit from the Easter Candle at the Easter Vigil will be a double blessing!
Easter Water
In the TLM Easter Vigil, the water is exorcised and blessed, and then the Oil of Catechumens and the Chrism are mixed with it for the baptisms. The water with holy oils is kept in the baptistry, but the water we can take home does not have the holy oils. This is truly a great and sacred sacramental, and each family should get a bottle to take home. In our family, we use the Easter Water to bless the children every day during the Easter Season, as well as on baptismal anniversaries. This Easter Water can also be used for a special Easter blessing of the home.
Blackened Coals from the Easter Fire
Almost nobody does this, but if the container where the Easter Fire is burned is left out in the open, a coal can be saved by the father of the family for use in the fireplace or at an outdoor fire pit for use during storms. As Maria von Trapp says, "on the way out of church we take some of the blackened logs from the Easter fire and preserve them at the fireplace, where they work as sacramentals in times of danger from storms and lightning." This is the TLM blessing of the Easter Fire from the Vigil Liturgy:
Let us pray. O God, Who hast bestowed on the faithful the fire of Thy brightness by Thy Son, Who is the Cornerstone, hallow + this new fire produced from a flint that it may be profitable to us: and grant that during this Paschal festival we may be so inflamed with heavenly desires, that with pure minds we may come to the solemnity of perpetual light. Through the same Christ our Lord.
And why not take a coal? It may take some coordination with your pastor, but since the fire was blessed by the Priest, why not take from it for use in the home? As with all the other sacramentals from the Easter Cycle, it would make the most sense to use every sacramental available to us. There may yet come a time when we do not have access to the Sacred Liturgy, as happened during the Coronavirus. There may yet come a time when we do not even have the barest access to a Priest. Take advantage of all the graces and benefits now, so that if the time ever comes where these means of grace are taken from us, we will have stored up in our homes as many sacramentals as we can use to sanctify our time on earth and to bring us grace from God.
